Science Fiction and Fantasy on TV.

[Highspeedlimo]

I love watching Firefly on the ScyFy Channel! So glad they are doing re-runs!

[soulmirror]

Honestly, it took FRINGE a little while to build up on the whole "two Universes at war" story arc they'd started with (maybe that's why some viewers drifted away?) ... but by now the tragic characters' depths and star-crossed lovers thing is simply wonderful and heartbreaking!

As for FIREFLY ... I luv'd that show! The Old West ... somewheres out there near alpha centauri, Pilgrim! That and BUFFY TVS made me a lifetime fan of Mr. JW!

[soulmirror]

Spielberg's new Earth-under-alien-invasion series FALLING SKIES starts Sunday 19th on TNT 10pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP7vrlvu9qk


You had me at Moon Goodblood. Okay, and Noah Wyle (could a less-sensitive man hold his AK-47 like this? no.) ... But the aliens look cool too.

[WriteToLive]

Honestly, it took FRINGE a little while to build up on the whole "two Universes at war" story arc they'd started with (maybe that's why some viewers drifted away?)

Rule 17: Never confuse your audience so much that they are lost. Unless there is a mystery behind it and becons them into the storyline.

[Strycher]

Honestly, it took FRINGE a little while to build up on the whole "two Universes at war" story arc they'd started with (maybe that's why some viewers drifted away?)

Rule 17: Never confuse your audience so much that they are lost. Unless there is a mystery behind it and becons them into the storyline.

It wasn't confusing. It was just world-building that seemed a little directionless at first. It was a lot of "Hey something weird..." then "Maybe all this weird stuff is related..." followed by "Yes, there's a connecting factor. Look a plot!"

I like Fringe because it seems like the good guys could actually have an impact on the world. Most of the time with these shows (X-Files was particularly bad about it) the characters are incidental. Moulder and Schully could have fucked off at any point and 9 times out of 10 it wouldn't have effected the weird thing going on in the show. In Fringe, the characters matter. They are in way over their heads, but they still count for something.

[soulmirror]

In Fringe, the characters matter. They are in way over their heads, but they still count for something.

Excellent point.

And when the "two universes" thing kicked in ... it became one of my favs, and BECAUSE (as you said) we realized how important the characters had been: not just a crazy scientist (heh heh, great actor but cliche stock character, until ...) but the scientist who went crazy because he realized he'd done something unforgiveable that could destroy us all. Olivia tormented (but empowered) because of the scientist's madness ...

FALLING SKIES: could become very interesting indeed, going from the first hour of "every human is noble" to the second hour's "okay, now we got some interesting human conflicts" and (if we believe the teasers) a "mystery" about the aliens. Perhaps an over-arcing series mystery?

It's one of those typical mass audience tv sci-fi problems: holes in the story in the hands of real sci-fi writers become BIGGER & BETTER story developments later ... holes in the hands of incompetents (or those who just shouldn't be doing sci-fi) are symptoms of incompetence and the story just being dumb and not-thought-out.

But FALLING SKIES looks pretty thoughtful. I'm giving it some luv and trust.

[soulmirror]

FALLING SKIES ... gazing a little too long at their character-driven navel?

Because imo it should be first hook your audience, then build your characters' inner issues. None of us needs to see another well-wrought sci-fi tv show peter out because of a slow start and bias the powers that be against the genre.

Brave that she [spoiler alert] murdered the Skitter ... but they need to get a broader story arc going asap, imo.

[WriteToLive]

One show which looked relatively interesting to me was the new Alphas show on SyFy...

Sadly, I missed the first episode today...Thank goodness for DVD sets and youtube!

[wellsdesigned]

Did I miss a pilot movie or did Falling Skies just start in the middle of the story? I started watching Jerrico a few episodes after the bombs dropped and seeing Falling Skies from the "start" feels the same.

[soulmirror]

Did I miss a pilot movie or did Falling Skies just start in the middle of the story? I started watching Jerrico a few episodes after the bombs dropped and seeing Falling Skies from the "start" feels the same.

No, the first episode starts and it's already been a few months (?) after the aliens invaded. Something like 90% of the human race is dead ? The aliens capture kids and put slave devices up their spines etc. You haven't missed much beyond the set up, really ... which is sort of the problem. It's not progressing alot, imo, and this coming episode is #4 I think? Nice character development though.

[WriteToLive]

Something tells me that the onset of the war is going to hold some significance in the war effort later on. If they didn't show it, then I believe it's because there's some secret there which will destroy the aliens and allow humanity to win out.

But, I saw part of the first Alphas episode. I must say, I kind of like it. Then again, I also loved season 1 of Heroes and I have been a big fan of X-men since I was a kid...

