Notwithstanding my efforts to contribute productively to the global discourse on more relevant topics, this entry is another jab at the goofy television industry. I saw an interesting article the other day that basically predicts that the result of this writers strike will have the same effect on Hollywood that the 1994 baseball strike had on baseball (or the lockout on hockey or the strike in basketball a couple years ago). See Julian Myers fears Hollywood's end is near. Julian Myers is some sort of Hollywood legend who doesn't have any webpages written about him, but I'll take the google search word for it. I agree that this strike is probably going to leave many people (myself included) watching far less television. This is a good thing.
After all, most of the television shows are pretty crappy anyway. Further, I see no problem in hiring so-called "scabs" to give network television another go. But if you're going to do that, why not call them for what they are: non-unionized college students. Granted, some of the shows on TV are pretty well done (mainly, Lost and some shows on pay stations), but they are the exception rather than the norm. I am positive there are some creative minds at various colleges and universities who would love to take ABC or another network up on their offer to come up with a new tv show. Why isn't that on the news anymore? If it works for Fox on American Idol for music, why not convert the television pilot premise into some reality show and then run the "winner" as a scripted sponsored series (for six episodes anyway)? My thoughts on what could make for a good television series are already written and could easily be applied. I digress, however.
My most recent example of just plain bad tv is the Sarah Connor Chronicles. My review of why that show sucked and should have stayed on the big screen is here. According to one source, the ratings for "day 2" of the Sarah Connor Chronicles series premier were decidedly poorer. Well, it shouldn't have taken a robotic time traveler to figure that one out.
Heroes, however, had a much better premise and has gone off the deep end and consequently, off my television list. I will not be watching it again. Essentially, I see two premises that the show will be unable to recover from. First, the whole time traveling thing. I don't need to explain why this was a stupid idea to begin with. I'll simply point to the latest problem that was created by everybody being able to regenerate and time travel: now you've got a storyline where some girl from the past is taken to an alternate future. How can you possibly and with a straight face get her back? And truthfully, why would you want to? For these same reasons, I will no longer watch Journeyman either. Talk about a show that started off slow (with some potential) but literally went slower. And backwards. Literally, not figuratively. Result of the six-episode run for Journeyman: Stop watching it.
Although unnecessary for explaining why I am no longer watching Heroes, I will support my reasoning for why Heroes will ultimately fail when and if it comes back on also because of the whole regeneration storyline. I can't even support going back to the original Sylar storyline because I have no more faith in the writers because (a) the finale promised resolution of that storyline (which it failed at miserably), (b) the finale predicted a far worse "boogie man" for season 2 (which it also failed at doing miserably, and brought back Sylar instead), and (c) the show epitomizes everything that is wrong with tv today. That alone should be enough.
In short, I can't waste any more time on Heroes (or Journeyman), either in watching it or in writing about it. I suppose I will entertain responding to comments on why my points are right or wrong, but I will not be devoting any additional time in writing an entry about it short of one of the show producers or a popular Hollywood magazine or newspaper asking for my comments.
I should have listened to my original prediction in finding that the show was too out of control from the beginning and that I should have given up on it much much sooner. I certainly will not be making that same mistake with Journeyman.
Perhaps a more practical entry on options to spend your valuable free time with will come tomorrow. In the meantime, I suggest reading a book.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Regardless of this writers strike, Hollywood loses: Or, Why I am going to stop watching Heroes when it comes back on
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Heroes and the hollywood writing strike
First, I think this writer's strike in Hollywood could be a blessing in disguise. Apparently I'm not the only one. See "'Heroes' creator to fans: I'm Super Sorry (that the season has sucked)." And Kiefer Sutherland doesn't have to worry about his jail time interfering with his shooting schedule; the strike has already postponed the next season of '24' for at least a year. Of course, that means that the bulk of the pressure on Fox doing well will fall on the shoulders of the Terminator tv show. Speaking of which, one of my friends has a copy of the pilot and we're both going to the same event this weekend. A review of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, to be sure, is forthcoming soon.
