Actually you did a good job...because I so agree. But I don't think it's so much that it lies outside our experience - in how it is being written. It's how the creators express the message.
Malcolm in the Middle and Everybody Hates Chris have one big thing in common - they are both about young boys struggling in low income working families, except Malcolm was fairly brilliant, and Chris struggles with academics. The expression however is different, in some ways I find myself identifying more with Everybody Hates Chris - but that's partly because like Chris, I struggled in school and struggled making friends, and was made fun of, I wasn't the smart-ass like Malcolm.
Buffy worked for me better than Dawsons or Popular, for much the same reasons - it featured a character and more importantly a storyline that resonated for me.
Cookie-cutter tv shows rarely do that. It's why copying a format that works doesn't always guarantee success. The copycats of Desperate Housewives and Lost this past year did not survive. Any more than the two copy-cats of Angel did - Moonlight (which I sort of liked) and New Amsterdam (also liked) but did not resonate in the same way as Angel. Unlike Angel - they focused too much on immortality and the romance, and not enough on the mysteries and struggle to relate to others, the feeling of being an outsider. People could not relate to the romance/immortality as well as they could to being an outsider, so as a result Amsterdam and Moonlight got much smaller audiences.
Regarding the election...hee. "There are people who really are prejudiced but I don't believe they are enough to sway an election." Well, if we believe the news media's poll interviews - they are all located in Kentucky and West Virgina, two states well know for their brilliant populations. (grins evilly).
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-05-25 09:34 pm (UTC)Malcolm in the Middle and Everybody Hates Chris have one big thing in common - they are both about young boys struggling in low income working families, except Malcolm was fairly brilliant, and Chris struggles with academics. The expression however is different, in some ways I find myself identifying more with Everybody Hates Chris - but that's partly because like Chris, I struggled in school and struggled making friends, and was made fun of, I wasn't the smart-ass like Malcolm.
Buffy worked for me better than Dawsons or Popular, for much the same reasons - it featured a character and more importantly a storyline that resonated for me.
Cookie-cutter tv shows rarely do that. It's why copying a format that works doesn't always guarantee success. The copycats of Desperate Housewives and Lost this past year did not survive. Any more than the two copy-cats of Angel did - Moonlight (which I sort of liked) and New Amsterdam (also liked) but did not resonate in the same way as Angel.
Unlike Angel - they focused too much on immortality and the romance, and not enough on the mysteries and struggle to relate to others, the feeling of being an outsider. People could not relate to the romance/immortality as well as they could to being an outsider, so as a result Amsterdam and Moonlight got much smaller audiences.
Regarding the election...hee. "There are people who really are prejudiced but I don't believe they are enough to sway an election."
Well, if we believe the news media's poll interviews - they are all located in Kentucky and West Virgina, two states well know for their brilliant populations. (grins evilly).