Even before the final episode of NBC’s The Cape was pushed to being internet-exclusive, it was clear that the show was done for. This was not terribly surprising seeing as the show suffered from mediocre writing, flat acting, and a premise somewhat flawed and filled with holes. This was disappointing, considering what The Cape could have been. The Cape had the right setup to make for a great superhero TV show. Because The Cape featured a powerless, Batman-like hero, it did not have to worry about a big budget for flashy special effects. The show also featured geek goddess Summer Glau on the cast, which gave the show a built-in audience right from the get-go. Once again, a great idea for a show was not given enough time find its feet, but seeing that the show had some flaws, I was okay with it getting the axe in favor of something better, at least until I heard that another superhero show was also getting the axe. I am talking about No Ordinary Family and unlike The Cape, No Ordinary Family had great acting and writing that resulted in compelling stories from week to week.
With all of this occurring I have to ask the big question: Are genre shows doomed from the start? It seems like the big networks are sending the message over and over again that the only shows they welcome are those that appeal to a large audience and if you can’t make your sci-fi/fantasy show appeal to the wider demographic, don’t even bother. In the last five years, a large amount of good genre shows have been canceled prematurely before they could build the sort of momentum needed to reach a larger audience. Normally I would be okay with this. The big networks are used to garnering the large American Idol-like audiences and the more niche genre shows can always find a home on the smaller networks. Recently smaller networks like Syfy have been trying to appeal to larger audiences, bringing such fine programs to their network as Friday Night Smackdown. Now I love overly-buff men fighting as much as the next guy but wrestling does not strike me as the right fit for a network that was created to build its programming around science fiction.
I think this is why I am so excited for the wave of new media that the internet has brought. I recently found a web series called GOLD that tells the story of a group of professional tabletop role players. This is not a show that easily extends beyond the geek crowd, and most of its jokesonly really make sense to those with D&D experience. However, Goldtheseries.com is entirely supported through fan donations and creates a great product that many people enjoy. The show could never be considered for a primetime slot on CBS, but the internet allows it to flourish. The point I think I am trying to get around to is that I fear the days of genre shows being on actual cable is nearing a close. If we, the fans, do not do something to keep these genres alive then we are going to be stuck with program listings made entirely of procedurals, sitcoms, and reality shows. Moving to the internet seems like the obvious choice and has worked for several series, such as The Guild and Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, but that being said internet programming is still very much in its infancy and problems with funding and distribution still are waiting to be sorted out. In the meantime, the fans of genre programming need to support what we love, which luckily is not something we generally have a problem with. It still remains to be seen how the geeks and nerds of the world are going to get their sci-fi/fantasy fix, but just because the big networks try to tell us that kind of programming has no place on their stations does not mean genre shows will disappear anytime soon.
Thoughts? Ideas? Opinions? Let us know what you think in the comments. We may even respond.
1 comment:
This article covered so much material. Let me try to compose my thoughts and go through it section by section.
First of all I'll casually disagree with you. I think the two reasons that you listed as being points of strength for The Cape were actually its biggest weaknesses. The Cape featured a powerless, Batman-like hero, it did not have to wory about a big budget for flash special effects but it have to worry about not being a live action Batman television show. I felt that so much of the early show was devoted to "look he's not Batman, see he's still not Batman, did you notice how much this show isn't Batman?" that it got a little silly. If they had just sort of bit the bullet and made him a batman character and maybe made a nod to the homage I think we would have bought it and moved on. The show seemed so interested in showing how it wasn't Batman that he never really developed any character of his own outside of Not-Batman. Secondly the show also featured geek goddess Summer Glau. Which gave the show a built-in audience from the get-go. It also gave the show an actor who couldn't act her way out of a paper bag. I'll give you that Summer Glau isn't really horrible as an actress, she's simply a very specific character actress. When she strays too far from the brain dead action star or gets cast as anything that would require her to make us believe her acting she falls a little short. She's a fantastic physical actor and she can dance around a fight sequence without a problem. When it comes to straight up acting though she falls short. I've never really believed her in any character she ever played outside of maybe Sleepover. (Don't ask)
I think science fiction and fantasy genre shows have always been the outcasts of network television. Our generation has been spoiled because we've had Heros and Lost which both appealed to larger audiences as well as slipping in just enough sci fi to keep the genre crowd interested. In the long term though there is one thing that will always unfortunately drive the major networks and thats money. When you've got a show that barely gets as many viewers as reruns of CSI:City of the Week from a couple years ago they can't financially keep pumping money into it. That having been said it's really an unfortunate fact that a show like No Ordinary Family, that through all of its flaws was a witty show that was trying its hardest, should get struck down because it didn't quite get enough ratings is really sad. I will say this, as sort of a dark flower of hope. I think that the pressure on Networks to have high rated shows has increased recently. Where as ten years ago a network might gamble on a show and let it go a few seasons with bad ratings, the trend recently has been to slap down anything that doesn't immediately get fantastic ratings. I'm not sure why this is exactly, but I think it's true of all kinds of shows across the board, not just genre shows. I think if a genre show came around that could get LOST-like ratings it might be able to stay alive, because ultimately its the money not the genre that is what the networks care about.
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