Between all the crap going on with Community and the fact that almost every new show I started watching this year has been cancelled (i think New Girl is the only one that survived), I can’t get myself excited about next years fall lineup. So far, the one show I’m interested in, Revolution, looks destined to be a one season kind of show. It seems the best new way to watch tv is to wait until a show has a couple seasons under it’s belt, isn’t in danger of being cancelled, and then catch up on the internet.
Anyone else feeling the same?
That’s what TV Tropes calls the Firefly effect. Basically everyone becomes afraid of becoming attached to a show that they don’t think will survive that they ignore it and instead focus on watching established shows and things they like but don’t particularly care about (e.g. the latest sitcom or police procedural). The result? All of the interesting and unique shows are ignored and die while standard stuff continues to remain popular. I have the same feelings as you, but I encourage anyone interested in a property to support it as much as possible, regardless as to whether or not they think it’ll stick around. Otherwise you simply encourage the TV producers to keep churning out the same stuff and ignore everything else.
My reaction is that it’s very rare to see a description of a new show that sounds like anything I want to watch.
Ever since **The X-Files **lost it’s way, I’ve been scared to invest in new shows. My brother wanted to get me into LOST, but I refused, and I’m glad I did. I’m still devoted to The Office, but I know and understand why others have stopped watching… I was prepared for it’s decline.
Poor Community. I hope it maintains it’s greatness more than I hope it gets more seasons. That way, it will leave me satisfied like **Arrested Development **did.
I really don’t understand the idea of being “afraid of becoming attached to a show.”
What’s the big fucking deal? It’s a TV show. If it looks interesting, then try it out. If you don’t like it, then stop watching. If you like it, then watch it until you don’t like it anymore, or until it ceases production.
I watched ER until just after Anthony Edwards’ character died and the show started getting ridiculous.
I watched The Office until my annoyance at Steve Carrell outweighed the enjoyment i got from the rest of the show.
I watched Law and Order until Jesse Martin’s character left and i just couldn’t stay interested in the stories and cases anymore.
I watched Weeds until they got to New York (although i should have given up a season earlier).
In all cases, i got entertainment for the period of my commitment to the show, and then moved on when they were no longer worth it. It’s not like there’s nothing else to move on to; there have been some incredible TV shows over the past decade or so, and i’m sure there will be more.
I understand that it’s disappointing when a show you like gets canceled, but it’s a TV show. Be happy with the entertainment you got out of it, and move on.
If this past year is anything to go by, I’m braced to watch at least part of an episode of the new shows as they appear and to make no commitment to any of them. They have to shine before I’ll try episode #2. I bailed on every new show this past season before three weeks, and don’t regret a one of them.
The toying with the audience that the Big Four (yes, I include Fox now) execs feel obligated to do has pissed me off too much. Even the cable networks are beginning to throw trash at you and with the monumental fuckup that was The Killing I don’t even trust them anymore. And HBO and Showtime are way less impressive than they were 5-10 years ago.
But I’ll still give them a whirl until they convince me they’re worthless.
This, for me, is a far bigger concern than having a good show canceled.
Most of the stuff the networks put out is unmitigated fucking drivel, and i often regret the time that i spend checking out the first episode or two, only to discover how awful it is. I can count on one hand the number of Big 4 network shows that we watch on any sort of a regular basis: 30 Rock, Modern Family,…
Actually, it seems that i can count them on two thumbs.
We started watching Community back in Season 1, but only lasted two episodes. I’ve had a few friends, whose judgment i trust, tell me that we need to give it another try, so maybe we will. I’ve also heard some good things about Parks and Recreation, which is another one we dropped after one or two episodes.
It’s because, for most shows, the entertainment value does not exceed the disappointment value of cancellation. Especially since you can lower that last value by waiting.
Also, a lot of the pleasure of an arc-basd show is in knowing it will eentually end. Quitting early has an even higher disappointment cost–again, one that can be reduced by waiting.
