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So long, Nicky
Oct. 1st, 2007 05:13 pmOne of the things I've done with my flist on this journal is try to surround myself with positive energy. I find a lot of negativity and snark to be incredibly draining. Now, I can be as sarcastic as the next person—probably moreso—and bitchiness can absolutely be funny, but I think I've just drifted out of wanting to be around that sort of attitude all the time. In addition, I don't much like being around naysaying—like, if you're into something that I'm not, I'm not sure why that's a bad thing. I really like watching people getting really excited about new things; it's fun, because it's such a positive energy to be around all that WHEE! (I'll admit, though, when people have really short attention spans I get a little motion sick; I have a really long attention span which I don't think is very fannish of me.) And when someone says, "Alas, for this thing does not have my love anymore, as it once did" I can relate in a way that I can't to "I'm so over that" or "that was so last Tuesday." I was reminded of this in an offline way this week, where someone was talking down about something. I don't know, I'm not perfect but I try not to do that because I'd rather use my energy to be positive. I don't always succeed, but that's my goal.
One of the things I've been talking about recently is my need for good endings. I've pretty much washed out of current fiction series television because I hate it when things go pear shaped (see above about long attention spans). So the rest of this is Alas, for this thing does not have my love anymore, "this thing" being ( CSI ).
It's odd because I've always been a big television watcher, and I've been wondering where my trust in the writers had gone. Certainly it's been trampled on by Veronica Mars, by Studio 60, by the middle stretch of Six Feet Under, heck by Harry Potter. But I think it's more that I am being asked to have so much more trust in writers that aren't that interested in maintaining it. I know I've been talking about this rather endlessly, my decision not to pick up any new shows this fall, but I can't say enough how really odd this is. It was why advertising was such a good fit for me for so many years. I'm really resistant to the idea that fanfic has "ruined" television for me; rather, it's made me see what I like in narrative and what I don't.
I'm not sure that the days before Hill Street Blues, when all shows were episodic, returning to a "zero state" at the end of the episode, were all that bad given that American television writers don't seem to know how to write a proper arc, be it overall plot or individual characters. Perhaps it's this change in series television that has me so unfulfilled, so dismayed, so disappointed. The "teasing" of the viewers is just silly, like the little House/Wilson moments in a show that is never going to end with House and Wilson wandering off into the sunset.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ali_wildgoose said recently that tv writers should never give interviews and that's probably true because they appear to get bored with their own arcs and want to do something different just to "surprise" the viewers. But that leads to unsatisfying endings and grouchy viewers. The pleasure, for me, of watching a film or reading a book or watching a really good television show is feeling that satisfaction with the ending, be it happy or tragic or someplace in between.
And at least there's always Idol in January!
One of the things I've been talking about recently is my need for good endings. I've pretty much washed out of current fiction series television because I hate it when things go pear shaped (see above about long attention spans). So the rest of this is Alas, for this thing does not have my love anymore, "this thing" being ( CSI ).
It's odd because I've always been a big television watcher, and I've been wondering where my trust in the writers had gone. Certainly it's been trampled on by Veronica Mars, by Studio 60, by the middle stretch of Six Feet Under, heck by Harry Potter. But I think it's more that I am being asked to have so much more trust in writers that aren't that interested in maintaining it. I know I've been talking about this rather endlessly, my decision not to pick up any new shows this fall, but I can't say enough how really odd this is. It was why advertising was such a good fit for me for so many years. I'm really resistant to the idea that fanfic has "ruined" television for me; rather, it's made me see what I like in narrative and what I don't.
I'm not sure that the days before Hill Street Blues, when all shows were episodic, returning to a "zero state" at the end of the episode, were all that bad given that American television writers don't seem to know how to write a proper arc, be it overall plot or individual characters. Perhaps it's this change in series television that has me so unfulfilled, so dismayed, so disappointed. The "teasing" of the viewers is just silly, like the little House/Wilson moments in a show that is never going to end with House and Wilson wandering off into the sunset.
ali_wildgoose said recently that tv writers should never give interviews and that's probably true because they appear to get bored with their own arcs and want to do something different just to "surprise" the viewers. But that leads to unsatisfying endings and grouchy viewers. The pleasure, for me, of watching a film or reading a book or watching a really good television show is feeling that satisfaction with the ending, be it happy or tragic or someplace in between.And at least there's always Idol in January!
