QUOTE(Bill Simmons)
Q: "Friday Night Lights," the show -- your thoughts? I figure it might be up your alley given your love for the "90210," "O.C." and such. I'm hooked and I'm not even into those kind of shows. Guilty pleasure.
--Jon Smith, Seattle
SG: I'm sure you're right. Here's the problem: I bailed after one episode because the ratings were so low that I assumed the show was getting canceled. After the Sports Gal's experiences with "Reunion" and "Love Monkey" last year, I didn't want to get sucked into a show, get attached to the characters, then have it get yanked after seven episodes. So I bailed. Naturally, NBC decided to stick with the show because it built a small but rabid fan base, and now there's no way to catch up on old episodes because it would be too logical for them to either rerun them two at a time on Saturday nights or on the USA Network so latecomers could catch up (or people like me who gave up because they thought they show would get axed). Now I have to wait to spend $30 on the Season 1 DVD to come out next summer, which is ridiculous because I never wanted to stop watching the show in the first place.
The larger issue: TV networks spend so many time/money/energy pushing their new shows (look at the "Day Break" commercials over the past few weeks), lack the patience to stick with those same shows once they're on ... and then they wonder why we aren't watching as much TV anymore. I mean, why would I start watching a serial show like "Kidnapped" or "The Nine" when I know there's a 90 percent chance it's going to be gone within four weeks, or even within a year? Would you buy a book in the store if you could only read one chapter a week and knew there was a chance the last 20 chapters would disintegrate within six weeks if there weren't enough people that bought the book? These stupid TV networks blame DVDs, video games, Internet, iPod downloads and everything else for declining ratings, but the real reason more people aren't watching them is because nobody trusts free networks to keep their shows on the air. At least with HBO, if they're launching a season of "The Wire" or "Rome," I know that I'm getting every episode from that season if I start watching. Like with "Friday Night Lights" -- if that was an HBO show, I never would have stopped watching after one episode. Since it was an NBC show, I bailed. What does that tell you?
--Jon Smith, Seattle
SG: I'm sure you're right. Here's the problem: I bailed after one episode because the ratings were so low that I assumed the show was getting canceled. After the Sports Gal's experiences with "Reunion" and "Love Monkey" last year, I didn't want to get sucked into a show, get attached to the characters, then have it get yanked after seven episodes. So I bailed. Naturally, NBC decided to stick with the show because it built a small but rabid fan base, and now there's no way to catch up on old episodes because it would be too logical for them to either rerun them two at a time on Saturday nights or on the USA Network so latecomers could catch up (or people like me who gave up because they thought they show would get axed). Now I have to wait to spend $30 on the Season 1 DVD to come out next summer, which is ridiculous because I never wanted to stop watching the show in the first place.
The larger issue: TV networks spend so many time/money/energy pushing their new shows (look at the "Day Break" commercials over the past few weeks), lack the patience to stick with those same shows once they're on ... and then they wonder why we aren't watching as much TV anymore. I mean, why would I start watching a serial show like "Kidnapped" or "The Nine" when I know there's a 90 percent chance it's going to be gone within four weeks, or even within a year? Would you buy a book in the store if you could only read one chapter a week and knew there was a chance the last 20 chapters would disintegrate within six weeks if there weren't enough people that bought the book? These stupid TV networks blame DVDs, video games, Internet, iPod downloads and everything else for declining ratings, but the real reason more people aren't watching them is because nobody trusts free networks to keep their shows on the air. At least with HBO, if they're launching a season of "The Wire" or "Rome," I know that I'm getting every episode from that season if I start watching. Like with "Friday Night Lights" -- if that was an HBO show, I never would have stopped watching after one episode. Since it was an NBC show, I bailed. What does that tell you?
I have to say I agree wholeheartedly. I watched the first episodes of the Nine and Smith and thought they were really good, but then didn't hear a peep about either show all week and knew they weren't gonna cut it. I got burned by a show called Push, Nevada a few years back. It was a really good show, was promised at least 6 episodes, then got canned after 4 and the guys making it tried to cram the rest of the story into the last 20 minutes.
What do you guys think?
