Any more I need some humor in my dark shows. Give me Bruce Campbell any day.
They will need a premise and then be consistent in its application. Electronic device failure - I can buy that: Electric devices - that's going to take some doing to convince me that fire and guns work but batteries don't.
As to the genre, I'm tired of it as well as "aliens who look just like us" shows. My current viewing method is to record the season, then decide whether to watch. Some shows that are good watches progress so slowly that I would go nuts watching weekly but are great with a fast view.
Not really. It's just a numbers game. If enough people watch, it'll stick around. The problem is not NBC or any other network. It's the lack of appetite amongst the public for challenging fare - which usually means a complex serialized storyline that requires the viewer to pay attention and be committed enough to not skip episodes.
At one time I thought the DVR would be the salvation of such fare, since it virtually eliminates the possibility of missing episodes. Makes it easier to "keep up". I thought it might lead to a new era of high-quality programming, and to an extent, it did (at least on cable). But, as it turned out, it just led to an era of cheap reality rubbish and formulaic procedural crime dramas on the broadcast networks. That's what the American televiewer wants, apparently. And I don't see it changing as the culture continues to "dumb down" to the least common denominator. Our TV just reflects who we are.
Has a time slot been announced yet? That could give us a pretty good idea of how adult the content might be. If it turns out to be another children's show like "Terra Nova" I'll be gone before the first episode is over.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rdclark /forum/post/22021216
I'm just waiting until the bad press they get for stealing the entire premise of S.M. Stirling's "Dies the Fire" and its many sequels sinks this series before it starts.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TitusTroy /forum/post/22024128
JJ Abrams has lost his mojo...he's watered down his projects by releasing 3-4 new TV shows every year now along with feature films...it was better when he limited himself to 1 or 2 projects and strived to make them the best
3-4 a year? Alcatraz, Person of Interest and last year one I can think of, the married spy couple and then we have to go back 4 years to Fringe? I must be missing 7 or 8 Bad Robot productions from the past 4 years and I can only think of two movies he has directed since 2008, Star Trek and Super 8. Bad Robot produced MI4 he did not direct it.
It's another reminder of how tiny some of our genre niches are. Stirling is, in the context of SF and AH, one of the handful of major hitters. He's been successful for decades, publishing several multi-book series, andconsistently selling well.
Yet not one in a thousand TV viewers will have ever heard of him, and even fewer will know the work whose premise "Revolution" directly copies. Or care if it does.
But what's disappointing is that certainly Abrams, the show's co-creators, and the people around them certainly *do* know Stirling, and certainly *are* aware of Stirling's "novels of the Change."
There are only two possibilities: the borrowing of the concept is deliberate, or it was independently arrived at but when made aware of the similarity they chose to proceed anyway.
I think "Once Upon a Time" may have opened the door to this. "Let's license Bill Willingham's 'Fables' for a TV series," said someone. "Why pay?" said someone else. "The characters are all public domain, let's just change it around a little bit and call it something else. Why get some comic book guy involved?"
What's bothersome is all the free research Stirling and his large cadre of fans, members of his listserv, and others on various alt-history boards and elsewhere who have had a lot of fun playing around in the Emberverse, have done on the topic of what happens to a world where the power stops, research now available to the writers of this series for the taking.
This would be something like making a series about a world where magic is real but hidden, and taught from generation to generation in a secret "magic school" where magicians send their kids... and basing it on Harry Potter fanfic.
And Maxwell's equations still hold or the sunlight doesn't arrive. (so radio communications would be possible as soon as you can build new electronic devices)
An EMP pulse damages devices, it doesn't change the laws of physics. If all electronic devices are damaged, there are "pull yourself up by bootstraps" steps, but in 15 years or whatever, society should be pretty much recovered. The first few months would suck terrifically, however.
Quote:
Originally Posted by archiguy /forum/post/22024542
At one time I thought the DVR would be the salvation of such fare, since it virtually eliminates the possibility of missing episodes. Makes it easier to "keep up". I thought it might lead to a new era of high-quality programming, and to an extent, it did (at least on cable). But, as it turned out, it just led to an era of cheap reality rubbish and formulaic procedural crime dramas on the broadcast networks. That's what the American televiewer wants, apparently. And I don't see it changing as the culture continues to "dumb down" to the least common denominator. Our TV just reflects who we are.
I agree, I was thinking the same thing that the adoption of the DVR would be good for serial shows. It is for me, but that has not been the case for the general population. I did not get a DVR until 2005, a year after Lost started and it is unfortunate or else I would've been all over that show no doubt. But as it was, I missed out and never joined it late.
