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.

So Long, Chuck

Well, after five seasons, Chuck aired its series finale this past weekend.

Personally, I found it a little...lacking. I mean, it had its moments. As convoluted as getting Jeff and Lester to the concert hall was, when I realized where they were going with that, I certainly gave a hearty laugh. Their rendition of "Take On Me" was pretty fantastic. Also disturbing. But mostly fantastic. In true Jeffster fashion, really.

As far as the whole "Sarah's memory loss due to the Intersect" plot, it was really just all kind of meh, honestly. If I'm being truthful, I found the entire last season to just be increasingly ridiculous, and not the traditional fun Chuck brand of ridiculous. There were some genuinely wonderful character moments throughout the season, and even in the finale. Ellie and Awesome's swan song was one I particularly enjoyed. Because it felt like something those two characters had been building to over the course of the series in general and the season in particular. Even Casey and Morgan got nice sendoffs showing their growth as characters and as a result of the events of the series.

But Chuck and Sarah? They got totally shafted. This whole season they had been building to retirement from the spy life, going legit, buying a home to be a grownup couple in, and starting a family. That would have been a natural, wonderful, well-deserved ending for them. We didn't even need Sarah to be pregnant--just end with them making the down payment on their house and it would have been perfect. I think what the writers were trying to give them with this ending was a fresh start. Sometimes that is the right way to end a series. In this case, I would argue that it was exactly the wrong ending though. These two didn't need a fresh start. Their relationship, amazingly enough, was actually pretty solid and healthy (especially when we're talking television romance).

The whole thing was just jarring and it felt like a letdown to me. It would be forgivable had this been an unexpected series finale. But it wasn't. Everyone knew going into this season that it was the last. They had plenty of time to wrap up loose ends and craft a solid ending. Which is not what I felt we got. Instead they spent the season introducing all sorts of new concepts and craziness and it all felt disjointed. It's like instead of trying to craft an organic close to the series with the episodes they had left, they just decided to go full tilt and pull out every crazy idea they had left on the drawing board. Nothing really got room to breathe and grow and develop like it should have. So in the end we're just left with a big mess. It's kind of sad, because I fear that is how I am going to forever remember the show, as a big old mess. Which is a shame, because I remember there was a time when I used to truly enjoy and look forward to this show. Now, I'm really not that bothered that it's gone.

Chuck is definitely a show whose time had come. So, so long, Chuck. So long, Sarah and Morgan. Casey and Ellie and Awesome...I hope you all find happiness in that television heaven that is "happily ever after." Thank you NBC for a show that was at least entertaining for a while, and thank you for finally closing the chapter on it once it could no longer sustain itself.

On the bright side, my Friday evening DVR schedule just got a little less complicated. Dear NBC, can you please move Grimm to the seven p.m. slot so I can watch it live and still watch Fringe live too? That would be awesome. Oh man, Fringe. There's a show that I fear is also coming to its close, and this one I'm not ready to see go. Oh well, it's been a bubble show since it first came on the air. Maybe the universe will surprise us and we'll get lucky for one more season. I mean, yeah, it's Fox. But hey, who knows, right?

Concept v. Sustainability

You know, I think I would be the last person to claim that I am losing my obsession passion for television these days, but there does seem to be a definite drop off. The new fall season is in full swing and right now I am only actually watching two new series (two more that I will try premiere later this month though). That's kind of a record low for me. It's...weird.

At the moment I don't hold high hopes for either of the two I am currently watching (Terra Nova and Ringer) getting picked up for a second season. In the case of Terra Nova, I think that's a shame, because I feel like the show has a lot of potential and I am quite honestly enjoying the hell out of it right now. I am just pretty certain that the ratings have no shot at justifying another season of a show with this kind of budget. I'll just have to enjoy my dinosaurs on television while they last and hope that BBC America decides to air the next season of Primeval sometime soon. Ringer, on the other hand? Well, that's a different story.