So even if you do watch the show, you can’t get very invested, as that also raises the disappointment cost. You sound less invested than I normally prefer to be in my fiction. I can’t really enjoy myself unless I feel like I’m there. Comedies are the exception, and that’s why I generaly prefer them.
Up until Community, I hadn’t let myself get emotionally attached to a TV show since Homefront, which was abruptly cancelled in 1993. After having my affections for Community so abused, I’m just giving up on TV and reading more.
My sentiments exactly.
It’s all shit and the one thing that didn’t sound like shit to me, Breaking Bad, turns out to be pretty damn amazing.
Many of the new hour-long drama series seem to emulate Lost’s serialized approach, with a big overarching storyline. Now, I enjoyed Lost (even if the final resolution was somewhat disappointing, the journey was fun) but I don’t want to have to wait several years for another such series to resolve the big mystery (assuming that the show isn’t cancelled before it is). So I prefer shows like Law & Order, where each episode is freestanding. I wouldn’t mind a serial drama, if it was planned from the beginning to resolve the overall story on a fixed schedule.
So I stopped watching a couple of new series (Awake, The Event, etc.) when it became obvious that they were going to drag out the storyline.
I’m planning on going on an NBC hunger strike, as it were, once Parks and Rec and 30 Rock end their final seasons. The Thursday night lineup of Community/Parks and Rec, 30 Rock, The Office, and Up All Night was really good and fuck them for getting rid of it.
These sentences don’t really compute for me.
I get incredibly involved in some of my shows. I have watched every episode of a whole bunch of recent high-quality television. My favorite shows include The Wire, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and Six Feet Under: all of which are shows that require the viewer’s attention and reward sustained and intensive rather than episodic and casual viewing. I do, in fact “feel like i’m there” when watching shows like this, and i really enjoy the experience.
I also understand, however, that they are just TV shows. Life goes on without them. To the extent that i feel disappointment when they end, it’s a disappointment that has some perspective, that understands that i was not, in fact, involved in the story, and that the end of a TV show won’t change my life in any appreciable way.
For example, i’m really looking forward to the new season of Breaking Bad, and i’m sure it will be a lot of fun. If, however, a news story came out tomorrow saying that they had decided to cancel the series for some reason, i would say, “Well, fuck, that sucks. There goes my Sunday evening pleasure for 13 weeks.” And then i would move on. My disappointment would not negate all the pleasure i got from the show over the past few years.
I guess it’s just not clear to me what “disappointment” means to you, in the context of canceled television shows. If it means a whole lot more than what i’ve just described, then i’m afraid i can’t really empathize. It’s TV. Get some perspective.
The OP mentioned “New Girl”, and its scheduling is a perfect example of why it’s hard to get into new shows. This season it’s run for a few weeks, preempted for a few, run twice for a week or two, and then dropped again. Plus the episodes were clearly run out of order, which is really frustrating since the show got a lot better as the season went on. I was willing to do this because the show was good, but a lot of times I stop following shows simply because I don’t know when they get shown.
Quality of the shows aside (despite the fact that i quite like Zooey Deschanel, you couldn’t make me watch New Girl if you tied me down), i agree with this, too, and it’s a reason i often avoid network television. I’m not interested in playing their games, whereby they leave big gaps in the season so they can be sure to have episodes for “sweeps” months or whatever.
A couple of years back, i watched the first four episodes of the science-fiction series V. It wasn’t the greatest thing ever on TV, but i like sci-fi and was willing to stick with it. But the network then put it on hiatus for five fucking months after those first four episodes. I’m not interested in rewarding that sort of thing with my viewing time, so i dropped it.
You wouldn’t be pissed if someone took away a book you were interested in before you were finished? how is it any different? Most shows nowadays have overarching plots that are meant to be followed through many seasons, when they keep getting canceled after you become interested in the story it makes you reticent to get into a new one.