I agree to an extent that the average viewer wants easy TV. Same with movies btw. But yes, fortunately, great shows on HBO, FX, AMC, etc are there for the more astute viewers.
That said, I have had my intelligence more insulted over the last few years by this Sci-Fi genre (FlashForward, The Event, V) than any crime procedural. The non-sensical elements of Sci-Fi and the gaping holes of all 3 shows just made me cringe - repeatedly. There can be sci-fi elements but the actions of the characters should be grounded in plausibility.
These shows have a great concept but execution is just so piss poor. Some of it may be budget related where they are only focused on the micro level following a few characters around and their attempts to save the world by themselves, while there is so many great macro topics left untouched.
I'll give it a go even though I'll get involved and then it will get canceled. I think the networks recently canceled at least 5 to 6 shows that I watched, yet what are they on Season 8 of The Jersey Shore...PATHETIC!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnS-MI /forum/post/22025558
And Maxwell's equations still hold or the sunlight doesn't arrive. (so radio communications would be possible as soon as you can build new electronic devices)
An EMP pulse damages devices, it doesn't change the laws of physics. If all electronic devices are damaged, there are "pull yourself up by bootstraps" steps, but in 15 years or whatever, society should be pretty much recovered. The first few months would suck terrifically, however.
But...but...how else could they find a way to include the Lost computer into yet another show (I know it's not the same in Fringe, but it is a similar mechanic)?
Good science fiction requires both the science and the fiction to work. Good story arcs and characters will bring an audience whether they're scifi geeks or not.
My question is why NBC tries so hard to bring scifi to network tv and has all but abandoned the SCIFI network.
I'm in for the first season, just like I was for the event. And Flashforward. And Terra Nova... wait I dropped that after the third episode.... Oh well I'm a sucker for Sci-Fi that isn't on SyFy so in a year's time I'll feel the heartbreak
After browsing this thread, I started wondering if there is much of anything anyone on here likes .. at all .. to read the thread, for the most part, would discourage watching most Sci Fi and related
And NBC does not have a lock on shows cancelled before conclusion ..
Although I'm sure it's considered blasphemy, I actually liked Terra Nova, V, Falling Skies, The Event etc , .. but what do I know, I'm 65 and have read and watched Sci Fi since the late 1950's ..
Quote:
Originally Posted by mgkdragn /forum/post/22026738
Although I'm sure it's considered blasphemy, I actually liked Terra Nova, V, Falling Skies, The Event etc , .. but what do I know, I'm 65 and have read and watched Sci Fi since the late 1950's ..
I'm with you, enjoyed them all, glad to have had them. Well, maybe not 'V'.
'Flash Forward' was my favorite of the recent sci-fi sacrificial lambs. Looking forward to the return of 'Falling Skies', sort of the Little S.F. Show That Could.
Quote:
Originally Posted by archiguy /forum/post/22026862
I'm with you, enjoyed them all, glad to have had them. Well, maybe not 'V'.
'Flash Forward' was my favorite of the recent sci-fi sacrificial lambs. Looking forward to the return of 'Falling Skies', sort of the Little S.F. Show That Could.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mgkdragn /forum/post/22026738
After browsing this thread, I started wondering if there is much of anything anyone on here likes .. at all .. to read the thread, for the most part, would discourage watching most Sci Fi and related
Although I'm sure it's considered blasphemy, I actually liked Terra Nova, V, Falling Skies, The Event etc , .. but what do I know, I'm 65 and have read and watched Sci Fi since the late 1950's ..
Well, I thought all of those shows were pretty awful. I'm 29 if that makes a difference.
As for scifi on tv that I do/did like (in order I suppose)...BSG (remake of course), Fringe, Firefly, Journeyman, The X-Files, Lost and Sarah Connor Chronicles. And maybe Caprica. If we include animated shows, then you can add Futurama and Cowboy Bebop to that list as well. I know there's a lot of scifi not on that list that would be on most others, but I'm pretty particular I guess.
Quote:
Originally Posted by moob /forum/post/22026876
Well, I thought all of those shows were pretty awful. I'm 29 if that makes a difference.
As for scifi on tv that I do/did like (in order I suppose)...BSG (remake of course), Fringe, Firefly, Journeyman, The X-Files, Lost and Sarah Connor Chronicles. And maybe Caprica. If we include animated shows, then you can add Futurama and Cowboy Bebop to that list as well. I know there's a lot of scifi not on that list that would be on most others, but I'm pretty particular I guess.
Cowboy Bebop was inspired! Great soundtrack too. Good list; loved 'em all.
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