fling93 loves fishies

TV News Good and Bad, but Creative Power Is Slowly Shifting

Got some good news, and some bad news. Well, let me start with the good news (since the bad news flows better into my main point). Remember, the re-imaging of Battlestar Galactica “mini-series” by Ronald Moore? Well if not, you can read my review to jog your memory.

As you might have guessed, this being the good news, Slashdot reports that the new series has been greenlighted (greenlit?) by the Sci-Fi Channel. Ronald Moore talks a little more on his plans for the show here and here (although spoilers from the “mini-series” are revealed in that second link). Sounds promising, especially if the series is as good as the “mini-series” (come on, it was really a two-hour pilot of a show they weren’t sure they were going to make). We’ll see.

And as for the bad news, it’s really bad. Via Whedonesque, Variety reports that the WB will not renew Angel for a sixth season. WB’s official press release is here. How’s that for a Valentine’s Day present? Well, I was wondering why the 100th episode (with Cordelia) was so crappy. This was clearly a storyline that was intended to take a while to develop, and then the writers were suddenly scrambling to tie up loose ends (much like X-Files and Babylon 5 had to do).

So, what to do now? As always, there’s petitions you can sign, but they tend to have mixed results. The reality is that there’s not a whole lot of options, but I think that developments are slowly percolating to change the nature of all media, which I’ll get to again later.

First off, I won’t watch the WB anymore, but Angel was already the only show on the network I was watching, so they’re hardly going to miss me. And boycotting a network isn’t really fair to any new, quality shows that make it onto the network. It just wouldn’t be fair to Ronald Moore for me to boycott the Sci-Fi channel over their Farscape cancellation.

There just really isn’t much a viewer can do but vote with their feet… er… eyeballs. Watch only quality stuff and recommend it to all your friends. Don’t watch the crappy stuff (like all those stupid reality television shows) and spend time doing more productive things, like learning and creating. And again, encourage your friends to do the same. And, as I mentioned briefly in an earlier post, don’t ever watch television for news. It’s much easier to be manipulated, and television is a really bad format for news anyway, as I mentioned.

For what it’s worth, I don’t spend as nearly as much time watching television as I used to several years ago (not so coincidentally, I’m also a much more informed citizen now). The only ones I watch religiously are Six Feet Under, Sopranos, Carnivale, and — mostly because my wife hosts a weekly party around this (and not because of Mia Kirshner’s boobies) — The L Word. And I’m getting ready to bail on Sopranos. Interestingly enough, they’re all on HBO or Showtime: networks that rely on subscriptions, not commercials, and thus aren’t so sensitive to the actual number of eyeballs watching at a particular time (and which makes for a much more enjoyable experience anyway — even with a TiVo, I can’t avoid those exasperating animated “banner” ads at the bottom). And maybe that’s going to be the way it is in the near future. You’ll have to pay for quality.

But maybe there’s another way out, albeit further out in the future. At first, a lot of people thought the Internet was going to have to charge for all the quality content, but with the rise of blogging, there’s actually tons and tons of quality available for free (and I’d like to think that you’re experiencing some of it right now — of course, I also like to think that Winona Ryder was framed by the establishment trying to keep down the rich, white, waifish actresses). Others have talked the topic to death already (and I have a good link at the bottom), so I’ll move on.

It also used to be that good movies were as hard to find as good television, but instead, it seems to me that independent film is thriving now, more than ever. Of course, Hollywood is still churning out crap (remember, Lord of the Rings was not made in Hollywood), and the reason is because movies cost a lot of money (just watch any of those shows about movie special effects. The amount of money and effort that go into the smallest detail are staggering — and depressing). Big money that the studios are risking. People and companies with a lot of money are generally risk-averse. Of course, they don’t just put all their money into bonds because they’re also averse to the risk of inflation. Thus, they want high, but steady and reliable returns. Willing to go for the solid singles and doubles rather than swing for the fences. Thus, the glut of sequels and big-name vehicles and television adaptations and formulaic action movies and romantic comedies.

