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1) I have just posited my first online theorem, which I call Barnum's Law of Online Intelligence: the level of discourse, maturity and courtesy in any online forum is equal to the mean age and intelligence of the lowest third of its members. AKA TWoP's Law (the original version of Barnum's Law: "You'll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public” - see The Search for the Next Pussy Cat Doll).
2) Veronica Mars last night was fun but not awesome - what was up with the happy ending there, Thomas? But the episode did successfully incorporated all my favourite VM characters and some good detecting moments which bumps its grade to a solid B despite being a little light on Teh Noir.
3) The ratings for last night's VM sucked - as expected. Everyone who didn't watch: you all also suck.
4) I am fairly resigned to VM being cancelled. I don't think that in all fairness you can expect The CW to continue to pay for a program that consistently underperforms in the ratings the way VM does, even a show like VM, which is The CW's best reviewed show and arguably its most high-profile product.
5) I don't think the fault lies with Rob Thomas or VMstaff: Veronica Mars, like Friday Night Lights, is the kind of show that will never do well on US network television.
Like Hollywood in the depression, US network TV is built on providing a certain level of escapism from current events. During the recession of the 80s, that meant outrageous, soapy offerings about the impossibly rich like Dallas and Dynasty. Today, it's Heroes, CSI and Grey's Anatomy - the fantasy of material wealth has been replaced by spiritual wealth: progressive narrative diegeses peopled by characters that are well-intentioned, proficient, honest and compassionate, and villains that are easy to spot. The narrative worlds of Friday Night Lights and Veronica Mars hew closer to the reality of contemporary American experience, full of unease, uncertainty, diminished expectations and limited opportunities both literally (Friday Night Lights) and metaphorically (Veronica Mars). The potential success of both shows on network TV is therefore limited at the outset by the stories they chose to tell.
Sometimes, just to torture myself, I wonder about the show Veronica Mars would have been if it had been picked up by a cable outlet like Showtime (Dexter) or HBO (Deadwood, Rome, The Sopranos) where a different audience and a different business model might have suited VM's California Noir vision much better.
6) How does a girl get over stomach turning literary works of nasty, nihilistic cannibals: Grey's Anatomy, lots and lots of Grey's Anatomy (see 5) above).
I'm torn between growing respect for Shondra Rhimes as a plotter and showrunner (watch all 60 or so episodes of Grey's Anatomy in a week and it becomes increasingly apparent that she really did have the George & Izzie hook-up in her back pocket all along) and wondering about her judgement - seriously, you think Grey's Anatomy needed more adultery? Seriously?
Even if Rhimes created Callie Torres specifically to be George's rebound girl (which would suck BTW because Sara Ramirez is awesome although it would explain why the character is so schizoid: crazy insecure, pushy, needy and irrational with George, awesome with everyone else - except Izzie, natch) we needed to see George cheat on his wife why again?
One of Rhimes' strengths is that she's fine with letting her characters be unlikeable but there's a difference between staying true to a story by allowing your characters to do stupid, unlikeable things and manipulating a storyline for effect - *cough*cuttingtheLVADwire*cough* I think Rhimes has veered further and further into the latter category ever since the bomb-in-the-guy's-chest episode last year and that's not good. However, I'm withholding judgement on George & Izzie until the season finale: 1) I so called that hook up back in season one; 2) the progression from friends to drunken sex to emotional affair has been pretty well written and really well acted, so I want to see how it plays out before rendering judgement upon it.
2) Veronica Mars last night was fun but not awesome - what was up with the happy ending there, Thomas? But the episode did successfully incorporated all my favourite VM characters and some good detecting moments which bumps its grade to a solid B despite being a little light on Teh Noir.
3) The ratings for last night's VM sucked - as expected. Everyone who didn't watch: you all also suck.
4) I am fairly resigned to VM being cancelled. I don't think that in all fairness you can expect The CW to continue to pay for a program that consistently underperforms in the ratings the way VM does, even a show like VM, which is The CW's best reviewed show and arguably its most high-profile product.
5) I don't think the fault lies with Rob Thomas or VMstaff: Veronica Mars, like Friday Night Lights, is the kind of show that will never do well on US network television.
Like Hollywood in the depression, US network TV is built on providing a certain level of escapism from current events. During the recession of the 80s, that meant outrageous, soapy offerings about the impossibly rich like Dallas and Dynasty. Today, it's Heroes, CSI and Grey's Anatomy - the fantasy of material wealth has been replaced by spiritual wealth: progressive narrative diegeses peopled by characters that are well-intentioned, proficient, honest and compassionate, and villains that are easy to spot. The narrative worlds of Friday Night Lights and Veronica Mars hew closer to the reality of contemporary American experience, full of unease, uncertainty, diminished expectations and limited opportunities both literally (Friday Night Lights) and metaphorically (Veronica Mars). The potential success of both shows on network TV is therefore limited at the outset by the stories they chose to tell.
Sometimes, just to torture myself, I wonder about the show Veronica Mars would have been if it had been picked up by a cable outlet like Showtime (Dexter) or HBO (Deadwood, Rome, The Sopranos) where a different audience and a different business model might have suited VM's California Noir vision much better.
6) How does a girl get over stomach turning literary works of nasty, nihilistic cannibals: Grey's Anatomy, lots and lots of Grey's Anatomy (see 5) above).
I'm torn between growing respect for Shondra Rhimes as a plotter and showrunner (watch all 60 or so episodes of Grey's Anatomy in a week and it becomes increasingly apparent that she really did have the George & Izzie hook-up in her back pocket all along) and wondering about her judgement - seriously, you think Grey's Anatomy needed more adultery? Seriously?
Even if Rhimes created Callie Torres specifically to be George's rebound girl (which would suck BTW because Sara Ramirez is awesome although it would explain why the character is so schizoid: crazy insecure, pushy, needy and irrational with George, awesome with everyone else - except Izzie, natch) we needed to see George cheat on his wife why again?
One of Rhimes' strengths is that she's fine with letting her characters be unlikeable but there's a difference between staying true to a story by allowing your characters to do stupid, unlikeable things and manipulating a storyline for effect - *cough*cuttingtheLVADwire*cough* I think Rhimes has veered further and further into the latter category ever since the bomb-in-the-guy's-chest episode last year and that's not good. However, I'm withholding judgement on George & Izzie until the season finale: 1) I so called that hook up back in season one; 2) the progression from friends to drunken sex to emotional affair has been pretty well written and really well acted, so I want to see how it plays out before rendering judgement upon it.
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