[soulmirror]

For those who got into "FALLING SKIES" late ... they're apparently running the entire series over as a marathon this coming SUNDAY, starting at 1pm.

Culminating in the new 2-HOUR season finale.

Which looks suddenly possibly VERY good.

[Jess]

I've watched nearly all of Falling Skies so far, and I still can't decide whether I like it or not. I'm not sure exactly what it is about it that's leaving me wanting, but there's definitely something.

[soulmirror]

I've watched nearly all of Falling Skies so far, and I still can't decide whether I like it or not. I'm not sure exactly what it is about it that's leaving me wanting, but there's definitely something.

I agree. Quality everything, except ... it just feels slightly rudderless and adrift sometimes?

But ... the new aliens. They're alienicious!

[wellsdesigned]

I thought the finale of Falling Skies ended strong. I liked the pause given to the conquering aliens.

I've now moved on to watching Torchwood Miracle Day. I've never seen the past Torchwood shows and may have to go back to watch them sometime.

[Strycher]

Anybody watch the Misfits on Hulu? It's a UK show about a group of juveniles sentenced to community service who end up getting super powers... Some how. I'm not very far in, but it's an interesting take on super-hero-ness. (Hint they're not very heroic.)

[soulmirror]

TERRA NOVA ... it's gotten some questionable reviews ... but I'm thinking its pilot laid some pretty interesting possible future story arcs down, imo. Man vs Nature in the form of very bad-A dinosaurs, Man vs Man in the conflict of colony vs renegade Sixers (and that conflict may have multi-layered depths and thrills) ... troubled teens ... hot Moms and Dads ... cryptic stone carvings of advanced physics (?) on worlds 85 million years ago (yeah, yeah, they already offered hints ... but the hints could foretell many weird things too to be revealed) ...

I think the TERRA NOVA pilot repeats this weekend on FOX (FOX ... it already had fanged dinosaurs run amok, right? haha just funnin')

And FRINGE is ... back, and new, and ... open for new arcs too!

[Serrain]

Terra Nova caught my eye, so I watched the pilot. I really liked parts of it (the beginning stuff especially), but other parts of it seemed kinda cheesy, too. It seems to be marketed for a family type show, which is alright, but not exactly what I was hoping for. I'll keep watching it, though, curious to see where some of the storylines go.

[soulmirror]

FX's new AMERICAN HORROR STORY looks like it could be a very spooky and disturbing horror series.

I think the pilot repeats sometime earlier this week before episode two later in the week? But definitely I enjoyed the eerie pilot!

[wellsdesigned]

TERRA NOVA ... troubled teens...

I could do without another show that throws in a troubled teen/kid angle.

[soulmirror]

TERRA NOVA ... troubled teens...

I could do without another show that throws in a troubled teen/kid angle.

"Teenage Dinosaur angst!"

[kyle]

OK, seriously, everyone. Go hit Hulu or iTunes or IMDB or whatever and watch the first episode of Once Upon a Time. I'm not kidding. It's that good. Don't wait.

[Strycher]

OK, seriously, everyone. Go hit Hulu or iTunes or IMDB or whatever and watch the first episode of Once Upon a Time. I'm not kidding. It's that good. Don't wait.

That good? Hmmm. I thought it was an okay start. I don't know how they'll make an ongoing series out of that premise. I'll watch the next few episodes, and it is on Hulu and all you other people who haven't seen it should probably check it out.

Perhaps my opinion is colored by a preferrance for SciFi.

[Grayson Morris]

Argh. Hulu: yet another streaming video site restricted to US viewers. (And Japan, apparently, but that helps me none.)

I haven't been able to see Game of Thrones, can't watch any of the interesting things people mention. I suppose I could go illegal, but that isn't me. How hard can it be to license your content for European viewing? How can that be a difficult decision?

"Well, Bob, we have all these European viewers just salivating to see our shows, but gosh, I don't think it's a good idea to license our stuff over there..."

"You're right, Zack. I mean, I know it would make us gazillions of bucks on stuff that's already DONE and READY TO STREAM, with little to no effort on our part, but it just seems...unprofitable."

Gaaarrg.

[kyle]

I don't know how they'll make an ongoing series out of that premise.

Well, I certainly can't make any warranties about future quality. And being an American production, I fully expect it will either jump the shark quickly or get cancelled abruptly because the network doesn't get it, but I also expected it to be terrible right out of the gate, so I'm hoping the new management at Disney is taking some lessons from the BBC. Up until the previews during the credits, I was also worried about its potential as a series, but by ignoring the voiceover and watching the visuals, I have high hopes that they've got an interesting and complicated story developing.

