Dealing with it
May. 19th, 2009 09:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kilroySo, I made an offhand comment to Brian the other day to the effect of "I'm learning to hate television as a medium." Today I read Josh Friedman's blog sendoff, where he says "Good shows are cancelled every year," and my brain just looped back into it again.
I love television shows. I love the fact that they can take their time with character development, that they can build tension over entire seasons, that they tend to focus on people rather than action, that they can have big ensemble casts and get away with it. I love the fact that they can vary their tone without breaking immersion, and that you can have many writers or actors or directors or cinematographers-- each of whom brings something fresh to the table. I get in deep with television shows in a way that I don't really do with movies or books.
And yet that same thing--the length and breadth of television stories--means that out of all the media I love, they are the most likely to be left incomplete. Shows that actually finish their story are rare and precious-- shows that finish their story right are like the holy grail. But there's no way to know at the beginning who's going to make it and who's not, and that means that half the time you fall in love with something that'll break your heart.
I'm tired of having my heart broken. It's going to start coloring my enjoyment of new shows soon, and I don't want that... but I'm not sure what I can do about it.
I love television shows. I love the fact that they can take their time with character development, that they can build tension over entire seasons, that they tend to focus on people rather than action, that they can have big ensemble casts and get away with it. I love the fact that they can vary their tone without breaking immersion, and that you can have many writers or actors or directors or cinematographers-- each of whom brings something fresh to the table. I get in deep with television shows in a way that I don't really do with movies or books.
And yet that same thing--the length and breadth of television stories--means that out of all the media I love, they are the most likely to be left incomplete. Shows that actually finish their story are rare and precious-- shows that finish their story right are like the holy grail. But there's no way to know at the beginning who's going to make it and who's not, and that means that half the time you fall in love with something that'll break your heart.
I'm tired of having my heart broken. It's going to start coloring my enjoyment of new shows soon, and I don't want that... but I'm not sure what I can do about it.