Here's the show's premise in a nutshell: Twin sisters Bridget and Siobhan have been estranged for several years, and they live very different lives. Bridget is a recovering drug addict/former stripper about to testify against a mob boss in his murder trial and then (presumably) go into witness protection. Siobhan is a New York socialite with a wealthy husband and an artistic boyfriend (who happens to be married to her best friend). The night before she is supposed to testify, Bridget freaks out and runs away from police protection and reunites with her sister Siobhan. The two seem to be making up, hanging out at Siobhan's summer beach house and riding around in Siobhan's fancy speed boat. Then Bridget falls asleep on the boat, and when she wakes up Siobhan is gone, leaving behind an empty pill bottle and her wedding ring. Assuming her sister killed herself, Bridget then makes the snap decision to assume Siobhan's identity in the wake of her sister's conveniently timed suicide, and returns to New York to begin living her sister's life, all the while trying to hide out from the FBI agent and mob boss looking for her. She quickly learns that Siobhan's life is not as idyllic as she had believed it to be (shocker, that).

Okay, let's stop for a moment and acknowledge what this show is: It is a nighttime soap opera. Seriously. It's just got a higher budget and slightly glitzier production values than what you find on during the day. Normally, a show like this wouldn't even enter into candidates for my viewing time. The only reason it is on my radar at all is that Sarah Michelle Gellar (you know, Buffy) is the star of the show, so I have been hearing about it for months. I still wasn't all that interested. I mean, I don't actually really like Sarah Michelle Gellar that much to be honest (as an actor, that is, I am sure she is a lovely human being). She was never my favorite thing about Buffy. But early reviews of the pilot said it actually was a pretty entertaining hour of television and that there was real possibility there. Also, I found out that Ioan Gruffudd plays one of the main characters. Sure, sure, most people know him as Mr. Fantastic from The Fantastic Four. Whatever. He's Horatio Hornblower (from the series of television movies adapted from C.S. Forester's novels), and I will always love him for that. So, his presence got my interest up. Add that to the fact that it airs at a day and time when I'm not watching anything else, and I figured I could give it a try.

It's...okay. My husband was around this week when I was watching it, and I caught him giving me a sideways look of "Are you really watching this?" on more than one occasion. At this point, I feel like Ringer is a train that is destined to derail, I just don't know when or how, but I am kind of curious to find out. So I keep watching. I will give it the season, at least (unless it just goes way too far down the rabbit hole for me to follow). But unless there's a huge game changer, I don't see me watching past that point. Heck, I really don't understand how there could even be a second season.

Ringer is the perfect example of a phenomenon that I have been noticing in television a lot more often these days. Have you noticed how many shows have come and gone recently because as interesting as their concept was, it just wasn't sustainable for more than a season's worth of stories? It's getting a little bit ridiculous. It's like everyone gets excited by the pitch about how cool and original and all kinds of other excited adjectives the concept is, but no one stops to actually sit down and think about how much of a story there is to actually play out.

Because at some point? Bridget won't be able to pretend she's Siobhan anymore. The FBI agent will connect the dots, her "husband" will notice that missing scar, her snotty "stepdaughter" will overhear a frantic phone call, her jilted ex-"lover" will...oh wait, we've already gotten to that one, haven't we? You get the picture. Either way, the concept can't be sustained, and at some point the charade is over. Sometimes, that is okay, because sometimes it is in the aftermath of that revelation where the true story really lies. But way too often, nobody stops to figure out what happens next before they start making these shows. The stakes are so freaking high for Bridget's identity being discovered that sure, maybe she'll go down in a blazing ball of glorious flame, but once she's down, there's no getting back up. There's no story left, at any rate. So maybe the solution is to keep her secret, well, a secret? But no. Because once that goes on long enough, it also stops being interesting. How many near misses can she have? How many times can she talk her way out of an awkward situation? You see where I am going with this.

I mean, don't get me wrong, if they decide to blow the whistle on Bridget halfway through the season and actually turn the story's direction ninety degrees into a whole new direction and somehow manage to pull it off? Well, damn, I will give them a medal for genius storytelling. But right now I just don't see it. Right now it seems like this is just yet another high-concept show that would have made a perfect movie, but that really was never intended to be a long-form story.

It's like the people making television these days don't even grasp the concept that television is, in fact, long-form. Yeah, everything should have an endgame, but the best series actually take their time to get there, in a way that lets the viewers invest themselves in the story and the characters, and makes us actually care about what happens. Why do those shows seem to have become an endangered species?

Also, who the heck has twin daughters and names one Bridget and one Siobhan? I mean, really, who?

New TV Scorecard: Alphas

Well Syfy finally premiered its summer shows this week. We won't discuss those weird pseudo-reality series they have debuting/premiering, but among the actually anticipated series (by this viewer, at any rate) were Eureka, Warehouse 13, Haven (premiering tonight), and new series Alphas.

