So that's Dollhouse cancelled (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollhouse_(TV_series)).
An odd series with a spiky and uncomfortable premise, it never had "primetime smash" written on it from the beginning, but there was some interesting stuff going on, with some interesting developments (or possibly experiments) coming through in later episodes of Season One and early episodes of Season Two.
It really doesn't seem worth getting invested in the story arcs of any series these days, since they seem to be getting cancelled left, right and centre!
Back to the Firefly DVDs for me, then.
Cheers
Jim
I think it's my fault as I just bought season one this week.
And there isn't going to be a third series of Reaper either. Bollocks.
It's never ending. Only a couple of years back I committed to Invasion, Surface and Blade: the series (shut it). Lately The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Jericho (which luckily had an extra 6 episodes made to finish the story off).
Whaaaat???
Man. Sucks to be Joss Whedon, I guess. And he seemed so positive about the backing for this show. What a kick in the teeth.
Aye. We've been burnt so many times (American Gothic, Invasion, Crusade, Millennium etc. etc.) that the wife now refuses to start watching a promising series until she knows it's got two full seasons under its belt. Better to be years behind, but know what you're getting, she reckons. Of course, there's a huge element of self-fulfilling prophecy to all this, akin to the 'trade-waiter' situation.
But for that reason, we haven't watched a minute of Dollhouse yet. Ah well.
Crusade was cool. Even though I only ever saw one or two epsiodes. I presume humanity was wiped out then as after five years the virus thing-ma- bob was going to do us all in.
Well. Haunted looks fun...
It could be worse.
I really loved SMALLVILLE when it first started. It's still going on - is it for a 9th season? But now watching it is a chore - it's worse than doing homework.
Deadwood....sob and WTF did they do to Millenium? 1st series brill, 2nd comfused 3rd utter bilgewater.
and Flashforward will be two if its poor rating but loads more ifit takes of? milk it baby ggggr!
American Gothic I love too
well lucky Lost doing it final season, and Battlestar Galactica went well...
but some series got it end rush up cos of next season cancelled, like Angel, but it got great final episode... same with Deadwood... :(
still cant believe that Smallville still on, as every episode just same formula!
so what your best final episode of Series?
lucky for me as i just buy 3 series dvd of Bottom as it will arrives at work on monday, as my fave final episode, when Eddie and Richie gunned down by SAS soldiers, lol!!!
I hold my complete Bottom DVD with high regard.
Had it imported from the good old USofA about 7 years ago as they never released it over here.
"A wazzo pair of jugs" had to be one of the best lines.
V
Mad Men will be back so I'm happy.
I'm just getting into "Defying Gravity" at the moment. It seems like a mix between "Lost" and "Crusade", lots of slow, deliberate character and story development. I'm sure it'll be cancelled soon. But I shall persevere. Better one series of good stuff than nine series of tosh.
Quote from: Colin MacNeil on 14 November, 2009, 10:44:17 PM
I'm sure it'll be cancelled soon. But I shall persevere.
Really quite soon, I'm afraid, Colin!
Cheers
Jim
Makes me glad I don't watch any of them. Saves on disappointment.
Yeah, these shows are all quite unfamiliar to me. I keep it simple with the Jeremy Kyle show. No danger of THAT being cancelled anytime soon. Not while Hackney and Salford still have scum who've not been on telly yet....
Oh God,don't. If it wasn't for the fact that I'm pathetically grateful for my sister letting me live on her couch for what has turned into a long bloody time I might long ago have had words with her about her unhealthy obsession with the Antichrist. I shouldn't complain though, at least while she's watching that she doesn't have Clublandtv blasting out.
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 14 November, 2009, 10:46:56 PM
Quote from: Colin MacNeil on 14 November, 2009, 10:44:17 PM
I'm sure it'll be cancelled soon. But I shall persevere.
Really quite soon, I'm afraid, Colin!
Cheers
Jim
Oh, Buggrit! grrrrrr.
I was all set to watch that Defying Gravity and at the last second did something else and just couldn't be arsed to watch it on teleport (Virgin thingy). The title of the thread says it all. I suppose when it's finished I might give it a go!
So many things, so little time!
I think the beeb have lost interest in it to be honest, maybe in light of it's cancellation, maybe it's just getting shit ratings. Whatever the reason, they've now changed it's timeslot 3 times in what, 4 weeks, 5? You watch, it'll be 2:00 in the morning next week.
I've been watching Dollhouse but, to my mind, it has continually shot itself in the foot by hinting at interesting things and possibilities which then aren't followed up. Or, at least, not in a reasonable timescale. The individual stories only hit the mark half the time at best and the ongoing arcs aren't progressed enough or, in the case of Alpha, just aren't interesting enough.
Still. Faith in...outfits.
Bring back Lexx.
Doesn't this sort of thing mean that genre TV has to reel it back in and start being less ambitious (or desperate for a money spinning cash cow).
"ARC" tv is the reason we get disappointed when these things don't run and run. The arcs never get finished. Surely there's room for something along the lines of STAR TREK or NEXT GENERATION where each episode is (mostly) standalone but overtime, you can see a tiny bit of progression in the characters (or this may be me projecting because of familiarity?).
Alternatively, you break your show into four or six episode chunks each of which has a satisfying ending.
Quote"ARC" tv is the reason we get disappointed when these things don't run and run.
'Course then you have something like Babylon 5 when they give you an extra year you really didn't need..
I'm with Tim Bisley when it comes to Babylon 5 I'm afraid.
