Another zinger from Lisa

[viktor_haag]

Another great column from Lisa de Moraes skewers Fox' new, much-hyped drama, "Fringe". I'm rather glad I did not see this thing, now that I read her column. She gets right to the carving in her first couple paragraphs:

Fox noted it was the network's most watched drama premiere in two years, if you exclude most of its drama premieres of the past two years. Actually, what Fox said was that "Fringe" was its highest-rated drama series debut in two years "excluding premieres following sports and 'American Idol.' "

Since September 2006, all but three Fox dramas ("K-Ville," "Canterbury's Law" and "Drive") have launched after a sports telecast or "Idol."

Snap.

Comments

[alasdair1076.livejournal.com]

See, the thing is, it's actually pretty fun. The three leads are all strong and it feels very together as a concept and a series by the end of the pilot. Whether it can cater to the mainstream enough to attract viewers and at the same time not alienate the science people remains to be seen but I really enjoyed it.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

It alienated one of my friends who I would feel fairly safe in categorizing as "a science people". He said he watched it for a bit, started counting inaccurate bits, and then just got bored. I haven't seen it yet, myself, as these days I tend to wait for DVD. I'll probably rent the first season (or first disc thereof) to check it out when the DVD bows, but not sure I'll go deeper than that.

[thebitterguy]

Did your friend know what the title of the show was? Or, then, what it referred to?

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Dunno; his comments seemed to indicate that he had some marginal awareness of what the show was supposed to be about; but his commentary wasn't voluminous, so it's hard to be more detailed than what I've already been...

[thebitterguy]

Because the show's title, "Fringe", comes from "Fringe science". Which means it'll be more fantasy than anything else.

Seriously, I expect Von Daniken references by episode 4.

Nitpicking science innacuracies on such a show... It involves missing the point on an interesting level.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if the person in question knew this and was just expressing a minor kvetch, or whether he didn't get the point of the show. I must admit, I've seen a bit of the press campaign for the show (tv spots, nothing more, really), and I didn't get that message from the marketing I've seen...

[thebitterguy]

I can't speak to what their thought processes were, but to me it seemed pretty straight it would be an X-Files type crypto fest pretty quick.

I'm not in love with the characters (I wanna punch Pacey in his smug little face SO HARD!) but the concepts seem like it'll fill a void in my tv watching world until January.

[waiwode.livejournal.com]

I dislike ratings, as a whole, although I understand the importance of ratings in driving the industry of TV.

But an article critical of a show because of bad ratings? Many of my favourite bands have never earned a platinum record, and many of the artists I like least have. Ratings alone form the basis of the most hollow of critiques. I wish she had in some way addressed the show itself.

Doug.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

I take your point; de Moraes is often not that type of reviewer: she focusses quite often on the "industry of TV" as you put it, and not at the content of the show. She constantly reports on ratings and the business machinations of the networks.

To a certain extent one can be critical of a show because of bad ratings because, to a certain extent, that's a concrete measure of the shows success as a product (although not, perhaps, as a work of art).

But mostly I just like the way de Moraes writes... 8)

[thebitterguy]

I don't think she's any kind of reviewer, really. She seems to bedoing fairly straight reportage while playing clever bugger with stats and facts.

I think John Wick would fall in love with her.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

She does, from to time make commentary on actual content, but mostly she just talks about numbers and industry reportage.

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping for a Wire crossover.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Bwahahaha! You'd enjoy being in my Dresden Files playtest group then: we're pretty much Dresdenifying "The Wire" or "Homicide" and setting it in Toronto... 8)

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

Haha nice...