[kyle]

"Well, Bob, we have all these European viewers just salivating to see our shows, but gosh, I don't think it's a good idea to license our stuff over there..."

"You're right, Zack. I mean, I know it would make us gazillions of bucks on stuff that's already DONE and READY TO STREAM, with little to no effort on our part, but it just seems...unprofitable."

And that's the whole problem with how business is taught in the U.S. Something works, and so it gets taught as the right way to do it, and it then becomes the only way to do it, and the MBAs are left gaping when it stops working, until some PhD comes along and writes a book looking at how some little startup did it differently, which then becomes the right way to do it...

20 years ago, it made perfect sense to prevent European distribution, because if a show was successful it was then easy to get a European network to pick it up and pay lots of money for it, provided it hadn't previously been available in their region. Nowadays, with European television producing more than ever and with the relative ease of spoofing and American IP address to watch the stuff online (not that I recommend that, it's technically piracy), that money just isn't there any more, and the American networks haven't worked out that they can get that money directly from the consumers instead...

I wish I had the money to start a network. But, unfortunately, I have a degree...

[Strycher]

I fully expect it will either jump the shark quickly

I'm also waiting for this.

or get cancelled abruptly because the network doesn't get it

It's true. And that's sad.

I have high hopes that they've got an interesting and complicated story developing.

That would be nice. I found the pilot interesting enough that I will watch the next two or three episodes and forgive a bad episode in that span.

[MJNL]

Haven’t watched it yet, so can’t comment on this show specifically, but it’s waiting on my DVR.

My husband and I were talking about it the other day though, and how we expected it to be canceled quickly, because spec shows on regular networks tend to trend a specific way: The people creating them don’t really know spec fic, so they think, Hey look, we’re making something different, when they’re not. Then they try to make it appeal to a broad audience who doesn’t get spec either and has no interest in it. By watering it down to make it “appealing” to a wide range of viewers they alienate the people who actually like spec, because it just ends up a bad rehash.

And thus the cancelations begin.

But it sounds like maybe this show is doing something right for the spec-familiar viewer? Now I’m more excited to watch it.

[kyle]

The creators actually have a pretty long pedigree in SF, though heretofore their work has never particularly excited me. As my husband said, "I hope this is the project they've been dying to make for years, and just had to get enough credits to be allowed to do it right."

[soulmirror]

The creators actually have a pretty long pedigree in SF, though heretofore their work has never particularly excited me. As my husband said, "I hope this is the project they've been dying to make for years, and just had to get enough credits to be allowed to do it right."

Consulting my EW magazine, Ryan Murphy (Nip & Tuck) had been wanting to do AN AMERICAN HORROR STORY for years ... but he didn't have the weight to do it until he did ... wait for it ... GLEE.

And AMERICAN HORROR STORY I adore, in between shudders and creepy thrills! Everyone who enjoys the bizarre and the lurid end of the horror spectrum should check out AHS imo !!!

Now, ONCE UPON A TIME will have to prove itself to me, personally: the first five or ten minutes hit me as so ... not me ... that I almost gave up on it. Though I never give up without watching a whole episode, usually, out of principle, so I stuck with it and ... well, it does pick up a certain vibe.

It seems to be part of a growing wave of "fairy tale characters put into our modern world" things, in books and films and now TV so it will have to fight it out for viewers, far harder than it should have to (if it were a single, unique concept ... which is a great concept really) ...

It's probably true that the reason there are sudden "rip-off" spurts of certain shows is that creative folks have to sit on great ideas for years, until suddenly the suits all decide at once how they need an X show because everyone else has an X show ... and in the lemming-run towards X alot of crap gets greenlit.

I eagerly await GRIMM this friday, with its "fairy tale perp-hunting detective" too ...

But I'd have to say that (just my opinion, so the easiest to share because it's the least weighty) ONCE UPON A TIME has the least-appealing SNOW WHITE I've ever seen.

Literally: ugh. SNOW WHITE should be lovely, and they've managed to cast an actress with the mass-audience appeal of ... Rumpelstiltskin. Who, in this series ... is wonderful, dripping with slimey evil! I'll be watching the show definitely for a while to see what they do with it (again, very nice concept) and mostly for the wonderfully-frightening RUMPLESTILTSKIN.

Y'know though ... sooner or later writers aren't going to be able to re-animate old cultural tropes, re-packaging things from folks' childhood ... Sooner or later someone has to do something NEW. I've never read a bad review of WALKING DEAD ... but I just cannot get into another "zombies" thing.

Seen too many lame pointless zombies. Seen too many rednecks. Don't gotta watch rednecks battle zombies, sorry.