I have to say, getting David Strathairn to head up one of their series is a major coup for Syfy. So off the bat I had high hopes for this series. The addition of Ryan Cartwright, most recently seen as one of the revolving squinterns on Bones and Laura Mennell, who will be a familiar face to fans of recent genre shows, are definitely nice bonuses. Along with a guest appearance by Callum Keith Rennie, yum. I don't have much to say about the rest of the cast yet, but as a whole the group seems to have a nice chemistry. They feel very much like a team that has an effective and efficient rhythm down despite the dysfunctional family dynamic they have going on.

The basic premise is nothing terribly new, a group of "evolved" humans, each with their own special ability, assembled by a super secret government branch work together to foil bad guys, said bad guys also being super-powered in most cases. We've got the chick who can use mind-control, a young woman capable of enhancing any one of her senses at a given time, a guy that can hulk out when needed, another able to see all electromagnetic frequencies (i.e., see all television/internet/cell phone signals in the air around himself), and another with crazy insane perfect aim. Then there's the goodly doctor who keeps them all in check and doles out the missions.

The pilot introduces the group to us and more or less demonstrates the recruitment process--the guy with ridiculous aim starts out as the puppet of the bad guys but is drafted into the White Hats (well, more like blackmailed, but it works) after he helps them right the wrongs he unwittingly committed. We learn of a group called Red Flag, also made up of Alphas (the people with powers) who are set on destroying the White Hats. That looks to be the big overarching season plotline right there. The episodes themselves look to be aiming toward a super-powered baddie of the week formula, but I could be wrong there.

The show itself didn't really bring anything new or fresh to the table, I'll admit, but it was entertaining enough. It has definite potential. The premise may not be fresh, but the execution was interesting, as were the characters. Not their powers, necessarily, but how they deal with those powers in their everyday lives. We are shown right off the bat that most of them have families at home who are unaware of what they do for a living. I will be curious see how things play out over the first season. As long as they can steer clear of the missteps made by other super-powered humans stories *cough*Heroes*cough* and avoid stealing too much for the comic books then we might have a pretty decent show on our hands.

One thing that makes me think Alphas might be headed in the right direction is the indication that these powers aren't unlimited or without repercussions. The woman who can hyperfocus, for instance, loses access to her other senses while she does so (i.e., she can't hear anything if she is "seeing") and the guy who hulks out can only go for so long before his body starts shutting down. I like that and look forward to how that gets explored as the season progresses.

I also really, really, like the fact that they drive around in a mini-van. It is actually a logical choice for their operation and the low profile they are trying to keep (their office seems to be in a building fronted by a bowling alley). Also, it's funny.

First Impression Rating: 7/10 (With fingers crossed and a hopeful optimism.)

I Don't Know What the Heck Is Going On...

...but I really, really don't like it.  Okay, this post is about television, which I watch way too much of.  I know this.  But it is what I do.  It is what it is.

I was just starting to figure out the new schedule for the shows I watch now that the holidays are over and shows seem to be starting up again with new episodes or settling into new timeslots and whatnot, and this week has thrown a big ol' wrench in the works.  Grumble grumble.

First, Tuesday night there was a new episode of No Ordinary Family that aired on ABC.  Now, this is far from my favorite show, but it is still fun, and until Glee comes back from hiatus, I can watch it live, which I have kind of been digging.  But.  For some reason, my local affiliate decided that instead of airing the new episode of No Ordinary Family on Tuesday, they were instead going to air "Good Morning Texas After Dark," an hour of the local morning show people talking about fashion during prime time.  What the heezy?  This wasn't even No Ordinary Family's first week back from break--who had this brilliant idea?  It is all the more annoying because the show did air everywhere else.  Yes, I know, I know, I can watch it online, but frankly, that's kind of a pain in the butt for me to do right now, because my time on the computer is limited to when the baby is asleep or watching Super Why, and I have other stuff to do besides try to watch television on it.  Besides, there is a reason we bought a humongous television--and it wasn't so I could watch television on my much smaller computer screen.  Sigh.  I emailed the affiliate and very politely asked if and when they are planning to air the episode (I worked at a cable company for over seven years, almost two of them spent in correspondence, you can bet your bottom I was polite, I know what kind of ire that kind of thing can invoke and how easily most people can go off the rails about it to people who had no control over the decision).  They responded quickly and just as politely to let me know it will run at 3 a.m. this Saturday morning.  Great, thank you.  My DVR is set.  I don't have to watch it on my computer, hurray!

