I don't know if I'm doing this right but I have twelve so far and this is my first day beginning this challenge. I'm going to include my mission statement because you mentioned wanting to know why I would be crazy enough to do something like this. I've also changed my picture as requested. Just write me back if I'm not doing this right.
Mission Statement
I began this sight tonight as a forum to discuss the current entertainment offered by the competing networks. It seems today that from ABC all the way to Spike and other cable television companies, our writers have really dropped the ball. Although, as someone who would be considered a couch potato, with a few shows that I enjoy thoroughly, It seems that a continual smearing of crap continues to fill my tivo guide leaving me wondering exactly what it is I'm paying Comcast for!
A very few select shows among the mire of stupidity reveals that there are still good writers putting forth the effort of developing humorous, compelling, emotional and action packed story lines that don't leave us considering the hour of waisted life that was just snuffed out for the ill attempted humor of one eternally inteligent and correct wife verbally beating down her inferior, emotional and stupid husband who seems to want to put up with that abuse week after week as if her rantings are somehow fulfilling him with a place in life. Although I found that premise to be witty in say....Rosanne, were the husband didn't come out of the end of each episode looking like a dumb neanderthal, but Rosie's continual nagging was witty and inteligent. Aside from that one series, who's merrit is supported in the number of years the show was brought back, most just can't seem to hack it.
We could also delve in to the many spin offs of lab geeks with guns. For those I met in collage who attempted a major in Criminal Justice because their favorite show was CSI, a criminal annalysist who tests hair fibers, runs DNA tests, does balistics testing, the police department that hires you on, any department for that matter, does not give their lab techs an issued side-arm. I wouldn't be surprised if you had to buy your own white lab coat if your issued anything. I mean, I'm sorry, but David Caruso, loved him in NYPD Blue by the way, who plays Horatio Cane, a savy lab tech with first rate deduction and questioning skills and a gun that never seems to miss, also a characture that the writters feel the need to pop out a little Dirty Harry phrase like "Let's Dance," during his action sequences, he just doesn't fit the bill.
Are writers really running out of idea's these days. I'll give them a few props for originality, but I could write a screen play about green hippo's that devise an alience with King Kong and Superman, they arise from the Pacific Ocean in the begginnings of their diabolical plot to take over the world. It's original, but does that alone make it any good?
We have a million different aspects from which a premise to a compelling story line can be drawn without reaching so far into the depths of unrealistic circomstances. The CIA, the FBI, privately contracted soldiers which would be a good seg-way into modern day assassins. There's the military, DEA, Coast Guard and just the regular classic of good-ol-fashion police. There's so much meterial to inspire a high intense action thriller you could simply shut your eyes, throw a stone and write about whoever that stone hits.
As far as drama's and comedies go, hey, I don't know what to tell you. To make a good comedic sitcom you need good chemistry between the main charactures, and witty writing. Lately it seems that stupid passes for funny these days. A good drama could be almost equated to Lost in my opinion. If it wasn't for the fact that the writters decided to make the hole damn island some kind of magical and mysterious Atlantis I may have followed it all these years. You end up with more questions and absolutely no answers. Basically the shows fans could be summed up by saying intrieged for an hour and pissed off for a week. I would have been happy with just a bunch of people, little chance of being rescued, building a new life for themselves with dangerous oppositions and a few love interests to look forward to. What a mess that flick turned out to be!
In the end most of my blogs will involve shows that are currently aired or were at one time and what it was about them that made for good entertainment that was compelling for the fans watching. Given this goal I obviously have a number of favorites out there, but I also can't help but be astonished by what the best screen writers in the world have been producing lately. Is is corporate television that assumes the majority of viewers are idiots easily entertained by nonsense, or is there some kind of nation wide writers block that's crippled all but a few? What do you think?
