TV: 'Invasion', 'Surface', 'Commander in Chief' Cancelled

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Fri May 19, 2006 9:53 am

Do Americans not appreciate intelligent TV? Apparently the only way for shows like these to survive is if they are shown on pay-channels like HBO. It seems whenever something outside the box comes to FOX, WB, ABC or NBC in most cases it's doomed from the start.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Fri May 19, 2006 10:45 am

Keep in mind the demographic which watches TV. A lot of americans who probably would be in to more intellectually stimulating programs don't bother with TV at all (I myself have been on a 12 year boycott!) In other words, those left putting a real time commitment into TV; those whom TV is really marketed at, aren't the sort who are going to want to watch more thought provocative programs anyway.

And those that do....well, they just watch the Discovery Channel, History Channel, Animal Planet, etc...

It is kind of like the radio. How many genuine music fans and collectors do you know that still bother with the radio? If you are genuinely into it (the music), you will become too impatient to bother with the radio.

mice · Post by **mice** » Fri May 19, 2006 3:40 pm

Don't mind CiC being cancelled, but Invasion?!?! wtf! That show rocked!

SuperGrafx · Post by **SuperGrafx** » Fri May 19, 2006 4:39 pm

mice wrote:Don't mind CiC being cancelled,

Same here. Extremely overrated.

rolins · Post by **rolins** » Fri May 19, 2006 4:47 pm

I've never watch any of those shows, so I really don't care if they get cancelled. I'm still glad Family Guy is around. That show rocks.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Fri May 19, 2006 5:24 pm

I watch almost nothing on netwotrk TV these days. It's all a bunch of garbage as far as I'm concerned.

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Fri May 19, 2006 5:41 pm

rolins wrote:I've never watch any of those shows, so I really don't care if they get cancelled. I'm still glad Family Guy is around. That show rocks.

I liked FG much better before FOX cancelled it the first time. It hasn't been the same since it was un-cancelled.
___

Invasion was indeed great. It started off a bit slow but its pace picked up soon. The slow start was apparently requested by the powers that be (idiots!). For instance, the creators of Invasion wanted Mariel to discover her own dead body by the end of the first episode... Hopefully there'll at least be a mini series or tv movie to wrap things up; now it feels like the final chapter of a book is missing. Maybe if the DvD set which will be released in August does well.

ahnslaught · Post by **ahnslaught** » Fri May 19, 2006 10:27 pm

The only shows I watch are 24 and The Unit.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Fri May 19, 2006 10:50 pm

Cartoon Network, Animal Planet, Discovery and sometimes Disney Channel for me, with the Simpsons from the local station peppered in. Most of the big three's series is crappy.

The n00b · Post by **The n00b** » Fri May 19, 2006 11:04 pm

Wow all 3 of those shows sucked. Of course America could make some awesome bank by exporting all of our crappy shows to europe, where it seems that they are appreciated. A potent concoction of Will and Grace eps, along with "The war at home" eps should go over well in the old world.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sat May 20, 2006 1:09 am

I watched a couple of episodes of Invasion but thought it wasn't so good. I watch 24, Lost, and the Sopranos. Other than that? Discovery, Science, and some porn from time to time.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sat May 20, 2006 1:18 am

I really need to refer to Europe as the old world more often.

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Sat May 20, 2006 1:39 am

GaijinPunch wrote:I watched a couple of episodes of Invasion but thought it wasn't so good. I watch 24, Lost, and the Sopranos. Other than that? Discovery, Science, and some porn from time to time.

Invasion was one of those shows you couldn't watch on and off. You had to see every episode. And the show took a few episodes to get going (1-8 were mostly for introduction). Then the suspense started building up. Great acting, phantastic sets, very good special effects - movie-esque production values. Near the end of the season I found Invasion to be far mor intriguing than Lost .

Lost is also good but seems to be going nowhere lately and just keeps feeding the viewers tiny bits of information (much like X-Files before it). The way the survivors behave in Lost is pretty incomprehensible most of the time, too. For instance, in the middle of season 2 Kate and Claire discovered fake beards and clothing in one of the Darma buildings, which should have led them to the conclusion that "The Others" are just faking to be primitive. And what did they do after that discovery? Right, they didn't even tell anyone. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy Lost. But Invasion featured characters that were more like real people.

Arznei · Post by **Arznei** » Sat May 20, 2006 5:17 am

Invasion is on after Lost here. While it isn't as entertaining as Lost is, I still liked it.

Too bad.. it's getting interesting now and they're going to cancel it.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Sat May 20, 2006 6:43 am

I watch hardly anything on TV anymore: Here;s a listing of what I have set up on my DVR right now. As with games, my TV viewing habits tend to run a bit out of the mainstream:

-Good Eats (Food Network): A cooking show that's actually entertaining and that you can actually learn something from. I also waited two hours in line about a year ago to get two of Alton Brown's books signed.

-Mythbusters (Discovery Channel): Mostly I watch it for the explosions.