Now, if this had been the only incident, I could chalk it up to a fluke.  But last night.  Last night.  Oh man.  First off, I was super jazzed because from seven to ten, miracle of miracles, I had three shows scheduled to come on, one after another, with no conflicting shows, and that was it.  Perfect.  Two of those were new episodes of Human Target, which, I have recently realized, truly is my absolute favorite television show that is still on the air (all time fave props still go to Stargate Atlantis), and then there was finally going to be a new episode of The Defenders, which I really enjoy despite myself and never get to watch live.

Dinner time ran a little past seven, but I wasn't worried because that is what DVRs are for.  So at 7:20 I sat down and fired up Human Target to find...an episode of Raising Hope.  What??  Pull up the guide and it says that Human Target is what is currently on Fox, from 7 to 9.  Um...okay.  Fast forwarded through everything recorded up to the live footage, just in case something ran over, but nope.  After Raising Hope came the coverage of the Arizona shootings memorial.  Oh.  Okay.  Well, I get it.  That is something that it makes sense to preempt a show for.  I'm disappointed, because I was honestly really psyched about Human Target, but maybe it is just going to start late.  I go to Fox's website to see if there is anything about the rescheduled time, but nope, it says that Human Target is a two hour special event from 7-9.  Hmmm.  I remember that when I turned the television on, an episode of Big Bang Theory was playing on CBS, so I flip back to that.  The guide says "Live to Dance" is currently airing on CBS.  Um...no it's not.  Then that other comedy that I don't watch comes on when BBT is over, but the guide still says dancing.  It also says that The Defenders is still set to come on at 9, but now I am skeptical, because the commercials I catch on CBS while I am flipping around say that the Dance show is up next, but nothing about The Defenders or the show that the guide says is supposed to be on at 8.  Seriously, what the heck is going on here?

Fox, I get, actually.  It was a last minute thing and they put some filler in around the special coverage.  Makes sense.  Their website now says that the Human Target episodes will be rescheduled soon.  I've got my DVR set to record every ep now, so in case I miss the announcement and they come on at 3 in the morning, it should still catch them.  It looks like they did tweet beforehand that the show would be preempted, but I of course did not get that.  Oh Twitter, how I loathe you.  The guide not catching the last-minute changes also makes sense, because, well, last-minute.  I mean, if even Fox's website didn't show the change until halfway through, then the guide is excused.  But I do not understand what was going on with CBS.  They didn't air any coverage of the memorial, so why was their schedule all farked?  It looks like the memorial went from 7:30 to a bit after 8, so CBS wasn't moving their show to a time where it wasn't against the special on the other network.  Around 10 I checked out what was recorded in my buffer and it looks like The Defenders did come on, but it started about 20 minutes late.  I hastily flipped over to CBS and hit record so I could catch the end of the episode.  Sigh.

It just seems to me that in this day and age it is hard enough for networks to get people to sit down in front of their televisions to watch a show live.  Screwing around with the time at the last minute, and not making sure that people are well aware of it (or keeping the guides updated so that the DVRs can catch the moved episode) seems like a monumentally stupid idea.  That's all I am saying.

I realize these are petty concerns.  I do.  But still.  I needed to vent a bit.  I am a creature of routine.  I get really really cranky when my routines are screwed with (just ask Hubby).  I am learning to be more flexible about changes to the routine--it is a necessity of parenthood--but a little notice would be nice.  It doesn't help when the change in the routine is also a disappointment in its own right.  Also, I am a little bit irked because I came very close to missing an ep of No Ordinary Family, and I probably did miss a bit of The Defenders, and neither of these are shows that I am going to get on DVD.  It is annoying.

But, on a happier note, the lack of anything new airing at a predictable time Tuesday night and last night meant that I burned through a lot more episodes of season two of Dollhouse, which I started watching this past weekend.  I am now officially past the halfway point of the season.  Four episodes to go.  I had forgotten how incredibly intense and amazing those last few episodes were.  Wow!  Such an amazing show.  Part of me wishes it could have gone on for a couple more seasons, because there were definitely some hints at stories I would have wanted to see developed down the road.  But honestly, I am okay with the short run of the series, because it was concluded in such an amazing fashion.  I won't call it satisfactory, because I think there was too much bad stuff that went down at the end to call it a happy ending.  But I don't feel in any way gypped.  A shorter story arc, when allowed to be given a start and a middle and an end, which this series had, comes away so much tighter and more intense.  The Brits figured this out a long time ago. I wish the networks here could grasp that concept.

