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April 28, 2004

TeeVee

Hey, whatever happened to 'Odyssey 5' -it was this highly promoted new sci-fi program which Sky One aired in 2002 with much hype, and much fuss. (Of course I managed to miss the pilot - d’oh) but since that first series there’s been nothing. Nadir. Not even a repeat -it just quietly vanished never to be heard from again (and I so wanted to watch the pilot darn it).

I think there should be a law that whenever a show is cancelled -especially one that is based around a strong story arc such as 'Odyssey 5', and the recently repeated 'John Doe' on the Sci-fi channel -that the authors should be made to put all their unfilmed scripts and story notes onto the internet -and anything else that lets the fans know what direction the plot lines were going off in and how the story was planned to have ended. There’s been way too many shows over the recent years that various networks have callously killed off after only the one season. It’s at best plan disrespectful and at worse downright rude to their audiences keep on doing this. It should be obvious that the US Network producers are making a huge fundamental mistake by basing all their decisions on their wretchedly old fashioned Neilson ratings system. That has got to be just about as brain-dead it gets, they’re totally failing to take any notice of this new multi-channelled multi-media, DVD buying world or even of their foreign markets. It’s scary to think how many original, intriguing and interesting shows with scads of potential have been axed simply because a few red neck hicks in the middle of nowhere can’t tear themselves away from their monster trucks, Jerry Springer, and W W Wrestling, and all those endless cheap (in both senses of the word) and tacky reality shows. It’s equally absurd that absolutely everything made has to be an instant over night success or it’s out on it’s ear. Sometimes it takes time for an audience to catch up with a show -and this can be especially so when it’s a little bit off beat -you know anything that isn‘t slavishly formulaic. Short termism is the disease of our age.

(I should be grateful that ‘Dead Like Me’ has gone into a second season.)

I say all this because I’m getting seriously concerned now that so many of my favourite shows have been axed or have come to their natural end - with so few new ones to replace them. It’s like a mini-micro golden age has drawn to a close.

I just hope there’s something worth watching from this list. (Yay on there being a Farscape mini-series at least someone somewhere has seen sense -or the campaign to save Farscape at least.)

Posted by groc on April 28, 2004 06:50 AM

Comments

wibbled by: Anonymous at December 13, 2004 11:36 PM

wibbled by: Anonymous at December 13, 2004 11:36 PM