this is the spoilerest of spoliery spoilers, but I thought it really was that good of a book and recommend it anyway: Spoiler Feed, by Mira Grant (a.k.a. Seanan McGuire). it's sort of a "zombie apocalypse" book--except that it takes place after the "zombie apocalypse," and while the "apocalypse" was pretty awful, human society has recovered and is dealing with the new reality of the dead reanimating quite handily! it's actually more about political intrigue and journalism than it is about zombies. it's so good on so many levels, I just can't even.
What drives me nuts is when the bad guy has a gun on the 'hero' - MC or otherwise - and proceeds to TALK for crying out loud! I want to scream at the tv, "Come and just shoot him already! The longer you talk, you KNOW his reinforcements are on the way!!" I could even accept the MC not dying if the antagonist made a decent show of at least trying to kill him.
Totally sucks, eh. And they've been doing this, literally, for years. And, sadly, it seems the best ones (those that might expect a bit of thought process on the part of the viewer to fully appreciate them) are the quickest to bite the dust. No accounting for taste, I guess.
I had that reaction to the movie Saving Private Ryan. Even though it was a good film and well done, it kind of ruined it for me. Left a bad taste in my mouth. I still enjoy the movie but...
In some cases I get the feeling the antagonist is trying to savor the moment they are in control of the MC, it's their high so a delay in the action is sort of justified. In general I agree with the OP, also feel the deus ex machina concept is over used along with the delay in MC kill.
Why do they keep cancelling shows? And if the key issues isn't with the series but with the TV channel being stupid, is there no way of selling the show to another channel who would air it? I'd love to see Firefly come back.
I don't know. The fans were responsible for 'Serenity' being made, I think. It's weird that not one of three billion channels on cable didn't capitalise on the obvious fan base. Another thought that occurred to me is, maybe they were trying to produce cult shows. You know, how 'Faulty Towers' has only 12 episodes and such.
Yup the film was made cus of the fans. I find it strange too that nobody capitalised on the fan base. I kinda still wonder if one day it might come back, like the way I'm still waiting for a Friends movie! I don't even care if it's crap, I just wanna see one! Is that why Fawlty only had 2 seasons? I always thought it strange it was so short!!
I think 'Fawlty Towers' was one of those pure distilled comedies that come as a burst of mania (John Cleese has had bipolar illness for years and after the Python's his creativity came mainly in short bursts) and it couldn't be sustained for mush longer than it was, not if they wanted John Cleese to keep writing it. Most comedy genius comes in limited supply, Absolutely Fabulous is another one of 'it was great while it lasted' shows, that ended up having an extra season due to fan pressure, and the last season couldn't stand up to the rest at all. But 'Firefly' didn't strike me as having reached it's full potential at all, if anything, it needed another season or two to get there, but it had great potential. Maybe they just want to mess with is because they can, I wouldn't put it past Fox execs...
@Mckk : I saw 'Serenity', it was good! I wasn't too keen on the Star Wars re-enactment towards the end, but overall it was well done. I really wish it continued, such a pity that was it for the show
I really got into 'Almost Human', I was most upset when they cancelled it. The same goes for 'The Tomorrow People' which, although it had started to bore me just a tiny bit, I really needed to see another series to tie up all the lose ends. Did you watch 'Intelligence' too? There was another promising show that got canned after the first series. At the moment, I am waiting with bated breath for series three of 'Arrow' and yes, I'm looking forward to 'The Flash' too. Back to the OP (apologies for hijacking the thread for a moment there) I absolutely agree with you unless you are talking about superhero characters, in that case, anything goes but what does annoy me is when the bad guys fire off a full clip of ammunition always missing the MC but the MC will have two bullets left and still manage to kill all three bad guys. And the swat guys always shoot to kill instead of shoot to stop. I mean, what if they actually have the wrong person? which has happened in some shows that has invariably left me crying in my coffee!
@cutecat22 : I love 'Arrow', I hope it'll stay. I haven't watched either, but I remember there was a show years ago about marine biologists and aliens surfacing from the ocean, I was totally into it and then zap, stopped mid season just like that. Appalling. I don't know if Fox did it or someone else, though, can't even remember the channel or the name of the show.
Was that the one with Roy (from Jaws) Shiender (sp) in it and the dolphin that could talk? or am I completely on the wrong track there? Arrow - one of the only shows that makes me shout at the TV! (and there's only four/five degrees of separation between me and Mr Amell )
I can't remember the dolphin, but I found it easily enough, it was called 'Surface'. And it seems they released the complete series on DVD (off to Amazon )
I watched it on holiday, so my standards might have slipped, but I remember really loving it at the time
Star Wars re-enactment? Not that familiar with Star Wars so I have no clue what the parallels are. The reavers were scary as heck, weren't they? And I loved the hologram - it was chilling. Why do producers keep selling their series to Fox with its track record of axing every last show? Like, I'd run a mile. There are millions of other channels you could sell to!
@Mckk : The ending, when Castle (I can't get away from that role for Nathan Fillion aka Mel here) is fighting with the bad guy in the console room, they did a total homage to Luke Skywalker/Darth Veda fight, even got the baddie to do the right thing in the end. It was cute but a tad rolleyes Reavers were spooky, and I loved what River did, although she could've done that before her brother was shot (another lame plot device I nearly forgot. about). As for why they keep selling it, I suspect money is the answer. And as for why Fox keeps buying shows only so they can kill them,..well, it's Fox. As evil as Rupert Murdoch that owns it. That or Fox is a black hole of television. Either or
That's actually happened a few times through the years. Channel switching doesn't happen much, though. And, oh yeh. I wouldn't object to Firefly making a return, myself. And... Nothing Sacred? Oooh! The Catholic Church was offended and encouraged everyone to boycott the show's primary sponsor, K-Mart. (How dare they discuss topics like abortion and teenaged pregnancy and homosexuality and - oh no! - people LIVING TOGETHER without being married?!!!) So that one got pulled, regardless of viewer numbers. No sponsor, no show. Of course the bottom line is... if enough people watch, the sponsors will support it. And, what too many people watch are the shows that require the most modest of brain cells. *sigh*