But they apparently don't even know what they are airing any more, so...yeah.

Getting Past the Knee-Jerk Reaction

So, a few days ago I stumbled across this quick little post on io9.  It is just a little blurb announcing that the forthcoming fourth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series will not, in fact, be the last movie in the franchise.  Seems like Disney is gearing up to make a fifth and a sixth film as well, which it is looking to film simultaneously and then release as two films, similar to what it did with films two and three.

My instant, automatic, knee-jerk reaction to this news was "Oh God, why?"  But then something funny happened.  I started actually thinking about it and realized that, you know what, I am actually okay with this.  I love all three of the Pirates movies that we've had so far.  I am truly really looking forward to the fourth one.  I mean, come on, they're big epic set pieces with pretty boats and fantastic costumes.  Johnny Depp says and does many bizarre and often humorous things.  Orlando Bloom is pretty when he channels Errol Flynn.  I actually like Kiera Knightly, though I am not sure why.  Jack Davenport is all kinds of crazy awesome.  Plus, it's historical fiction, which I love.  Also, pirates.

Clearly, I am not alone in this, and there are many like-minded individuals out there, or Disney wouldn't be bothering.  These movies aren't exactly cheap to make.  I am not going to complain.  As long as these movies continue to entertain me, I will continue to go see them.  People who have not been entertained by previous films in the franchise, and expect to not be entertained by future films in the franchise should not go see them.  When people like that start to outnumber people like me, it seems pretty self-explanatory that Disney will stop making these movies. 

But that's not really the point of this post.  The internet is already undergoing a mild explosion at the news (heck, just check the comments thread on the post I linked to above for all of the negativity spewing forth from people who had the same knee-jerk reaction I initially had).  I will leave that be.  There's nothing I can do or say to stop it, so it seems silly to comment further on it.

Why do we, the public, get so darn offended when one movie turns into two, or three, or more?

Seriously, give it a moment to kick around in your brain.  These days, whenever a sequel is made, unless it is an adaptation of, say, a preexisting book series where we know we've signed on for several films to tell the story, there is almost always a huge public cry of indignation and outrage.  Sure, it is likely that a continuation of a story may be unnecessary, but unnecessary doesn't always equal bad.  Just because one story in a particular world was told satisfactorily, that doesn't mean that there aren't more stories from that world to be told.

These are the main objections I tend to see to the continuation of a movie franchise:

1)  The studio is just trying to milk as much money out of us as possible!

Well, duh.  I am completely over this complaint.  I am sick of it.  Done.  The movie industry is just that, an industry.  It is completely, utterly, and totally about making money.  They are trying to sell a product that they think we, the public, not only want, but will give them money to see.  Every once in a while, a big budget film is made that turns out to be art, but that really isn't the goal.  When it happens, it is an unexpected, if delightful, side-effect, but side-effect it is.  If you want to see art when you go to the movies, move to a town where you have access to an arthouse cinema.  Otherwise, understand that what you are getting when you go to see a movie is a product, designed to be sold to the masses.

If enough people enjoyed the original film, there's a good possibility there is a market for more in that franchise.  Sometimes, a story for a completely new and spectacular thing gets pitched, and the studio loves it but isn't sure that we'll bite.  But they look at it and think that it might work as a story set in an existing franchise, and so it gets made as a sequel instead of its own story.  Yeah, okay, this is a little insulting.  But apparently the studios are scared to make movies these days if they aren't 100% sure they will sell.  Nine times out of ten, that means they are going with the known quantity over the unknown.  It sucks, but it is the system.  You know it is the system.  If you keep supporting that system by going to see the stuff that they give you, then your soapbox for this particular issue is pretty much nonexistent.  There are two ways to fight the system:  Don't go see the big-budgeted mass-market films you think are crap, and do everything you can to support the unique, independent, truly different films that do manage to get made.  Griping on the internet is gonna do diddly squat though.

2)  This just shows that there are no original ideas left in Hollywood anymore!

Okay, look. I am not going to deny the veracity of that statement.  But if my choices are a new story set in an existing franchise or a remake of a movie that I still clearly remember seeing in theaters at some point in my lifetime (dude, I'm only 30, that's not a huge catalog), well, I am definitely going to take the former.  I can get behind extending one movie into a series of movies.  The remakes still give me the heebie jeebies unless they are done well and a significant period of time has passed between the original and the new one.  Very very few remakes fall into either one of those categories, and so, I don't go see them unless I have a compelling reason to do otherwise.