Yet, it’s still possible to watch a ton of quality movies (see my list here). Why is this? I think it’s because the cost of film-making over the years has declined with the advent of cheaper cameras and digital effects and editing. This means independent studios don’t need as much money to bankroll an independent film, meaning more of them get made, and the larger the pool, the better the cream of the crop, to mix a metaphor (sheesh, so much for my quality blogging!). In economic terms, the barrier to entry into the filmmaking market has lowered.

I believe we’ll be seeing this in the music business soon, if we haven’t already. The costs to produce an album have also greatly fallen. Unlike movies, the bulk of the costs were never in the music creation itself, but in the recording and the distribution. CD-burners now come standard on most computers (even laptops), and the Internet is quickly becoming the place to get your music anyway. Booking time at a recording studio still costs a bundle, but home studios are easier than ever to create. I’ve already told you about GarageBand, and in fact, I’ll probably complete my setup by picking up a microphone and a USB/audio interface this weekend (and having done some research, I can tell you that quality microphones are actually pretty darn cheap). Of course, what we still lack is a way to find quality, but that’s just a matter of time. For films, I’ve found IMDb ratings to be an excellent indicator. Most GarageBand sites, like MacJams, have similar rating systems already (although my song isn’t doing so well, which I should’ve expected from an exercise).

For another angle on the topic, you can check out Tom Coates’s excellent essay. Of course, what he calls “mass amateurisation”, I would say is actually “power to the people”. That is to say, creative decisions once made by suits without one iota of creativity (but who had the money to fund the starving artists) are now being made more and more by the market. It’ll take a while for the market to figure out how to separate the wheat from the chaff (because there’s also much more chaff than there used to be), but ultimately, I think it’ll be a much better end result than having the suits pre-filter everything.

Of course, for this to apply to television, the big cost is distribution, and video streaming over the Internet still isn’t a reality for the masses, so we’ve still a ways to go. But don’t despair, Angel and Firefly fans, I think it’ll happen in Joss Whedon’s lifetime.

Update 2/17/04

In case you haven’t seen it, Joss Whedon commented on the cancellation on the Bronze Beta message board. The text of it is reproduced here, and it’s well worth reading. Also, the petition to save Angel has over 30,000 signatures so far.

Aw heck, lemme reproduce Joss’s whole letter right here:

Some of you may have heard the hilarious news. I thought this would be a good time to weigh in. to answer some obvious questions:

No, we had no idea this was coming.

Yes, we will finish out the season.

No, I don’t think the WB is doing the right thing.

Yes, I’m grateful they did it early enough for my people to find other jobs.

Yes, my heart is breaking.

When Buffy ended, I was tapped out and ready to send it off. When Firefly got the axe, I went into a state of denial so huge it may very well cause a movie. But Angel… we really were starting to feel like we were on top, hitting our stride — and then we strode right into the Pit of Snakes ‘n’ Lava. I’m so into these characters, these actors, the situations we’re building… you wanna know how I feel? Watch the first act of [Buffy episode] “The Body.”

As far as TV movies or whatever, I’m not thinking that far ahead. I actually hope my actors and writers are all too busy. We always planned this season finale to be a great capper to the season and the show in general. (And a great platform for a new season, of course.) We’ll proceed ahead as planned.

I’ve never made mainstream TV very well. I like surprises, and TV isn’t about surprises, unless the surprise is who gets voted off of something. I’ve been lucky to sneak this strange, strange show over the airwaves for as long as I have. I don’t FEEL lucky, but I understand that I am.

Thanks all for your support, your community, and your perfectly sane devotion. It’s meant a lot. I regret nothing (except the string of grisly murders in the ’80s – what was THAT all about?) Remember the words of the poet:

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the road less traveled by and they CANCELLED MY FRIKKIN’ SHOW. I totally shoulda took the road that had all those people on it. Damn.”

See you soon.

Update 3/20/04

In case anybody was wondering, yes I did buy myself the Tascam US-122 and a Shure SM-57 dynamic microphone. You can read about it (and yes, listen to a sample of my awesomely wonderful singing voice) over here.

And here’s my view of exactly how television will change. And it seems that the technological changes are already in motion.