I'm not going to comment on the details or various plots that are ongoing in this season of Heroes. Needless to say, I still suffer through the show from week to week, only because I mildly empathize with the Peter Petrelli plotline. Nevertheless...
I am going to say that this whole plot line with Claire the cheerleader and West the flying boyfriend is pretty stupid. Not for any tv plot problems per se, but for the whole psychotic boyfriend aspect. Now, I'm not one to give out any relationship advice, but why in the world would a show with the widespread popularity of Heroes give any credence in supporting what I call the worst stereotype on tv today - the stalker boyfriend. I can only hope that the teenagers that are watching this aren't fooled into thinking that anti-social and stalker type behaviour gets you noticed. Well, maybe it does, but not in the way portrayed in the show.
Maybe I'm being far too critical of a minor point. Or that I think that nobody would think this doesn't happen. To my defense, however, I've read too many cases in too short a time to think that I am overstating this position. In real life, the psychotic tendencies of West, based on the couple of storylines he has been in, usually translate over into much more destructive behavior. If that's the point of this plotline and that's where they take it, the writers need to go about it a different way. Which brings me back to my point. If these are the plotlines that are being written right now, maybe it's time to get some new help anyway.
Maybe these plotlines, however silly, are part of the problem. Maybe not. The pending (or ongoing) strike among Hollywood writers begs this question: What the heck are we paying you guys for? Maybe these producers should do what old Ronnie R. did a few years back and hire some new guns. As long as it doesn't interfere with the Lost season premiere in February (which I am purposely doing no research to verify whether this is still accurate or not), I can only hope that the strike will lead these writers to do something a little better in the whole 'solid writing' department.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Heroes season 2 premiere: Four Months Later quick review
I'm just going to put a quick note here that I just saw the Heroes season 2 premiere, "Four Months Later". Much better than the season 1 pilot, and it seems to have some interesting potential for the rest of the season. Spoilers and another paragraph or two of review follow the jump.
While the main characters all sort of just pick up "four months later," only a little of plot actually develops in the first episode. Not to be outdone by the far fetched X-Men type abilities from last season, Supercop Matt Parkman survived the four bullets to the chest he got from Sylar in the season finale, which means that in addition to hearing people's thoughts, he can now survive what most doctors would classify in their autopsy as "massive chest trauma." He's now divorced, living with Molly, the spy kid from the last couple episodes, and is part of a massive conspiracy with the doctor and Claire's dad to take down "the company." They also allude to the "bogeyman" that is supposedly worse than Sylar and I guess he will make an appearance at some point. And, as suspected in my review of the anticlimactic season finale, Sylar lives (if only in the preview for next week's episode).
Other pointless storyline: Claire meets some flying outcast at her new California high school; both Peter and his brother survive the weak bomb scare from the finale, although it's not exactly sure what has happened to either of them. Town gown relations with the Senator-Elect must have been abandoned for a more interesting storyline, and left to be explained in a future episode (no doubt to be called "Four months earlier" or something comparable to "Six Months Ago" last season). Anyway, Peter has lost his memory and is found in a box of ipods (without the ipods) at the end of the episode and the preview for next week suggests some sort of Pandora's box thing with another new Irish character. Maybe that guy's power will be to drink without getting drunk. Of course, that would require much more of a suspended disbelief than I am willing to give.
What I really found more interesting with the Heroes season 2 premiere is the current doofy plot with Hiro. As much as I hate time travel plots that inevitably fail for various philosophical reasons, I will let this one go solely because Heroes has resurrected one of my favorite tv good guy-bad guy villains, Sark (of Alias fame, David Anders) as Hiro's Japanese super samurai. Apparently Sark has powers here also (and a name to be determined). I would speculate that he's the guy that kills "the company"'s founders in present day, but that would be too obvious. I'm sure he has some sort of long life attribute, but whatever it is will appear in the weeks to come.
