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Feb. 19th, 2013
Thirty Days of TV: Day Eleven
Feb. 19th, 2013 08:12 pmDay 11 - A show that disappointed you
Well, it happens. It doesn't necessarily mean I quit watching - most shows have their ups and downs, and sometimes saying "oh, show, you used to be better than this" doesn't mean it can't be again; there were several shows in my fannish past which recovered from a low. Sometimes, though, my degree of fannish dissappointment gets to the degree where I have to stop watching because I get no more joy out of the show in question at all, and I never saw the point in staying around only to growl and annoy myself and others.
Which is why I'm a bit uncomfortable with the reply to this question. I mean, whichever of the few shows I stopped watching altogether I pick, the show used to mean something to me, and while at the point of quitting I may have been incensed enough to go on at length about why I'm stopping watching, temporal distance means I tend to remember more of the good than the bad (even though I won't go back).
However, to get on with the meme, I have to pick one, so: Carnivale. Which had a great first season. Incredibly atmospheric, a rich ensemble of characters and complicated relationships (this included same-sex relationsips as well as het ones, friendships and family relationships), lots of shades of grey, mystery, excellent actors. And....then there was season two. Some of the characters were still being written as layered. But so much suddenly became black and white, and with the loss of ambiguities came some not sense making retcon and eminent predictability. Clichés abounded. It was just terribly dissapointing, and when the news came it had been cancelled, I must admit I was sorry it hadn't happened after season 1, because the s1 finale would, if necessary, served as a show finale as well, and then I would only remember a show which was, like American Gothic, really well done, just short lived. It's been a few years now, and the fact I could read some of Daniel Knauf's (that was the show runner responsible for the s2 changes) Marvel comics with interest proved to me I was over my fannish angst and the grrr, argh stage. But I still wouldn't reccommend to anyone more than that first, great, great season.
( The rest of the days )
Well, it happens. It doesn't necessarily mean I quit watching - most shows have their ups and downs, and sometimes saying "oh, show, you used to be better than this" doesn't mean it can't be again; there were several shows in my fannish past which recovered from a low. Sometimes, though, my degree of fannish dissappointment gets to the degree where I have to stop watching because I get no more joy out of the show in question at all, and I never saw the point in staying around only to growl and annoy myself and others.
Which is why I'm a bit uncomfortable with the reply to this question. I mean, whichever of the few shows I stopped watching altogether I pick, the show used to mean something to me, and while at the point of quitting I may have been incensed enough to go on at length about why I'm stopping watching, temporal distance means I tend to remember more of the good than the bad (even though I won't go back).
However, to get on with the meme, I have to pick one, so: Carnivale. Which had a great first season. Incredibly atmospheric, a rich ensemble of characters and complicated relationships (this included same-sex relationsips as well as het ones, friendships and family relationships), lots of shades of grey, mystery, excellent actors. And....then there was season two. Some of the characters were still being written as layered. But so much suddenly became black and white, and with the loss of ambiguities came some not sense making retcon and eminent predictability. Clichés abounded. It was just terribly dissapointing, and when the news came it had been cancelled, I must admit I was sorry it hadn't happened after season 1, because the s1 finale would, if necessary, served as a show finale as well, and then I would only remember a show which was, like American Gothic, really well done, just short lived. It's been a few years now, and the fact I could read some of Daniel Knauf's (that was the show runner responsible for the s2 changes) Marvel comics with interest proved to me I was over my fannish angst and the grrr, argh stage. But I still wouldn't reccommend to anyone more than that first, great, great season.
( The rest of the days )
