1 post from March 2008

   The other day my friend and his parents gave me a ride back to San Francisco, and along the way we stopped by Costco so they could get some food for Easter Sunday. As my friend and I browsed through the crappy selection of video games and mostly cheap films we stumbled upon a gold mine of cheap television boxsets for as low as $15 a pop. Granted, most are shows I've never really watched, but they did have all three seasons of both Arrested Development and Veronica Mars, two of the most intriguing shows I've seen in awhile. Needless to say, I wound up getting something (er, rather, my friend's parents got me something so now I owe them $16) - I decided on the first season of Arrested Development.

   Back around Freshman or Sophomore year of college I first saw AD with my two friends, because one of them bought the entire first season after his mom introduced him to the show during a vacation. At first I figured it'd be the typical show my friends, both of whom I'd always thought were more intellectual and 'sophisticated' than me: funny in a witty, the-jokes-on-the-people-who-don't-get-it sort of way, with characters that make obscure references and who get into situations that aren't funny unless you've experienced it. Well, it wasn't all that, but it was the type of show I didn't normally watch back then. However, I did start finding it extremely funny, and by the end of the first season I found myself really adoring the colorful cast of characters, the engaging narrative structure, and the hilarious situations. It was, for all intensive purposes, the one sitcom I actually liked (I was never a fan of Friends or Seinfeld).
   A year or two later, when I first upgraded to DSL and discovered torrents, I downloaded the second season of the show, but watching it by myself I could never get farther than a couple of episodes. My friends had long watched the season, so I was on my own. Eventually I just kind of stopped and forgot about the series. Until now, that is. My mom and I have been watching the first season together, and she really digs it as well. It's been fun to watch again, and I'm glad I bought it. Maybe sometime soon I'll head back and get the rest of the series. Real shame that it was canceled after only three.

   Television series and serials are strange like that though, especially in the United States. Unlike films, we always seem to want TV shows to go on forever, even when they seem to get stale. Hell, I stopped watching The Simpsons a long time ago because it started getting boring; even The Office is going down that road too. There's just something about wanting to hold on to the experience that those shows bring, but ultimately that experience really just has to end, less the material gets old. In some ways I'm glad Ronald Moore straight-out told Sci-Fi that season four is the last season of Battlestar Galactica. As much as I love the series, I couldn't imagine how they'd possibly stretch it out for more than another season. I mean, they've done practically everything that can be done without repetition or continuity errors. While I'm sure all the fans are going to be sad with the show ending, at least the creators get to end it their own way, they get to end it right.
 

  You can't say the same for all good shows. Most of my favorite animated shows from when I was a kid didn't get a chance to end things on their own terms. Rocko's Modern Life was just kind of phased out after Joe Murray (the creator) left the show, and Craig Bartlett, who made Hey Arnold! wasn't able to end the series with the 'jungle' movie he wanted to do, and instead the show's final season ended with a bunch of crappy episodes that put the characters in ridiculous situations. Sure, give Doug a proper graduation but forget all about the football head.
   It's always the good, interesting, unique shows that tend to suffer. Arrested Development and Firefly are two more recent examples of good shows that went underappreciated by both networks and fans until long after their cancellation. It's really too bad, because they're shows that should've been able to go on longer; I would've much preferred a secon season of Firefly over Serenity, which didn't really provide the closure I was hoping for.

   Television is definitely a realm that needs to be changed. The current network-dominated setup just doesn't allow for creativity these days, what with all the reality shows and crappy new sitcoms that won't ever be as popular or funny as their predecessors. Personally, I think we need to start thinking about alternative means, possibly using the internet or other public-funded channels. Sure, like film, television shows cost a lot of money to produce, but when has that ever stopped independent filmmakers from making good movies? Hell, you just need the same things - a camera, a crew, a cast, and material. TV shouldn't be seen as this horrible thing that's rotting the minds of kids and turning people into couch potatoes. Maybe it's what I learned from Prof. Hastie over the past year, but I'm starting more and more to see the vast potential for an alternative form of television, one that has yet to be cultivated. All it takes is a little embrace and ingenuity.