02-17-2004, 02:44 PM
Saw a couple of episodes of Angel a week or two ago. Interesting show, strikes me as a well made comic book series in celluloid form. I was never much of a Buffy fan, I found the premise trite. (I was probably biased by having first seen movie ages ago. I had no hope that the TV show would be worth my time, though apparently there was some quality in the production that I missed out on. So be it. Miss Gellar is a fine cover girl and cosmetics company shill, in any case.)
Hill Street Blues was a great show, for a cop show, and it too reached its limit. Dallas was a decent serial drama, but it reached its limit. M*A*S*H was a decent and frequently funny, show but it turned sappy in the last two seasons. SOAP was a great show, but it only lasted a few years.
Police Squad was hilarious, but it was cancelled early, and only resurrected in the Naked Gun movies. Monty Python's flying circus TV show finally ran out of steam.
See a pattern here? ;)
Nothing on TV is forever. That's OK, not even good stuff in literature is forever. Tolkein wrote such a good story that he left his fans hungering for more. Good TV, good movies, and any good story telling all do the same thing: they take us on wings of bardic talent and let us forget, if just for a little while, "our drab wretched lives." (Paraphrase of T. Lehrer) What makes it all special, and so rare, is the story tellers' ability to transport us "somewhere else" and touch us.
Of course, bad TV and bad writing touch us as well, just more along the lines of nausea inducement. I have a modest example available. :D
I just finished, having bought it on a business trip for the plane flight, The Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan, the latest in his Waste of Time series. Not sure why it takes him 700+ pages to tell about 300 pages worth of story, but I must say that the As The Stomach Turns style odyssey of Rand and Friends has become the Trite Soap Opera of all Time in Fantasy Literature.
So, amidst your rending of garments over the loss of Angel and Buffy, remember this: if you want to have a series that just keeps on going, remember that it can turn into an analogue to the Waste of Time. There are human limitations to imagination and effective productivity. Jordan reached his some time ago, in that series. The same can happen on TV. Maybe it is best that the Joss Wheeden shows" quit while they were ahead."
And yes, Friends needed to go away ages ago. :blink:
Hill Street Blues was a great show, for a cop show, and it too reached its limit. Dallas was a decent serial drama, but it reached its limit. M*A*S*H was a decent and frequently funny, show but it turned sappy in the last two seasons. SOAP was a great show, but it only lasted a few years.
Police Squad was hilarious, but it was cancelled early, and only resurrected in the Naked Gun movies. Monty Python's flying circus TV show finally ran out of steam.
See a pattern here? ;)
Nothing on TV is forever. That's OK, not even good stuff in literature is forever. Tolkein wrote such a good story that he left his fans hungering for more. Good TV, good movies, and any good story telling all do the same thing: they take us on wings of bardic talent and let us forget, if just for a little while, "our drab wretched lives." (Paraphrase of T. Lehrer) What makes it all special, and so rare, is the story tellers' ability to transport us "somewhere else" and touch us.
Of course, bad TV and bad writing touch us as well, just more along the lines of nausea inducement. I have a modest example available. :D
I just finished, having bought it on a business trip for the plane flight, The Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan, the latest in his Waste of Time series. Not sure why it takes him 700+ pages to tell about 300 pages worth of story, but I must say that the As The Stomach Turns style odyssey of Rand and Friends has become the Trite Soap Opera of all Time in Fantasy Literature.
So, amidst your rending of garments over the loss of Angel and Buffy, remember this: if you want to have a series that just keeps on going, remember that it can turn into an analogue to the Waste of Time. There are human limitations to imagination and effective productivity. Jordan reached his some time ago, in that series. The same can happen on TV. Maybe it is best that the Joss Wheeden shows" quit while they were ahead."
And yes, Friends needed to go away ages ago. :blink:
Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the Men 'O War!
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete