Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts

I haven't had a really good rant in a while, and I figured I'm due.
What is the problem with the networks? Can they not go more than 11 minutes without a commercial? I can't watch a movie that isn't dvr'd or on demand because I'm just fed up with commercials. I don't want to buy a new car or get a payday cash advance. I don't need to call the General for car insurance and I don't need to wear my pajamas while going to college from home. I'm not against advertisement completely (just most of it). Tastefully done and in moderation it's an absolute necessity to the networks and I understand that they have to make their money too.

So here's my biggest problem with commercials....If they are going to interuupt programming for these so regularly how about if they play the shows I want them to at least??? DO YOU HEAR ME SYFY????? I'm sick of your crap shows and then following them with a commercial every 7-11 minutes. The only plus is that I'm not into the show, so it's not taking away that much. I'm one of those dummies that keeps thinking that if I only watch for a few more minutes the show will get better. Like the guy is going to magically learn how to act about 45 minutes into the program. Or the graphics will suddenly change to something bordering on good.

I've decided that from now on, maybe the best idea is netflix and on demand. I can watch sliders all I want (first 3 seasons only). Stargate and Enterprise...The only time I look forward to the commercials are in early Feb. let's say around the 7th when the Super Bowl is on. They have the best commercials in the states. Other than that, when I need pimple cream (don't have pimples) or a new tube of toothpaste, or a 12 pack of beer I'll just run to the store. I don't need the constant irritating reminder from some guy or gal on the idiot box. The fact that I'm spending that much time in front of the dang thing should be proof enough that my brain cells aren't exactly firing on all cylinders.

This brings me to my question ( I seem to have lots of them lately)...What's the lamest commercial you have seen lately? I'm sure you guys will have something good for me.

Oh yeah I do like the real men of genius commercials on the radio :)

I'm sure I've mentioned this a few hundred times... I'm a huge Louis L'Amour fan. I have read everything he's written (even the short stories and poems). I read and reread his books and they never seem to get old for me.

Lately I have found that TV is becoming more and more irritating. The shows they have come up with nowadays are completely pathetic for the most part in my opinion. Even the brainless ESPN has become boring for the most part. I really don't care much about the opinions of some washed up athlete that was only mediocre as a player. Then they want to pay him some ginormous amount of money for his opinion. If he was that damn good he would be an assistant coach for a team instead of an opinionated dumb ass for the network (they tend to rile me).

With that said I have been rereading a few L'Amour books as of late. The problem I'm finding is that I can't put the dang book down. I read for 4-6 hours on the weekends at a sitting. At night before I go to sleep I make sure that I give my self a minimum of 45 minutes to read. I don't know if that's an illness, but I just can't seem to get the same excitement from a movie as I can from a good book.

So what do you think? I know some of you are avid fans of some of the TV programming on right now. Are the shows better than the books? Does the movie do justice for the book it is based on? I tend to think no for the most part, especially lately. I will have to admit that I went and saw Avatar and that is one of the few movies I've seen in recent years where the imagination of the Producer/Director/Writer is on par with mine.

So if you are a TV person instead of a writer what are the shows I should be checking out? If you are a book person instead of a TV person what are some new authors to try. I like anything well written. Westerns are just a favorite because L'Amour is so good at what he does. Clancy, Cussler, Koontz, and Griffin are a few of my other reads.

I started watching Stargate Universe when it came out. I was a little less than excited after the pilot. It seemed like maybe they were just setting up the show though, so I figured a lot of the emotions and personalities are essential to give everybody a good idea as to how things will play out.

Well here we are a month in and it's all just a big drama with a spaceship. The only thing science fiction about this show is that it's set in space on an alien spacecraft. The technology is advanced, but the emotional plots are stale. If I wanted drama only, then I would watch lifetime or one of the CSI shows. I like the whole spaceship, shoot em up lasers, photons, aliens, and far away planets that come with a lot of the science fiction of the past, which would explain why I became a fan.

I am all for deep plots, and looking inside the head of the characters, and really getting to know them, but would it kill SyFy channel to put a couple of laser blasts or maybe an alien encounter along the way? It gets harder and harder to remain a true sci-fi fan, when there is so little in the way of true (my version of true) sci-fi left to watch.

Eureka is very cool, and it defintely fits the parameters of sci-fi to me. What else is there on sci-fi that offers true science fiction? I find myself turning more and more to the written word for my science fiction needs. I even jumped into some older sci-fi recently. Rereading Foundation, as well as The Mote in God's Eye. That in my opinion is true Science Fiction worthy of reading and rereading. I can't figure out why somebody hasn't gotten the grand idea of making a movie of Mote.

Anybody else a sci-fi fan that isn't getting what they want from the programming or is it just me? I find it hard to believe that I'm the only one that noticed a shift in the type of stuff we are being presented with. I even read a ramble (blog) from some sexist dude, talking about how females are taking over syfy and changing it. I don't think this is a male/female thing, as much as it's a failed attempt to restructure what science fiction is.

Anyway, I guess for now I should be happy with netflix and my 3 seasons of sliders. Where o Where did those shows go???

I am what some might call a Sci-Fi buff. Green Lantern is my favorite comic book hero. I watched Buck Rogers in the 25Th century. I loved the movie Soylent Green, and Logan's Run (the original). Star Wars? You bet.... Battlestar Gallactica, I love em all (even some of the poorly made ones).

When cable took the Sci-Fi channel some years back I was completely stoked. I got to watch some of the cheesiest (is that a word) Sci-Fi films ever, and also some of the best ever. They had some great new series come on. In fact my favorite show on TV for about 3 years was Sliders. They sorta wrecked it when they switched out the original cast. All in all they put on some good stuff for us closet Sci-Fi nerds.

Imagine my disgust when they started putting all these ghost hunter crap shows on the channel. I'm sorry, but I don't consider ghosts Science Fiction but more on the lines of Fantasy. Then of course they started with all the Fantasy adventure movies. Again, I love a good Fantasy adventure (book, movie, or TV series). I just happen to think that a channel called Sci-Fi isn't the proper avenue for it. Then the kicker....Professional Wrestling..REALLY?????

They managed to throw on some good series in the middle of it all ....Stargate is an awesome series, and I enjoyed Stargate Atlantis, and even now I'm getting into Stargate Universe. Then of course there is Enterprise and Warehouse 13, oh and don't forget Eureka. All in all if you are into those types of shows this is good stuff.

Then they got this great idea to change the name of the channel to SyFy...What the heck is that about? What is the point of getting cutesy(real word?) and renaming the channel. First of all they just confuse those of us that are getting a bit slow of mind. It screwed up my TV guide listing, cause sometimes it lists the old name sometimes the new (it's fixed now).

And now it it overrun with Ghost Hunter/Ghost Tracker shows. WTF???? Give me back my good ol' fashioned cheaply made B movies. I like Tremors and Killer Ants and all those crap 70's films that were made with paper plate flying saucers and model towns being flooded by a pitcher full of water (you could see the pitcher in the top corner of the shot on a couple of those movies).

Maybe that's why I have turned back to books so strongly. If they don't fix all this deception pretty quickly, I'll be reading 4 hours a day and I'll be forced to buy new books weekly, and I just can't afford that right now. So SyFy or Sci-Fi or however you are spelling your name now...FIX YOUR PROGRAMMING!!!!!

I guess I have whined enough for one evening. Fortunately Stargate Atlantis is on at this late hour so I'm temporarily appeased. If it turns into a rerun I can always go back to my latest read Devices and Desires by K.J. Parker. Really interesting read so far :)