Dec 09 2008
TV Wasteland…
This really has been a fairly dismal fall season. Perhaps taking all that time off during the writers’ strike led to writer’s block. Maybe the cost-cutting measures and focus on cheapness rather than quality is hurting the industry. Maybe it’s the fact that like the music industry, TV execs kill anything that isn’t an immediate hit. A lot of great bands had dreadful first albums, and a lot of good shows had crappy first seasons (Star Trek: TNG, anyone?) Now only the ratings winner gets to stay. Lose your timeslot, lose your show.
What this leaves us with is a few popular shows amidst a constantly revolving door of short-lived series. For viewers nowadays, starting the fall season is like playing the lottery–or betting at the races. Which show should you bet on? Which show are you willing to invest in, knowing it could be canceled at any moment? Perhaps TV columnists can add odds listings to their articles, so we know whether to gamble on that 12 to 1 show or not.
So far this year I’ve invested in Eli Stone, My Own Worst Enemy, and Crusoe. Bad bets, apparently. Life on Mars could still go either way–should I cut my losses now or hold on and hope for the best?
The worst of it is, I’ve felt the most drawn in by shows that end up getting the ax. As I mentioned in my post on Nielsen ratings , I tend to not ride with the pack. I also don’t seem to agree with the critics.
As The Mentalist was inexplicably a rerun tonight, I flipped over to TNTs new series Leverage, starring Timothy Hutton. The commercials hadn’t really caught my interest, but there was nothing else on, so…I gave it a try. After about ten minutes of my mind wandering, I shut it off. As my husband once said after trying to watch Rob Schneider’s Animal: “Maybe it gets better later, but I just couldn’t wait.” This team of con men/thieves/experts-turned-Robin-Hood types seemed to be trying for the lighter side of heist shows, like AMCs Hustle, but didn’t get the balance right. It wasn’t particularly funny, and it wasn’t particularly dramatic, and ended up just being really lame.
Critics apparently gave it more of a chance than I did, calling it entertaining fluff. Some reviewers noted the spotty acting skills of some of the cast, but still were willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. Maybe I was just in a bad mood while anticipating Eli Stone–a show I love that will soon be off the air. Perhaps another day when there’s nothing else on, I’ll give Leverage another try and see if I can stick with it longer than 10 minutes.
But I wouldn’t bet on it.
