Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Fury

My TiVo malfunctioned on Monday (twice), so I had to watch DRIVE online last night. It was AWESOME. I still don't care about all of the characters, but the four getting the main focus are stellar.

So in the most recent episode they robbed a bank, the innocent younger brother got shot, and Mal Tully had dumped Winston and Corrina at a motel and said not to open the safe deposit box they'd stolen until they got back. She asked from where, and he said, "Your brother's last chance."

And today, Fox canceled the show.

Subsequent response whited out for tender sensibilities

Rat-fucking stinking heads-in-their-asses motherless sons of bitches (yes that means dogs) BASTARDS

Okay, so I'm not the most creative cusser in the world. The point is at least made.

I'm so frickin' sick of these networks yanking the shows I love without giving them a chance at all. How is it at all smart to invest the money they do into buying the show, paying for production, advertising it...and then replacing it with reruns after only two weeks?

Forget all those people who are now out of a job--not just the talented actors on the screen and the talented writers behind it. Dozens (hundreds?) of crew members and staff have nothing. Maybe for some it was their big chance and now they have to go back to Peoria. Others might be good enough at their jobs to get something else, but pilot season is over. Most will probably be jobless until July. Nice, Fox.

Worse is the continually broken trust. When these networks put a show on the air, they do everything they can to entice us to watch it. Season after season, show after show, the stuff I like disappears. Often the stuff I mildly like (The Class) gets a full season and then drifts away. The stuff I love--that I will go to the TV for week after week, rushing my kids to bed early so I can be there to watch it, recording it to watch over and over again--that stuff they yank immediately.

I'm like the heroines in the romances that drive me nuts. The ones who got burned once so they won't let themselves fall in love again because it hurts too much? That's me. Someone posted in the comments on a forum that they won't watch new shows anymore, they'll just get the DVD. My reaction was to scoff, because if we don't watch, there won't BE a DVD.

But I don't care anymore. They have stabbed me in the heart once too often. I will not start watching any new shows. I'll continue with the ones I already watch (I'm not going to punish MYSELF, puh-leeze!) but once they're off the air, the networks have lost me completely.

And that's SO much better, right?

Jerk-offs.

8 comments:

WarT0rn said...

Dam dam dam damnit dam dam. That tottally sucks a--

Erica Orloff said...

Hey Natalie:
I used to watch some FBI show with Eric Roberts about eight years ago (?). Stayed home on Friday nights to watch it. Never missed it. They canceled it. And, that, I am afraid, is my track record. Every show I started to like over the years . . . gone. Now I do not watch ANY new TV shows. Nada. I refuse. And if something really intrigues me, I will download it for my video iPod or whatever. Or I will watch it on my On Demand cable. Watch the whole season at once.

In general, I am now down to maybe an hour of TV a WEEK.

I feel for you!
E

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

That tottally sucks a--

Doesn't it, though? *harrumphs*

Every show I started to like over the years . . . gone.

That's often been how the case for me, too. Brisco County Jr., John Doe, Stark Raving Mad.

I used to be at an hour of TV a week, and even that was iffy. Then TV shows got better (starting with Lost in 2004). There are still a lot of good shows on, more than there used to be, but I sense a downward trend coming again.

They'll never connect continued abyssmal ratings with this reaction, though. Jerks.

Erica Orloff said...

natalie:
I did watch LOST and quit that one last year. I started to feel like I did when I watched Twin Peaks. That they were NEVER going to wrap everything up and I just . . . stopped caring when they left the main characters for a lot of Others stuff. I do watch Numb3ers On Demand for the relationship of the father with the two sons. And I watch The Amazing Race with my youngest daughter. I will watch Anthony Bourdain (Travel Channel) when I manage to stay awake. That's it, I'm afraid, and even the Race is spotty for me, but it is bonding time with my nine-year-old.

And yes, I totally agree "they" don't get it. Develop it a bit--like ANY relationship. I think of that show Northern Exposure (which I loved) . . . it was a quirky summer replacement and they let people "get" it and catch on to it.

E

MJFredrick said...

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

ARGH!!!!!

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

See, I have total faith in Lost because I've listened to Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelhof do podcasts and they have a definite plan. The problem there is the network not allowing them to do the seasons on their terms or give them a finite end date, so they have to drag it out indefinitely, which is what's hurting the show and the ratings--and, GASP, is a problem created by the network.

I like Numb3rs for the same reason you do.

Mary--I know! *hugs*

Trish Milburn said...

I hadn't watched Drive, but I know the feeling intimately. Invasion, anyone? Grrr.

The dumbass network people don't seem to remember how well a show could do when they give it time to develop and draw in an audience. X-Files took a while to draw its following. And I didn't watch Supernatural or Bones during their first seasons. But I caught up on DVD, and I've been a devoted viewer ever since. They're two of my top favorite shows.

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

I know, Trish! For every example of a show that flew out of the starting gate, there are at least two that floundered around a bit.

Keith R.A. DeCandido posted on his blog in defense of the network's decision, saying the show is very expensive to produce, but I don't think that's enough. I mean, Heroes has got to be just as expensive, if not more so (visual effects up the wazoo!) and it took several weeks before ratings started to rise.