Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Oh, Fall TV Makes Me Sad

So, the folks over at nothing corporate posted an article that I whole heartedly agree with. The Fall Television season is incredibly disappointing. There is no new show really grabbing the audiences attention from a scripted perspective. Fringe has been the only show to mildly catch my attention, but I am not scrambling to make sure I catch every episode. It's fine, but it's not great, and I am already wary of an J.J. Abrams show that touts a clandestine conspiracy as the central mystery, but aimlessly wanders through season after seaon. However, despite Fringe's okay efforts, there are some truly bad shows on T.V. like Lipstick Jungle, Kath and Kim and Eleventh Hour. These shows need to just wander into a hole and die. Oh, Wait Lipstick Jungle has already.

However, it's not just the newbies. The long standing great shows of the last four years have turned in tepid and uninspired performances. The Office has yet to really be brilliant. Heroes has fallen off dramatically and appears to have no central compass of a story, and is focusing more on making the stars look pretty. Prison Break is a complete joke on fox, and the Procedural Dramas (C.S.I.'s and Law and Orders) are just rolling along with the formula with almost a bitterness towards their audience. Even my personal favorite House has been up and down.

The only hope is that the shows waiting in the wings will bring a re-newed and inspired approach. 30 Rock has debuted with big guest stars and the usual brilliance of their cast. Will Lost do the same? Will Battle Star finish strong? Will 24 hit the mark? We have to wait and see.

Why is scripted TV so bad? Well, it's because we're spoiled. We had about three to four years of truly inspired writing for television. However, as more and more writes become more and more successful, they can afford to be selective on their projects. This mixed with what some people are calling WGA STRIKE ATTROPHY give us the current state of scripted T.V. And the state is bad.

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