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Jesse Alexander and Josh Friedman are guest-blogging on io9 this week.
In order to break another piece of my heart, Josh blogs about what SciFi TV means to him, while Jesse Alexander writes a love note to SPACE: Above and Beyond rightly crediting the show with breaking the trail that Ron Moore's BSG would eventually follow.
Reading these blogs reminded me all over again why I'm not watching any new TV this fall. Because what I like is TV that's about something, TV with characters who aren't cookie-cutter 'types', who are flawed and do stupid things and frustrate you and break your heart but who are nonetheless the heroes of their own lives, who you root for because they fuck up not in spite of it. I like TV that expects me to pay attention and TV that rewards me for paying attention. I like TV that does subtle with one hand while holding a shotgun or a cleaver in the other. I like TV that exists in a world I recognize, full of diversity and conflict.
I like MAD MEN, which is a "cultural phenomenon" and has a viewing audience of 2.8 million people including most of my flist and every TV critic in North America. I love TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES, which was a "disappontment" and had a viewing audience of 4.6 million people including everyone on my flist and most of the TV critics in North America. Basically, I like TV that no one but me (and you, if you're reading this) watches.
So, until someone figures out a way to monetize actual viewers instead of relying on an increasingly unreliable and biased statistical sampling (yeah, that's right - I think your numbers are shit, Nielsen. Fuck you), I'm not inclined to put my time into TV these days. Time is money and investing a couple of days of my life in stories with no promise of resolution makes for a bad investment from where I sit. Think of the TV season of 2009 as the year the LifeonQueen Viewership Bubble burst.
The joy of books and movies, and to a lesser extent of UK TV versus the US model, is that when you sit down, you know you're getting a story. Hollywood has slapped the remote out of my hands halfway into something I had invested in - invested in at their behest, no less - one too many times. So I'm done. The office is closed, I'm writing no new mortgages on my time for TV this year.
Yeah, I'm still watching MAD MEN. I'll probably pick up the second season of SANCTUARY, if only to see what they've done with Ashley; DOCTOR WHO, although a difficult customer, is paid up through David Tennant's tenure and Rusty has credit on account for any new TORCHWOOD (ditto David Simon, Josh Friedman whose take on Sarah Connor kind of owns me, and if Toni Graphia or Natalie Chaidez ever get a show to run). But V? FLASHFORWARD? FRINGE? I'm passing. Ditto THE GOOD WIFE and whatever other wannabe-Shonda-Rhimes-God-only-knows-why-Grey's-Anatomy-has-sucked-since-they-cut-the-LVAD-wire crap is out there.
US broadcast TV, you and me? We are so done. You're a lousy risk, a poor friend and as a partner, downright abusive. Time to break the cycle and turn off the box... *CLICK*
In order to break another piece of my heart, Josh blogs about what SciFi TV means to him, while Jesse Alexander writes a love note to SPACE: Above and Beyond rightly crediting the show with breaking the trail that Ron Moore's BSG would eventually follow.
Reading these blogs reminded me all over again why I'm not watching any new TV this fall. Because what I like is TV that's about something, TV with characters who aren't cookie-cutter 'types', who are flawed and do stupid things and frustrate you and break your heart but who are nonetheless the heroes of their own lives, who you root for because they fuck up not in spite of it. I like TV that expects me to pay attention and TV that rewards me for paying attention. I like TV that does subtle with one hand while holding a shotgun or a cleaver in the other. I like TV that exists in a world I recognize, full of diversity and conflict.
I like MAD MEN, which is a "cultural phenomenon" and has a viewing audience of 2.8 million people including most of my flist and every TV critic in North America. I love TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES, which was a "disappontment" and had a viewing audience of 4.6 million people including everyone on my flist and most of the TV critics in North America. Basically, I like TV that no one but me (and you, if you're reading this) watches.
So, until someone figures out a way to monetize actual viewers instead of relying on an increasingly unreliable and biased statistical sampling (yeah, that's right - I think your numbers are shit, Nielsen. Fuck you), I'm not inclined to put my time into TV these days. Time is money and investing a couple of days of my life in stories with no promise of resolution makes for a bad investment from where I sit. Think of the TV season of 2009 as the year the LifeonQueen Viewership Bubble burst.
The joy of books and movies, and to a lesser extent of UK TV versus the US model, is that when you sit down, you know you're getting a story. Hollywood has slapped the remote out of my hands halfway into something I had invested in - invested in at their behest, no less - one too many times. So I'm done. The office is closed, I'm writing no new mortgages on my time for TV this year.
Yeah, I'm still watching MAD MEN. I'll probably pick up the second season of SANCTUARY, if only to see what they've done with Ashley; DOCTOR WHO, although a difficult customer, is paid up through David Tennant's tenure and Rusty has credit on account for any new TORCHWOOD (ditto David Simon, Josh Friedman whose take on Sarah Connor kind of owns me, and if Toni Graphia or Natalie Chaidez ever get a show to run). But V? FLASHFORWARD? FRINGE? I'm passing. Ditto THE GOOD WIFE and whatever other wannabe-Shonda-Rhimes-God-only-knows-why-Grey's-Anatomy-has-sucked-since-they-cut-the-LVAD-wire crap is out there.
US broadcast TV, you and me? We are so done. You're a lousy risk, a poor friend and as a partner, downright abusive. Time to break the cycle and turn off the box... *CLICK*
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