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Feb. 9th, 2013 06:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Is anyone else...all of a sudden getting a lot of marketing spam from pharmaceutical companies on old livejournal posts? Hadn't been getting any for several months, then, all of a sudden - I'm getting it again - five in last two-three days alone, and all in response to posts I made months ago. It's so weird. And they are all for pharmaceutical drugs. What's wrong with these marketing people? Twitter and FB not amusing enough - you have to hunt down obscure lj posts??
2. Several Buffy fan posts on LJ this week - guessing one of the comics came out recently?
Have they gotten any better? Don't appear to be. Sound rather dull. Considering the final two arcs of S8 Buffy comics soured me on Whedon, fanfic, certain types of meta, Dark Horse, comic books in general, the comic book industry, and the Buffy/Angel series and characters, along with certain factions of fandom...I'm thinking avoiding those comics is probably a good thing. Because, I've managed to become rather ambivalent now about all of the above. (ie. I don't care either way.) I have enough things that irritate me, why add another?
The only comics...that I considered looking into were the Marvel ones - where the original teen X-men time travel and get disillusioned by their adult selves. And Spiderman, where Doctor Octupus body-swaps with Peter Parker, and ends up taking over the title. Also Superman - where Superman and Wonder Woman become lovers. Which sort of makes sense since they are the male/female equivalent of each other. Wonder if Steve Reeves and Lois Lane hook up to commisserate? The other one that looked interesting was Brian K. Vaughn's Saga, except I don't like Vaughn any more than I like Alan Moore - both piss me off.
3. 30 Day TV Meme
Day 01 - A show that should never have been canceled
Oh, several, but the one whose cancellation is still making me wail at the injustice of it all is Farscape which unlike most tv series, actually had it's fifth season all blocked out ahead of time and was filming it back to back with it's fourth season.
I know, I know there are other candidates...such as Firefly - which was abbreviated in mid-play. They'd filmed 13 episodes and only showed about five or six before Fox yanked it. You had to get the DVD's to see the rest - that is until Syfy decided to run them. And the movie came out, resolving everything. But here's the difference between Firefly and Farscape - the writers of Farscape, as well as the cast, had those last two seasons plotted out, they were filming them back to back - episodes were written, they knew exactly what themes they were doing. Whedon didn't have Firefly that well planned out - he's not that type of writer. He had ideas, sure, but he kept changing them to fit the network's plan.
Farscape had more of a free reign...they had less network involvement at the time. It's also the difference between Farscape's cancellation and Angel, Dollhouse, Caprica, and Sarah Connor Chronicles...all the others didn't really know where they were headed and were, a bit messy in execution. Of the other's, I'd say Sarah Connor was probably the best plotted and planned out - I think that writer had a definite vision, but his ending worked for me and I didn't require more. Same deal with Angel - didn't need more after Not Fade Away - that was in some respects the best ending for that series, I think if it went on longer, Whedon would have ruined it in much the same way that Vince Gilligan is ruining Breaking Bad. Caprica was just a mess, and I was admittedly losing interest. Same deal with Dollhouse.
Of course mileage varies on this, doesn't it?
Farscape though...that had a planned story, which they had to edit and cram into a four hour movie. You could see - what it might have been, if they had gotten their fifth season.
Ironically, I wasn't watching Farscape when it was actually on TV. Caught up with it two years after it had been cancelled and was about to air the four hour conclusion of the story.
Yes, if someone where to hop into a time machine and make another season of any of the tv shows cancelled prior to their time and sell the DVDS - I'd buy the DVD's to Farscape first.
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season)
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever
Day 05 - A show you hate
Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death.
2. Several Buffy fan posts on LJ this week - guessing one of the comics came out recently?
Have they gotten any better? Don't appear to be. Sound rather dull. Considering the final two arcs of S8 Buffy comics soured me on Whedon, fanfic, certain types of meta, Dark Horse, comic books in general, the comic book industry, and the Buffy/Angel series and characters, along with certain factions of fandom...I'm thinking avoiding those comics is probably a good thing. Because, I've managed to become rather ambivalent now about all of the above. (ie. I don't care either way.) I have enough things that irritate me, why add another?
The only comics...that I considered looking into were the Marvel ones - where the original teen X-men time travel and get disillusioned by their adult selves. And Spiderman, where Doctor Octupus body-swaps with Peter Parker, and ends up taking over the title. Also Superman - where Superman and Wonder Woman become lovers. Which sort of makes sense since they are the male/female equivalent of each other. Wonder if Steve Reeves and Lois Lane hook up to commisserate? The other one that looked interesting was Brian K. Vaughn's Saga, except I don't like Vaughn any more than I like Alan Moore - both piss me off.
3. 30 Day TV Meme
Day 01 - A show that should never have been canceled
Oh, several, but the one whose cancellation is still making me wail at the injustice of it all is Farscape which unlike most tv series, actually had it's fifth season all blocked out ahead of time and was filming it back to back with it's fourth season.
I know, I know there are other candidates...such as Firefly - which was abbreviated in mid-play. They'd filmed 13 episodes and only showed about five or six before Fox yanked it. You had to get the DVD's to see the rest - that is until Syfy decided to run them. And the movie came out, resolving everything. But here's the difference between Firefly and Farscape - the writers of Farscape, as well as the cast, had those last two seasons plotted out, they were filming them back to back - episodes were written, they knew exactly what themes they were doing. Whedon didn't have Firefly that well planned out - he's not that type of writer. He had ideas, sure, but he kept changing them to fit the network's plan.
Farscape had more of a free reign...they had less network involvement at the time. It's also the difference between Farscape's cancellation and Angel, Dollhouse, Caprica, and Sarah Connor Chronicles...all the others didn't really know where they were headed and were, a bit messy in execution. Of the other's, I'd say Sarah Connor was probably the best plotted and planned out - I think that writer had a definite vision, but his ending worked for me and I didn't require more. Same deal with Angel - didn't need more after Not Fade Away - that was in some respects the best ending for that series, I think if it went on longer, Whedon would have ruined it in much the same way that Vince Gilligan is ruining Breaking Bad. Caprica was just a mess, and I was admittedly losing interest. Same deal with Dollhouse.
Of course mileage varies on this, doesn't it?
Farscape though...that had a planned story, which they had to edit and cram into a four hour movie. You could see - what it might have been, if they had gotten their fifth season.
Ironically, I wasn't watching Farscape when it was actually on TV. Caught up with it two years after it had been cancelled and was about to air the four hour conclusion of the story.
Yes, if someone where to hop into a time machine and make another season of any of the tv shows cancelled prior to their time and sell the DVDS - I'd buy the DVD's to Farscape first.
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season)
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever
Day 05 - A show you hate
Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death.
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Date: 2013-02-10 10:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-10 02:45 pm (UTC)That was the formula back then, arc, stand-alone, arc. Now those shows are basically pure arc, with stand-alone being flashbacks to the character's pasts - which in my opinion works a lot better. Less likely to run out of ideas.
BTVS and Angel had the same problems as did Firefly and Dollhouse, they were doing the stand-alone monster of the week/ arc formula. And that gets old from a writer stand-point fast.
Sarah Connor, Lost, Once Upon a Time - have the flashback/arc formula, which while more serial and far harder for new people to get into, is also more workable from a writer standpoint.
That said...I wanted those arc episodes. The stand-alones made up only four episodes of each season. I can ignore them. Which is actually the plus side of stand-a-lone's, you can ignore them. ;-)