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poliphiloThe problem with American TV is that successful shows are allowed (no, required) to run and run until every last drop of vital existence has been squeezed out of them. Until there's nothing left but rind and pips. It's a terrible shame.
Most of the shows I have loved in recent years have died the death long before they were finally put out of their misery.
Deep Space Nine
The X Files
Xena
Buffy.
I fear for the Simpsons. There have been some really ropey, unfunny episodes recently. And then there's Deadwood- which is showing alarming signs of being all washed up after a single season.
And here comes Lost, which seems expressly designed to be so open ended it can run forever. I watched the first double episode and fidgeted. The whole point of it is delay- deferred gratification. Do I have the stamina to stick with it for seven, eight years until all becomes clear? I doubt it. I know from sad experience that by the time we get there the whole concept will have become so jaded, the plotlines so tangled and far-fetched, that I will long since have ceased to care.
Most of the shows I have loved in recent years have died the death long before they were finally put out of their misery.
Deep Space Nine
The X Files
Xena
Buffy.
I fear for the Simpsons. There have been some really ropey, unfunny episodes recently. And then there's Deadwood- which is showing alarming signs of being all washed up after a single season.
And here comes Lost, which seems expressly designed to be so open ended it can run forever. I watched the first double episode and fidgeted. The whole point of it is delay- deferred gratification. Do I have the stamina to stick with it for seven, eight years until all becomes clear? I doubt it. I know from sad experience that by the time we get there the whole concept will have become so jaded, the plotlines so tangled and far-fetched, that I will long since have ceased to care.
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Date: 2005-08-12 07:13 am (UTC)I had the oddest experience with Lost: I'd catch it on the car radio driving home from choir practice, so the plot was mostly about stumbling around, occasional screams, yelling, and confusion--then Alias was being played at roughly the same time, and I thought the Lost crowd, at least some of them, had happened upon a secret Communist community on the island! How DUMB, I thought.
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Date: 2005-08-12 11:47 am (UTC)But as time went on it became clear that there wasn't any Big Mystery and that the writers were making it up as they went along.
Lost isn't as well written as the X Files and the characters are far more stereotypical.
You can pick up TV shows on the car radio? I don't think that's possible in the UK.....
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Date: 2005-08-12 11:49 am (UTC)