Also, as I noted above, there are plenty of "new" story ideas being pitched all of the time, it's just that right now new=scary to movie studio execs, so those movies are not getting made.  This is sad, but unlikely to change in the current economy.  Also, honestly, there really are very few actual new ideas left on this earth.  We as a species have been telling each other stories for thousands of years now.  At this point, we're just getting variations on a theme.  What we're asking for when we want "new" movies is a really cool variation that is unlike those that have come before. 

If I would be forced to answer my own question, I would say that the reason people get so upset about a movie becoming a franchise is that a) the follow-up movies aren't any good, and b) the follow-up movies somehow diminish their enjoyment of the first.

Granted, often, the first part of this claim is right.  Just because Hollywood is embracing the idea of series over one-shots doesn't mean they have actually figured out how to pull it off.  If you didn't like the sequel to a beloved movie, I can see being irritated that you wasted your money on seeing it in theaters.  But...that's not the kind of grudge a person really needs to hold on to for more than a day or so, is it?  After that, your trust has been lost.  There's no point in getting angry about future movies in the franchise.  Just don't go see them.  Then the only thing about those you have to worry about is the marketing campaign, which, honestly, should be pretty easy to ignore assuming you are capable of turning off your television/radio, changing the channel, not surfing a website you know will be taking about the movie, deciding not to look at a billboard or other print ad, etc.

The second part of that answer, though, that's just bull.  I am sorry, but if you liked the first movie, you liked it.  The second, third, whatever movies in that franchise are separate entities.  You can completely ignore the fact that they exist and just watch the first one over and over at your leisure.  If seeing the second one points out huge plot holes you didn't know existed in the first one, well, that sucks, but those plot holes were still there when you watched the movie and liked it the first time around.  Chances are you would have noticed them eventually.  I know I've addressed this specific topic before, about a sequel's actual inability to lessen your enjoyment of whatever it is a sequel to, so I won't get into it too much here.  It just baffles and saddens me, and I think people who use this as an excuse are just looking for a reason to be angry.  And honestly, if that's the case, that's a whole different set of problems that need to be addressed.  Let's not blame the movies, okay?

What strikes me as so odd about this regular reaction to a movie turning into a series of movies is that it is pretty much the exact opposite of the way things work in the book world.  There are plenty of stand-alone one-shot books out there, certainly.  But there are tons of series, and no one seems to bat an eye if one book turns into a trilogy or if a planned trilogy turns into an eight book run.  People often, in fact, seem to beg for them to do so. 

Maybe this is just me, and maybe this is why I have less of a problem with the movie conundrum than others, but I love book series.  Most of the books I read are series.  Sure, a one-shot or even a trilogy is easier to get into further on down the line, and with an extended series, you run the risk of never finding out how the story ends.  But with the really good series, each book is a stand-alone tale.  There should be an overarching story arc, sure (one that lasts for just a few books or for the entire series), and the stories should all be about the same person/group of people or at least set in the same universe.  This way they can tie together and fit under the umbrella of a series.  I think what I enjoy most about these is that when I pick up a new book in a series I am already invested in the world I am diving into.  There is less for me to figure out, and so I can enjoy the details more and jump right into the action of the story.  I don't have to wonder why this character is doing X while that one is doing Y, because that is just how I would expect those people to behave.  It is lovely.  Upon reflection, I am sure this is why I have gotten so much more into television series than movies over the last few years. I don't think it is a bad thing for movies to take advantage of this formula. 

I guess maybe the better question here would be:  Why do people get so emotionally involved in movies that they let themselves get so worked up about more of the same being made?  I mean, really, if a movie comes out that you don't want to see, don't get mad that it got made instead of, possibly, something that you did want to see.  Just don't go see it.  Instead, go watch the movie you did enjoy again.  Or pick up a book, or watch a television show.  Heck, go for a walk outside and enjoy reality for a bit.  There's plenty of originality there, I guarantee you.

Me, well, now that I've realized I have this knee-jerk reaction, I know that I need to work on getting past it.  If enough of us can do that, then I think the world will be a much better place.  Full of loads of second-rate movie sequels and series, maybe, but also full of happier people.  I'll take the first any day if it means I can have the second.