Video Killed the Radio Star
The great American television drama is a putrid sack of rotting fruit.
This year I've been trying to watch Desperate Housewives, Gray's Anatomy, and LOST. Last night, the second house on "Mysteria" lane was burned down by another neighborhood resident. Mike and the chick with the burning house got back together. And Bree had another blowout with her criminally insane son.
On Gray's Anatomy, we got to be shocked about the new chick in the Gray house. And then Gray and McDreamy broke up - again. But THIS time for good. And the hot centerfold talked the boyfriend she's never seen out of bed into holding onto his last gasps of life for just one more week. And, oh yeah, the requisite medical emergency (baby lived, mother died). They always like to drive home the medical drama - seeing as how the show is set in a hospital - so the fatal accident involved one of the ER doctors ("you mean if I hadn't left at just that moment, this woman would be alive?!?!").
The network television drama has become so trite and formulaic that the show must have a singular dramatic moment in between each commercial break. It's hard to have four new, fresh moments every week so thee old ones get reused. Over. And Over. And Over again.
Cable dramas - such as HBO's 'The Sopranos' - have more freedom and can stretch the dramatic moments to, say, one per episode. Or sometimes one in two episodes. I am also a fan of 'Deadwood' (a roughly historically accurate series about the gold rush boom town of the same name), 'Six Feet Under' (which is now six feet under, metaphorically speaking, in part because they finally ran out of new material), and 'Entourage'. These shows have a generally consistent back story; they aren't obligated by sponsors and ratings to make each show an island unto themselves.
If you don't have HBO, you don't need it. Get yourself a Netflix account where you can watch the movies (don't even get me started on The Great American Motion Picture!) you want along with all the previous season HBO shows.
This year I've been trying to watch Desperate Housewives, Gray's Anatomy, and LOST. Last night, the second house on "Mysteria" lane was burned down by another neighborhood resident. Mike and the chick with the burning house got back together. And Bree had another blowout with her criminally insane son.
On Gray's Anatomy, we got to be shocked about the new chick in the Gray house. And then Gray and McDreamy broke up - again. But THIS time for good. And the hot centerfold talked the boyfriend she's never seen out of bed into holding onto his last gasps of life for just one more week. And, oh yeah, the requisite medical emergency (baby lived, mother died). They always like to drive home the medical drama - seeing as how the show is set in a hospital - so the fatal accident involved one of the ER doctors ("you mean if I hadn't left at just that moment, this woman would be alive?!?!").
The network television drama has become so trite and formulaic that the show must have a singular dramatic moment in between each commercial break. It's hard to have four new, fresh moments every week so thee old ones get reused. Over. And Over. And Over again.
Cable dramas - such as HBO's 'The Sopranos' - have more freedom and can stretch the dramatic moments to, say, one per episode. Or sometimes one in two episodes. I am also a fan of 'Deadwood' (a roughly historically accurate series about the gold rush boom town of the same name), 'Six Feet Under' (which is now six feet under, metaphorically speaking, in part because they finally ran out of new material), and 'Entourage'. These shows have a generally consistent back story; they aren't obligated by sponsors and ratings to make each show an island unto themselves.
If you don't have HBO, you don't need it. Get yourself a Netflix account where you can watch the movies (don't even get me started on The Great American Motion Picture!) you want along with all the previous season HBO shows.
posted by Chris at 14:27
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