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"...raw, entertaining, gripping, utterly delusive fantasies"
12 years ago
General
Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to watch episodic television in weekly installments, as I did growing up. In a way, it might be more efficient: I could get through more of the box sets piling up around here at a steady, reliable pace. I'm also starting to wonder if my perception of TV isn't being skewed towards thinking it's a quality medium. After all, I'm only watching shows that actually interest me, as opposed to the other 95% of what's on the air.
Take DAMAGES, starring Glenn Close as the most dangerous person in New York: a Machiavellian, high stakes litigator who wields the law like an instrument of murder. Her character, Patty Hewes, is brilliant, charismatic, ruthless, and deeply, horrifically twisted; she's Perry Mason as a charming psychopath.
BOSS, which ran only two seasons on Starz, stars Kelsey Grammer as Chicago Mayor Tom Kane, a white collar gangster who learns that he's living on borrowed time, thanks to a degenerative brain disease. Can he enforce his political legacy on the city in the time he has left?
MAD MEN is about characters living on the wrong side of history, and like millions of others, I can't stop watching it. What's in store for the partners and employees of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce as the 1960s spiral to a close and American society fractures into something drastically different from what they've always known?
SONS OF ANARCHY is a trashy crime dramedy awash in gallows humor. Hamlet, Gertrude, and Claudius are reinvented as the ruling family of an outlaw biker club, but the utopian dreams of the club's late founder were taken in a more violent direction after his death. What is justice when criminals enforce the law?
BOARDWALK EMPIRE is set at the beginning of the Prohibition era, when Congress effectively gave organized crime a license to print money. It's an American success story about big business and its charismatic leaders, although the businessmen in this series take the phrase "cutthroat competition" literally. And Steve Buscemi gets to play the best, most nuanced role of his career.
BREAKING BAD is probably the best show on television since THE SOPRANOS -- a bloodcurdling mix of satire and terror arguing that the American Dream is fundamentally murderous. Bryan Cranston may be identified with the Walter White role forever, but there are worse fates than creating an indelible character.
I'm still watching all of these shows, and I haven't even mentioned others I'm enjoying or want to get to, including HOUSE OF CARDS, SHERLOCK, HOMELAND, GENERATION KILL, OZ, THE WALKING DEAD, and the entire STAR TREK franchise. (Yes, I'm a late arrival to the TREK universe. So sue me.) Point is, there's a lotta crap on TV that I've never had to sit through, so I might be unduly optimistic about TV's status as a worthwhile artistic medium.
Take DAMAGES, starring Glenn Close as the most dangerous person in New York: a Machiavellian, high stakes litigator who wields the law like an instrument of murder. Her character, Patty Hewes, is brilliant, charismatic, ruthless, and deeply, horrifically twisted; she's Perry Mason as a charming psychopath.
BOSS, which ran only two seasons on Starz, stars Kelsey Grammer as Chicago Mayor Tom Kane, a white collar gangster who learns that he's living on borrowed time, thanks to a degenerative brain disease. Can he enforce his political legacy on the city in the time he has left?
MAD MEN is about characters living on the wrong side of history, and like millions of others, I can't stop watching it. What's in store for the partners and employees of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce as the 1960s spiral to a close and American society fractures into something drastically different from what they've always known?
SONS OF ANARCHY is a trashy crime dramedy awash in gallows humor. Hamlet, Gertrude, and Claudius are reinvented as the ruling family of an outlaw biker club, but the utopian dreams of the club's late founder were taken in a more violent direction after his death. What is justice when criminals enforce the law?
BOARDWALK EMPIRE is set at the beginning of the Prohibition era, when Congress effectively gave organized crime a license to print money. It's an American success story about big business and its charismatic leaders, although the businessmen in this series take the phrase "cutthroat competition" literally. And Steve Buscemi gets to play the best, most nuanced role of his career.
BREAKING BAD is probably the best show on television since THE SOPRANOS -- a bloodcurdling mix of satire and terror arguing that the American Dream is fundamentally murderous. Bryan Cranston may be identified with the Walter White role forever, but there are worse fates than creating an indelible character.
I'm still watching all of these shows, and I haven't even mentioned others I'm enjoying or want to get to, including HOUSE OF CARDS, SHERLOCK, HOMELAND, GENERATION KILL, OZ, THE WALKING DEAD, and the entire STAR TREK franchise. (Yes, I'm a late arrival to the TREK universe. So sue me.) Point is, there's a lotta crap on TV that I've never had to sit through, so I might be unduly optimistic about TV's status as a worthwhile artistic medium.
There are exceptions though. ABC's Once Upon a Time is the best fantasy-themed show I have ever seen in my entire life. Heck, my dad and I actually started bonding over the show, because it truly entertains both of us, in a way that hasn't happened, since Star Trek went off the air for good. If you're interested Roochack, I'll send you more about it. Though it sounds like you have plenty on your plate as it is.
What I mean is, there is so much tv that if 90% of it is poop, the other 10% is still a whole lot.
I want to watch the entire Dr. Who thing someday I may have time when I retire or something
...then he went on to add that there's nothing worse than bad TV and labeled commercial, broadcast TV a vast wasteland, which is why his speech is so famous. Perhaps most telling is his reference to "endless commercials," all of which you're missing by watching boxed sets. So yes, I'd say you're probably observing a biased sample. That's probably the best plan, too.
Don't mind me. I'm just cranky and opinionated.
Trust me on this one, that's a pretty good description of just about any lawyer.
A program featuring a charming psychopath.
A white collar gangster who learns that he's dieing from a disease.
Characters living in a society that is evolving into something drastically different from what they've always known.
A trashy crime dramedy awash in gallows humor about an outlaw biker club using violent to enforce the law.
Charismatic businessmen who take the phrase "cutthroat competition" literally.
A bloodcurdling mix of satire and terror that argues that the American Dream is fundamentally murderous.
So aside from shows revolving around murder and violence, the other 95% of television programming is “crap”?
Seriously, I can't bear sitcoms, most dramatic shows are tedious, and I can't make animation the bulk of my viewing diet. So it looks like the Shakespearean villains sweep the board.
However I do believe that is because in order to present the sponsor’s product to the largest audience on commercial television, the programming has to be aimed at the lowest common denominator of the viewing audience's intelligence.
So don't expect television characters to use multiple-syllable words, be motivated by ideals or values beyond ‘getting the bad guys’, or showing that all families are not dysfunctional.
So maybe I should expect cable dramas to use bigger vocabularies and have bigger ideas, even if they are, at root, melodramas. Shakespeare, the quintessential melodrama writer, was working to meet the bottom line; that he happened to raise the bar for every writer who followed him was just one hell of a bonus.
Studios and networks are aware and sensitive to their sponsor’s sensitivities (since it is the sponsors’ money that PAYS the studio and network’s bills and salaries). Consequently they produce and show programming that is designed not to offend or put off anyone in the viewing audience (i.e., the sponsor‘s customer base).
Actors often times forget this “linkage”, feeling themselves invulnerable since they are “artists”, and do something incredibly stupid in real life. Then suddenly they find themselves pariahs to the studios and networks of Hollywood, with television viewers occasionally wondering, “What ever happened to So & So? You never see him on TV any more.” Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson and Charlie Sheen are perfect examples.
Try to imagine a comedy, drama or mystery that won’t offend or put off someone somewhere and you’ll get some idea of the problem Hollywood screenwriters or the people designated with sinking a million or so in cash into (along with their careers) are faced with. Hence the boring or “hey didn’t we just see a program just like this last week?” crap.