-The Price is Right (CBS): I watched this quite a bit growing up, and still catch it on occasion. I actually made it to a live taping back in January. Kind of ruined the whole "Magic of television" bit. I've always been a bit of a game show junkie though.

-The Red Green Show (one of the local PBS channels): I don't watch this too often, but it's still funny every once in a while.

-America's Funniest Home Videos (ABC): Best watched with an auto replay button for the funny stuff, and a fast forward button for anything with a bratty 2-year-old in it.

-What's My Line (GSN): The black and white shows from the 50s and 60s. It's interesting to google up the mystery guests and find out how they turned out down the road.

Beyond that, I watch some occasional sports (mostly racing or whatever happens to be on, the local teams are rarely worth watching), and occasionally History Channel, Discovery or Travel Channel.)

For the most part, I watch very little on network television though. All the drama shows have either become far too formulaic (CSI, ER, Law and Order) or you just can't keep up with if you haven't been watching from day 1 (Lost, 24, etc.) The sitcoms are just tripe, and that just doesn't leave much else to watch.

junkeR · Post by **junkeR** » Sat May 20, 2006 7:42 pm

I only watch Fox News and the History Channel. I have never even heard of any of those three shows...

I also hate reality TV shows... I hope they all go away..

jp · Post by jp » Sat May 20, 2006 8:05 pm

History Channel, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, and Spike TV for Star Trek are really the only channels that I have on as background noise (since I rarely sit down to just watch TV).

JBC · Post by **JBC** » Sun May 21, 2006 4:51 am

As long as i still have my CSI i don't care about anything else. Nuff' said.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Mon May 22, 2006 1:19 am

Lost is also good but seems to be going nowhere lately and just keeps feeding the viewers tiny bits of information (much like X-Files before it).

The Season 2 Finale looks pretty good. I dunno... I thought they were doing a good job of dispensing information to be honest. I guess I'm just patient.

stuffmonger · Post by **stuffmonger** » Mon May 22, 2006 3:17 am

I don't watch tv because it sucks (havn't watched tv for about 2 years), but I do watch shows that are reccomended to me on my computer, and sometimes random things that look interesting (blackadder for example, which rocks hard). I know I'll be getting alot of flak for this, but I thought family guy was pretty crappy since the earlier episodes (I have seen all the episodes pre-comeback). It's all the same joke over, and over again, and it's a dumb unintelligent joke anyways. Futurama was a great show. Simpsons used to be pretty good. I really can't stand all this overly-dramatic bull shows also... I swear... it's all terrible acting glossed over with even worse scripting. (I'm talking about shows like sopranos, desperate housewives, 24, etc...) ...Now time to sit back and see the flak fly (but you know I'm right deep down)

Post by **Shatterhand** » Mon May 22, 2006 2:40 pm

I rarely ever watch TV. But I live in Brazil, and what is popular in our local TV is Soap Operas, which suck anyway (Well, they are better than the Mexican Soap Operas, but still...). We sometimes get some of those series that are popular in USA, but many times they are in horrible times, or they just show only a few episodes and leave us in the dark (My mother watches Smallville here, and she keeps complaining that they are repeating the same episdoes for ages now, and she wants to know what happens next, or something like that)

Some people have cable TV, so they have access to better stuff.

Anyway, the only thing I watch in TV besides movies is 24. I really dig that series. This year, in the local TV, we had the 4th season.

Oh, and last week a channel begun airing "The Contender", that show with Stallone which is probably 2 years old already I guess. I've watched the first 2 episodes, just because I enjoy boxing, but the thing isn't all that enjoyable...

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Mon May 22, 2006 8:10 pm

Good American TV would be Mr. Show, Penn and Teller Bullshit, and the Chuck Norris cartoon, IMO.

Keep in mind the demographic which watches TV. A lot of americans who probably would be in to more intellectually stimulating programs don't bother with TV at all (I myself have been on a 12 year boycott!) In other words, those left putting a real time commitment into TV; those whom TV is really marketed at, aren't the sort who are going to want to watch more thought provocative programs anyway.

And those that do....well, they just watch the Discovery Channel, History Channel, Animal Planet, etc...

It is kind of like the radio. How many genuine music fans and collectors do you know that still bother with the radio? If you are genuinely into it (the music), you will become too impatient to bother with the radio.

Good post. Although History Channel is really pushing it. Seen it lately? It's all stuff like 'could Nostradamus really see the future?' World War 2 stuff using a first person shooter to demonstrate (I'm really not making this up) etc. etc. Only thing that's really impressed me was their stuff on the Holocaust but that was a long time ago and that's a hard subject to fuck up.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Mon May 22, 2006 8:45 pm

I do agree that History Channel has had a lot of garbage lately (for the last couple of months, it seems like every time I turn it on it's something-or-other about the DaVinci Code) but I've enjoyed the Mega Movers series that's been on lately (it's a show about moving buildings) and Modern Marvels is usually interesting if nothing else is on.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue May 23, 2006 10:13 am

Holy dogshit. What an ending for 24! Gotta wait like 7 months for it to pick up. Shitty.