In the 134th episode of the Functional Nerds podcast, Patrick, John and Carrie discuss The Future of SciFi Television.
Picks of the Week:
- Lost Girl (Carrie)
- Fringe (Patrick)
- Bladerunner Soundtrack by Vangelis (John)
Also mentioned in this Episode:
- Fish Anthology from Dagan Books
- Alphas
- Stargate
- Twin Peaks
- Lost
- Mutant X
- The X-Men
- Heroes
- Smallville
- Misfits
- Continuum
This podcast contains original music by Paul and Storm, plus original music by John Anealio.
© 2013 Patrick Hester and John Anealio
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I need to find time to watch Lost Girl. I might like it.
You talk about how a sci-fi TV show needs good writing to stay alive. Yet two days ago we find out Young Justice and Green Lantern got canceled. Both shows had good writing, complex plots, good characters, little gems for you to find, a metatext, etc so what happened?
It’s because of things like this is why I’ve largely stopped watching sci-fi TV. It never gets a fair shake and rarely stays around for a good run.
Yeah – I’m not happy about Young Justice going away. Damned fine show.
On a different note, you also talked about how Alphas, Heroes, Mutant X were all based off X-men. How is that a bad thing? Sitcoms do it. So do most police procedurals. Let’s not forget soap operas. Originally is hard to find. Alphas gets canceled while a show about an unfunny man-child (Psych) continues on (and on and on).
More a complaint that they didn’t even bother to try to make it different. Which i guess lends to your sitcom argument… 😉
~P
I liked the fact that Alphas was like the X-men. It didn’t bother me at all.
Yeah, it didn’t bother me too. I just saw the first season. By the time the second season came around I had pretty much given up on TV completely (now about all I watch are reruns as background noise). What struck me about Alphas is that it wasn’t really X-men. X-men had mutant powers that could do anything. The powers in Alphas had more to do with the “power of the mind”. Things like triggering an adrenaline rush at will or sharp senses. Granted some were a stretch but they did try to keep it “realistic” as opposed to controlling the weather or having lasers shoot out of your eyes.
I am no sure we can ever understand why a show is being canceled. Take Leverage as an example (clearly not a speculative show, but an excellent one). It got canceled even though it won the People’s choice award. Clearly the people loved the show and yet TNT canceled it.
So there may be some excellent SF shows that will get canceled and other really crappy shows with bad writing that will stay on the air…
Leverage got canceled? I knew I was behind on the episodes but man that sucks. But I do have to say that for me it went from “watch every live episode” to “get through ‘alternate means’ later”. It was starting to feel a bit samey.
I think we have to recognize that some TV shows tell a story and that story has a beginning, middle, and end. We have to recognize when the story ends and accept it. As much as I loved the show, it was its time. I hope 77 episodes are enough to get it into syndication.
Maybe if genre shows plan for a X season run, no more no less, stations may be more tolerant to let them live to the end. Then if the fans want more you can plan for a sequel series.