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PISSED!
this is possibly the most politically subversive show to ever air on American tv.
Think about it: the Secretary of DEFENSE initiates a nuclear attack on 2 American cities and blames it on terrorists. Then, uses this event to engineer a fascist takeover of America.
Many of us believe a similar scenario occurred on 9?11/2001>
really sad to see it go
brm
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From the premiere I was a huge fan of "Revolution," or at least I was until a couple of months ago when I angrily removed it from my auto record on my DVR and only caught the last few minutes when I watched the program that followed it. It became tiresome and repetitious, factors that stopped me from watching "Vampire Diaries" and a few others. Hope that "Under The Dome" has more clever writers, because I'm not ready to give up on it too. As for "The Tomorrow People," that's another teetering on the edge!
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Posted: |
May 23, 2014 - 11:59 AM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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So I just saw the last episode of REVOLUTION, which ends on a pretty big cliffhanger.
A couple of weeks ago, NBC announced the cancellation of the series after only two seasons, so that's the end we're stuck with now -- a pretty big downer.
I liked that show. Damn.
This will teach you to never watch a television show with a continuing storyline. A show always has to end somewhere and that somewhere is usually at the discretion of the network or the sponsors or the ratings, and rarely ever the choice of the writers.
It is also possible that the key writers are simply drifting, and don't really have an overall plot plan other than keeping the show going as long as possible to keep the income coming in and feeding their families and paying the mortgage on the Brentwood mansion. It IS A BUSINESS after all.
I always thought it was pretty obvious within a few episodes of LOST, for example, that the writers were at the mercy of the network and the ratings when the episode storyline "padding" began and they began waffling in their comments on exactly what genre the show was, what it was about and how it would develop. Audiences followed them faithfully, had a great ride, but eventually---even after many long-drawn-out seasons, it careened off a cliff with them at the end. Of course, the audiences never really mattered. The writers and producers made pots full of money, the production team earned its weekly wage, the network made money, the sponsors sold their products, everyone won awards and acclaim.
In terms of creating a show with a continuing storyline, it seems to me the British have the best approach for the most part. They seem to have an overall outline for what they want to create---with a beginning, middle, and end---write out that story completely IN ADVANCE, knowing exactly where it is going and how it will develop, then come to a conclusion, in however many pages (or inches of script  ) it takes. That story is budgeted into costs and episodes, and the final show/story is complete in its creation. It can take 4 episodes to tell it, it can take 9 episodes to tell it, it can take 21 episodes to tell it, etc. Once the final overall script is broken into episodes---IN ADVANCE OF SHOOTING---everyone can go back and write a nice ending for each episode which will continue it to the next in a satisfactory or cliffhanger way.
This kind of process at least gives the writer a sense of completion---and the audience, in addition to the final ending---a satisfactory reward for the time he has spent viewing it. Even the makers of old movie serials understood this. The serials were usually broken into 10 to13 episodes, each episode had a cliffhanger ending, but the end of the serial actually HAD a wrapped-up plot ending. With the end of the 13th chapter of FLASH GORDON we were happy and then went on to the beginning of the first chapter of ZORRO'S FIGHTING LEGION!
Thor.....you once made a wonderful comment to me which I've never forgotten. I was complaining about some film or tv project and I said something to the effect that the work was very stylish in its execution but didn't have much coherent ongoing content---or a well-thought-out ending and was, thus, unsatisfactory to me. You said to me that I didn't get it! That today, "the style" IS the content.....and this, as much as anything, is what audiences respond to and get satisfaction from.....not well-worked-out stories. (I suppose all this has to do with today's pace of living and attention spans.) I didn't want to hear your comment then, but in watching today's entertainments, I think I understand what you were saying and pretty much agree with you.
I've never analyzed the best or most successful tv series of all time, but I'll bet that although nearly all of them had continuing characters and overall settings, they mostly also had individually-plotted single episodes that made them up. You can go back through everything, including BONANZA, TWILIGHT ZONE, GUNSMOKE, I LOVE LUCY, STAR TREK, PERRY MASON, THE GOLDEN GIRLS, MAGNUM P.I., HAWAII 5-0, etc, etc, etc.---watch the entire episode and have it completed before your very eyes in an hour or less.
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Joan: Re: I really resent certain shows being cancelled without some kind of wrap up or finale. This happens to loyal viewers too often.
I liked the first season of Revolution. This last season had too many filler episodes, but I faithfully watched, and now I'm furious that NBC didn't pull the cast together for some kind of closure.
Well, we can hope they'll have the sense to keep the cast and sets intact long enough for maybe a 2 hour special to do just that. And if they don't, they just don't care.
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Posted: |
May 23, 2014 - 1:27 PM
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By: |
Thor
(Member)
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I did hear about it two weeks ago, but I wanted to postpone my comments on it untill I had seen the last episode (which aired yesterday in the US, I think).
manderley, that's a great post. LOST, of course, is a scenario wherein the writers were allowed TOO long to keep it going, thus writing themselves into a corner -- and even if they had the chance for closure, the ending was unsatisfactory. So that's the opposite scenario based on the same 'business' model, in a way.
The 'style is content' comment was made more in relation to certain filmmakers, if memory serves, who are too easily brushed aside because their storytelling might not be particularly original or great, but where their STYLE is a statement on its own. Ridley Scott, Tim Burton, Michael Bay, Zack Snyder etc. I think in the case of tv series, there is a higher demand for continuity and overarching storylines these days, and less 'mystery of the week'-type shows. But sure -- there's also an element of 'style is content' here too. TRUE DETECTIVE, for example, which relies more on atmosphere than intrigue as such.
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Cindy Lover: Re: I wish they would pull the cast together to film a resolution, but I've not ever seen that happen.
Fans of I'll Fly Away and Veronica Mars beg to differ.
Ahhhh ... "I'll Fly Away." Haven't seen anyone mention that show in decades. Just loved it and not only taped it on VHS, but used to collect favorite audio snippets, which I transferred to cassette. Sort of like "To Kill A Mockingbird," and the writing and the acting were wonderful, especially Regina King and Sam Waterston. Got a little weird when one of the London twins (Jason) replaced his brother (Jeremy) in "I'll Fly Away: Then and Now," which wrapped it up, but it was clear it was a different person, so it just wasn't the same. Gone far too soon, and these days too many people have never even heard of it. If you loved "To Kill A Mockingbird," you probably would have loved "I'll Fly Away."
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