A Strange Crossroads

I am the first person to admit that I have always watched way way too much television. It's been like that for a long time, and I tend to get pretty emotionally invested in most (if not all) of the onscreen universes that I visit each week. While I suppose I have my definite preferences in genre or format, I also think I've got a pretty broad range of what I enjoy. I also just unilaterally stay away from anything "unscripted"* (generally considered "reality" television) unless it is Jeopardy! or Wheel of Fortune (which to me are much, much more real than anything that falls under the "reality" umbrella). I think overall the common theme for me when it comes to what I consider good (or at least enjoyable) television is the characters. I can handle a lot of different ridiculous plots if I care about what happens to the people experiencing them.

Probably a lot of people would still say I watch too much television, but I have noticed a steep drop-off in my regular programming over the last year or so. Probably a lot of that has to do with my daughter--she gets dominion over the television until after Sesame Street most days and I have been making a concerted effort to leave the television off for most of the afternoon. Spending time with her doesn't leave me a lot of time (or the luxury) of sitting around watching a lot of television during the day. So yeah, there's that. But I have also noticed that the shows I do watch regularly have been coming to an end with more frequency of late. Series I watch ending this season (that we already know of) include: The Closer, Eureka, and In Plain Sight.

Yet I am finding in myself no real desire to replace them. As new shows launch, each season, there just isn't that much any more that sounds interesting to me. I used to give many new series a try every season, checking it out if it sounded even remotely intriguing or had a actor I liked or a science-fiction flavor. But those things really aren't enough to draw me in any more. Even the stuff that does sound interesting from initial previews or descriptions, or that has an actor I really do like to follow, will end up being left off my viewing schedule because I just don't feel like trying to get invested in something new.

That isn't to say that I don't still try new shows. I absolutely loved both Terra Nova and Alcatraz this season (though I am pretty sure neither is returning this fall), and USA has a new cop dramedy coming out next month that looks kind of amusing to me. But still, there are a lot of shows currently on the air that I suspect I would really like, but just never got into and don't really feel like making the effort to do so now (examples: Community, The New Girl, True Blood). Part of this, I am sure, is that there is so much crap to wade through nowadays that finding those few gems without watching everything is just impossible. It's not worth the effort, and so you make your gamble and roll the dice. Sometimes you win, sometimes you miss out. Then, the internet people try to tell me "OMG you have to watch this show it is fantastic!" and I dig in my heels and just refuse (even though I also do this same recommendation flail to my friends about shows I love all of the time). I am getting cantankerous in my old age, apparently.

So I find myself wondering just what it is that actually convinces me to try a new show these days. Again, I think it is the characters more than anything else. When I first hear about a show or see that preview, there has to be something there in the people on my screen that grabs my attention and taps on either my funny bone or my curiosity nerve. Still, it seems like it is getting to a point where every season there are more shows going off the air (or that I make the decision to walk away from) than new series I decide to try watching. This is probably a good thing in the long run. As much as I hate that feeling of knowing I am missing out on some great stories and shared experiences, it's not like it's gonna hurt me to do so. My life is still pretty awesome. It's not devoid of meaning because I missed out on getting into something my personal or online community all loved when it was new and fresh (or ever).

It just feels weird to me. Part of me is really looking forward to not having to try to find the time to watch nearly so much television--maybe I can use that time to read the quite literally impossible** pile of books I have stacking up (both physically and digitally). But...I don't know. I am not even sure what the point of this post is, other than this is something I have been thinking about for a while now and I wanted to get it out there.

I think...I think I am just starting to realize that as a culture we are getting way too damned creative, in that we are creating so much stuff that there's no way not to miss something great.

It's a weird sort of problem to have, isn't it?

*That "unscripted" title is crap, by the way. That is such a huge lie. Those people are so coached about what they are saying. Gotta enhance the "drama" dontcha know?


**Impossible in that I honestly do not know when I will ever find the time to read all of them but oh my goodness I so do want to find that time. I want to read them all! Then read some of them again. Sigh. And I keep adding books to the pile.

Not Too Trendy, Please

So apparently in a recent interview Stephanie Meyer said something to the effect that there will be more books written in the Twilight universe some day. Sigh.

Look. I actually really enjoy vampire stories quite a bit. My favorite examples come from shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Moonlight, books like The Dresden Files, and movies like the (first two) Underworld films.

I read the Twilight books, sure. I even kind of enjoyed them. But they went off the rails a bit at the end, and the movie was just laughably awful. I mean, yeah, laughable, so that's not terrible. But let's look at these things for what they truly are folks, okay?

The Twilight books are just really high profile trashy romance novels with a supernatural bent.