So, Four Months Later, sort of picks up where the last season leaves off, and seems to set up the rest of the season fairly well, or at least one can hope. Since I doubt I will review any more episodes this season unless they are really out there, I will conclude with my written plea that the season finale have a little more substance than last year's.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Heroes Pilot Review (Re-review really)
This is a condensed review of NBC's Heroes pilot (Genesis) that aired tonight. My original review (which I adopt) can be found here: Original Heroes Review of Genesis (pilot). I recommend watching a few episodes and see how the storyline develops; it encores tomorrow night and I'm sure it's still showing online (probably on NBC's equivalent of CBS's innertube). I haven't used NBC's online media, so I can't make a recommendation on it one way or the other. This show has gotten enough free advertising out of me as it is. Bottom line: worth watching; hopefully it gets better to justify further watching.
As far as what I saw and wrote my initial review on, and what I saw for the most part tonight, the shows were largely the same. I don't recall the brother falling in the end, but I may have stopped paying attention; the preview for next week shows he must not have been too far off the ground, so good for him. Why he dropped his cell phone instead of his shoe is beyond me since they play up the fact he isn't that well off. I am glad the artist overdosed instead of whatever he did in the older version (I seem to recall someone asking for a tourniquet, but I could be remembering wrong and that's okay because that was sort of an odd twist anyway).
Rebuttal comments: Okay, the cheerleader's outfit did burn, you got me. But now I question the extent of her abilities. Is she supposed to be some sort of instant regeneration mutant? Skin scrapes tends to leave scars, and mangled fingers tend to heal differently, so I will now refer her powers not like those of Wolverine but more like an amphibian type mutant since these qualities remind me of their regenerative abilities (e.g., worms or frogs (although my memory of 7th grade biology is long faded away).
The teleporter's storyline still strikes me as odd because it appears that he just ups and develops it out of nowhere, but I'll assume for the sake of argument that he had been trying to perfect it for some time and it finally came together the day of the solar eclipse.
I still think the stripper's power reminds me of a split personality as I previously described.
The agent (or the cheerleader's dad), based on next week's preview, appears to be as sinister as I suspected. The cheerleader may be adopted, but that wasn't quite confirmed, although I can agree that that could be the case. The comic book, 9th Wonders (also NBC's official fan page for the site), appears to connect all of the heroes together, which suggests there must be some other sort of prophet hero if the stoner artist isn't also the comic book artist. Maybe it's Brad Meltzer seeking some quality promotion out of this tv show for his latest endeavor.
I did hear the comments about "knowing our family's past" (the flying brothers) and "your father isn't in a position to help us" (stripper to son), but I'm going to lean on both comments not being as important to the overall storyline, although tv and movies tend to be more sneaky in that respect, so I am probably wrong.
I also noticed the teleporter's obsession with "using his powers for good" and developing them and choose not to acknowledge further the obviousness of this statement. Come on, Heroes writers! Let's have some real dialog and get off this reluctant/brooding hero kick that Spiderman and Batman started. At least Smallville had a young "Flash" who used his powers for good as well as how you would expect a teenager to use them. I still can't give credit for teleporting him into the girl's bathroom, but I guess that's a fair PG alternative given the way they are developing his character, and it's probably not a good idea to encourage deviance on tv anymore than it already is. No complaints with this character, although I make this statement somewhat grudgingly, and am curious how they try to round out his place among the "heroes."
The professor appears that he will be continuing his father's work, so I guess that will be the ongoing plot to bring them together, all the time working against the counter-agency working to keep them apart. It does appear that the painting in the end, depicting what appears to be some sort of nuclear detonation in the city will be the plot that drives them all together. This whole storyline reminds me of something out of Alias or perhaps The Breakfast Club, but not quite.
Will I watch next week? Of course; other than MNF, my schedule certainly allows for tv on monday nights. Does it still need to do something profound to impress me? Most definitely. But, as I have alluded to in previous posts regarding this particular show, I am intrigued by the idea of a shared human consciousness and perhaps this show will hint that the concept is not all that far fetched. Of course, setting aside the science fiction of the show, the idea of an inherent human bond isn't too new.
