Okay, this is going to be weird. Not at all to do with Vs. Or comics. Though it does make me want to create a supervillain named Laugh Track. I don't know what he'd do yet. But he should exist.
Because laugh tracks are evil.
Now, my roommates and myself recently marathoned the West Wing. All seven seasons. Under 14 weeks. It was insane, but except for season 5, it was one of the best TV shows I've ever seen. It was just...crazy good. So, we went out and rented Charlie Wilson's War, which was pretty good. Then we realized that there were two TV shows Aaron Sorkin wrote that we'd never seen before. Studio 60, and Sports Night.
Our library didn't have Studio 60, so we checked out Sports Night, and pretty quickly fell back into the flow of Aaron Sorkin's excellent dialogue. The show was a little...campy, a little cheesy. It was obviously a late-90s comedy in some of the pacing (though, as the show goes on, it gets better), but what really killed it for us was the laugh track.
Okay, maybe it's just us, but...laugh tracks make us feel dirty. Maybe we've just outgrown them, maybe it's just the mood we're in, but I've noticed that I have trouble laughing at a joke if the laugh track laughs. If the laugh track laughs, whatever just happened becomes less funny. Because they TOLD me it was funny, I find it less funny. It's funny when I'm "in on it", but when I'm in on it and then they tell everyone else "Hey - c'mon in!", it feels less like it's a private joke between friends and more like it's a really obviously set-up public conversation
So, just to let you know between all of you and myself - if you ever make a TV show, I'll gladly watch it.
But it better not have a laugh track.
Or I'll find you.
Back to VS stuff soon enough. I'm in a little bit of a lull with so much time since DCL, but I'll come up with something clever. It's just what I do.
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
We Used To Be Friends
You know, there's a lot of bad TV on. There's a lot of TV on also that I just flat out don't like, though not all of that is bad - it's just not my style.
What annoys me more is that there are plenty of television shows that, through either mismanagement, bad timing, or just sheer bloody-minded bad luck, got axed before their time. Shows like Firefly get a second chance, while shows like Freaks and Geeks never do. But, in a way, it doesn't matter. The shows get their ending, however abbreviated...and with the great ones, it really doesn't matter. They get an ending that is frequently stunning and emotional. They get what they need, if not what we want.
Still. What this is about. I finally got to the end of Veronica Mars. Like many great shows, for me it was too little too late - I didn't get into the show until the series was on its absolute last legs. I did buy seasons 1 and 2 after seeing only a couple episodes, and my lovely girlfriend recently got me season 3, the final season, for Christmas. But...I wish I could've done more to support the show while I still could have.
Veronica Mars...is one of the quickest, cleverest shows I've ever seen. The dialogue is some of the best in television, and the characters are wonderfully precise. It's just a damn good show. It's a little depressing, and ultimately, the show's message is very mixed: the finale, like the rest of the series, is 1-part hope, 1-part cynicism, and 2-parts revenge. The show alternately makes you revel in how the characters change and realize how harmful it is for them that they haven't changed more.
It was a little melancholy, to be honest, to reach disc 6 of season 3. Disc 5 had been the rest of the season, as the last 4 episodes of the series got cut by the CW and were never filmed. Instead, on disc 6, they give interviews, commentary, and one, very saddening, very awesome thing for me: a 'preview' of what's to come, should the series be allowed to continue. It wasn't, but I'm glad they let me see what they hoped for the future, even if more is, sadly, not to come.
Ultimately, Veronica Mars was a TV show that should have been here longer, but made better use of its 3 seasons than most shows that go on twice as long.
It's a show that I hope you all go out and see. Check it out of libraries. Download it illegally. If you like it...pick up a season. It's a worthwhile investment, both of time and money.
I wish my summary could've been more well-written. I tend to write these when I'm feeling a bit scattered, and I think it shows...still. Hope it doesn't put you off the show, or my thoughts.
What annoys me more is that there are plenty of television shows that, through either mismanagement, bad timing, or just sheer bloody-minded bad luck, got axed before their time. Shows like Firefly get a second chance, while shows like Freaks and Geeks never do. But, in a way, it doesn't matter. The shows get their ending, however abbreviated...and with the great ones, it really doesn't matter. They get an ending that is frequently stunning and emotional. They get what they need, if not what we want.
Still. What this is about. I finally got to the end of Veronica Mars. Like many great shows, for me it was too little too late - I didn't get into the show until the series was on its absolute last legs. I did buy seasons 1 and 2 after seeing only a couple episodes, and my lovely girlfriend recently got me season 3, the final season, for Christmas. But...I wish I could've done more to support the show while I still could have.
Veronica Mars...is one of the quickest, cleverest shows I've ever seen. The dialogue is some of the best in television, and the characters are wonderfully precise. It's just a damn good show. It's a little depressing, and ultimately, the show's message is very mixed: the finale, like the rest of the series, is 1-part hope, 1-part cynicism, and 2-parts revenge. The show alternately makes you revel in how the characters change and realize how harmful it is for them that they haven't changed more.
It was a little melancholy, to be honest, to reach disc 6 of season 3. Disc 5 had been the rest of the season, as the last 4 episodes of the series got cut by the CW and were never filmed. Instead, on disc 6, they give interviews, commentary, and one, very saddening, very awesome thing for me: a 'preview' of what's to come, should the series be allowed to continue. It wasn't, but I'm glad they let me see what they hoped for the future, even if more is, sadly, not to come.
Ultimately, Veronica Mars was a TV show that should have been here longer, but made better use of its 3 seasons than most shows that go on twice as long.
It's a show that I hope you all go out and see. Check it out of libraries. Download it illegally. If you like it...pick up a season. It's a worthwhile investment, both of time and money.
I wish my summary could've been more well-written. I tend to write these when I'm feeling a bit scattered, and I think it shows...still. Hope it doesn't put you off the show, or my thoughts.
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