That's it. No, I'm not kidding. I suspect that it is even possible (probable) that the quality of writing in trashy romance novels hold up much better under scrutiny than Meyer's famous books. I somehow doubt any of them feature a character with the godawful name of Renesmee. (Seriously, Stephanie? What the hell?) But whatever. Who cares. I am not going to use the fact that they are actually YA to justify the horrible writing (and I don't just mean her style, I mean some of the lessons she is putting out there under the guise of "it's just a story" about how relationships can/do/should work between friends/lovers/families). That fact, if anything, makes the horrible writing aspect worse. But these books, like Harry Potter before them, are responsible for getting a large chunk of the youth population reading--and reading more than just Twilight. I can forgive much of Meyer's issues on that merit alone, truth be told.

But I digress.

I am the last person in the world who would call myself a hipster. I'm not gonna try to claim that I was all into vampires before they became cool and whatnot. That's just silly. And not true. I was into them before Twilight came along, sure, but so were a ton of other people. But it used to be that whenever I heard that a new book/movie/show was about vampires, my interest would be peaked, and I would be at least 85% likely to check it out. Now, I just kind of roll my eyes and groan. We have reached the saturation point in vampire stories. We hit it quite some time ago, actually. For instance, I still haven't seen True Blood. Mostly because I don't have HBO, but you know what, I did have HBO when it started airing. So if I am being honest with myself, it is also because I heard it was about vampires and got a little bit turned off, so never checked it out. (I know, I know, by all accounts I am doing myself a great disservice here, and I am sure one day I might get on board that particular bus, but at the moment, I just can't make myself.)

Then, we moved on to zombies, which I was never really all that enamored with in the first place. Now it seems like everywhere I look, there's something going on with zombies. It seems to me like zombies took off even faster than vampires did. It's like multiple someones said all at the same time, hey, look how vampires caught on after that whole Twilight thing happened! Let's see if we can make zombies the next big thing! And oh my goodness they did. Sigh. I am so over zombies. I have enjoyed one or two of the zombified entries we've gotten out of the craze (*cough*Zombieland*cough*) but mostly, no, I am done. Can we make the next big thing a few smaller big things please?

Just leave the werewolves alone. I would like you to not ruin werewolves for me please, entertainment industry, okay?

You know what would be nice? I would like it if more themes took a lesson from Jack the Ripper.

I know, I know. What?!? Lemme 'splain.

The other day I saw a preview for a new Doctor Who comic story featuring none other than Jack the Ripper, and then the other night when watching Sanctuary (which through some wibbly-wobbly-time-wimey stuff actually features the notorious fiend as a character (no, I won't explain it further than that, watch the show if you are curious, it is awesome-sauce)), I made the connection and it got me thinking. At least one other series I have enjoyed, Babylon 5, has featured an episode about this iconic character from our past. Many others have had episodes or stories that featured this unsolved mystery. There have been plenty of books and movies over the years as well, and lots of speculation on the matter. But though this fascinating (and absolutely horrible, don't get me wrong, this was a bad bad dude, I am not in any way trying to say that the actual serial killer was cool) case has sparked the imagination of many creative people, mentions, tributes, homages, and theories about the Jack the Ripper case have almost always remained quietly in the background. Every now and again something new pops up. But it's never become a huge trend like, say, vampires or zombies.

Certainly, the idea of Jack the Ripper being glorified or turned into something consumers can identify is on par with vampires at least. Think about it, seriously. Maybe what has kept it from breaking out as "the next big thing" is that it is based on something verifiably real, and as such, makes creators uncomfortable playing in that realm? Though if you ask me, that challenge makes it a far more interesting prospect than vampires. But I love historical fiction precisely because it is intriguing to me how someone can take known facts, add a bit of "what if" and take off running to make something entirely new and engaging. I will note that most of the appearances I have seen of Jack the Ripper in my fiction have featured some sort of supernatural or science fictional explanation for his crimes/existence. I don't know if that is because the mystery lends itself more to the genre or if that is just the type of story I am most often exposed to.

My point is that it seems to me that vampires (and zombies) used to be like Jack. They were ever-present, available to the reader/watcher in many different forms and flavors, but never really in the spotlight. This managed to increase the longevity of their appeal and allowed people, for the most part, to discover them without too many preconceptions. These days, too many people hear "vampires" and just roll their eyes and shrug, many of them turning away without even giving the project a second look. There is so much out there that the really good stuff is getting lost in all the crap, and I think that does us all a disservice. I am just once more ready for the day when vampires subside back into their dark corners and shadows,* hanging out with Jack. There when I need them, sometimes when I don't expect them, but never just shoved in the public's collective faces.

A girl can hope, can't she?

*Oh, and yes, I am actually totally stoked about the Johnny Depp Dark Shadows remake. Sometimes there's enough there to overcome the ennui. Sue me.