The wife and I have been following Dollhouse and are both gutted it's been cancelled. What's worse is that the series had hit it's stride."Belonging" is one of the best episodes of the series. But it was kind of built to fail: the best episodes are some of the most emotionally disturbing. You can't be shocked that the average viewer didn't latch on.
As a voice of optimism, I'm just glad it was made. While I did like Firefly more, I prefer Dollhouse to Buffy. What a creepy fucking premise, and it ony got creepier the more I thought of it. Loved most of the acting on it. Actually the even weakest actor, the still enormously hot Dushku, felt like she was developing to catch up to the material.
I read a great quote in the New Yorker about Pushing Daisies when it was starting out: "One gets the sense it exists in order to live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful DVD."
recently i go to itunes, get one episode,
if its good to great, I download.
if its ummm worthy of note, i buy the dvd set,
when its outstanding (BSG) i get the download the box set and then buy the originals. ::)
always take into account my demographic location board.
1 season = 4 sterling roughly..less if its multiple seasons(wire,sopranos,Star trek)
Quote from: TordelBack on 15 November, 2009, 01:21:48 PM
'Course then you have something like Babylon 5 when they give you an extra year you really didn't need..
It's even more annoying than that isn't it? I thought JMS had plotted five series, was told going into Series 4 that there wouid be no Series 5 and so condensed two entire series' worth of plot into one, only be told at the end of Series 4, "Hey, you know what, those numbers weren't so bad -- have a fifth series after all" ...
I've recently re-watched Series 4 and, fantastic though it is, the pacing
is] a bit breathless!
Cheers
Jim
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 18 November, 2009, 07:09:47 AM
[I thought JMS had plotted five series, was told going into Series 4 that there wouid be no Series 5 and so condensed two entire series' worth of plot into one, only be told at the end of Series 4, "Hey, you know what, those numbers weren't so bad -- have a fifth series after all" ...
Yup, that's how I understand it too - original planned as the Shadow War for Season 4, and the Civil War and telepath stuff for Season 5. I agree, the Season 4 we get is insanely compressed, but I think that's a lot of of its charm - it's just relentless, a great achievement.
Quote from: Mike Gloady on 14 November, 2009, 11:19:11 PM
Yeah, these shows are all quite unfamiliar to me. I keep it simple with the Jeremy Kyle show. No danger of THAT being cancelled anytime soon. Not while Hackney and Salford still have scum who've not been on telly yet....
Excuse me. We're not all scum in Hackney. Can't speak for Salford, but Hackney is nowhere near as bad as some people think.
Defying gravity was promising. Bum. Sucks about Dollhouse too. And I really liked Reaper, if only for Ray Wise, who was brilliant as always.
At least Chuck got picked up for a 3rd season - cant believe there was even a question mark over that for a while, its so good. Anyone else watch this? 2nd season was fantastic, what with Scott Bakula, Chevy Chase, Gary Cole etc... Can't wait for more.
I wasn't suggesting you all were. Or indeed that even a large proportion of you are. It was an area, like Salford, that sprung to mind. I'd've picked my own borough, but it's a little leafy and suburban for it's rough bits to conjure an image.
Oh well. No offense meant.
As someone who lives in Manchester, the terms "Salford scally" or "Chorlton Twat" are common shorthand for a certain type of person, even though they don't have to actually live there, and no one takes it to mean that everyone who does live in these areas is like that
Quote from: Mike Gloady on 18 November, 2009, 02:52:27 PM
I wasn't suggesting you all were. Or indeed that even a large proportion of you are. It was an area, like Salford, that sprung to mind. I'd've picked my own borough, but it's a little leafy and suburban for it's rough bits to conjure an image.
Oh well. No offense meant.
I'm not really offended, so don't worry about it.
Getting this back on topic though, what also annoys the hell out of me is programmes starting on terestial television and then being shifted to Sky. Lost and the X Files are perfect examples of this. I don't have Sky so missed seeing these shows after they made the change. Now have to pay for Lost boxsets to see each series.
Can't remember if I posted this before - an odd (but not subtle) in-joke from Whedon-bud Nathan Failion's current show Castle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q3pdj9p6yI
Quote from: Professah Byah on 23 November, 2009, 08:50:22 PM
Can't remember if I posted this before - an odd (but not subtle) in-joke from Whedon-bud Nathan Failion's current show Castle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q3pdj9p6yI
Ha! I've never seen Castle but I like that joke.
I've no idea what Castle is or (let's face it, chances are) was, but that almost brings a tear to a jaded eye.
I'm almost happy to let Firefly and Serenity go, you know. I'm kind of philosophical about it ... in the same way that you could look at Ginger Rogers in the later part of her life and think -- would Marilyn Monroe be the icon she is today if she'd lived?
Maybe thirteen episodes and a damn fine movie is all we need.
Cheers
Jim
QuoteMaybe thirteen episodes and a damn fine movie is all we need.
I was thinking something similar while watching the Star Trek movie at the weekend- and reflecting how the shot of Nero's ship coming out of the time hole thingy was very similar to the one of the Reavers appearing behind Serenity (one of the best shots in any movie
ever).
Well, after the news that the Dollhouse has definitely been canned, the last three or four episodes have been easily the best so far. An exciting, ongoing storyline pulling in a lot of elements that had been hanging around too long. Unexpected twists and reversals. Interesting new characters, situations and potential directions. Everything except more outfits really.
Had this happened at the same point in the first series or possibly even earlier in the second, I think people would've stuck with the programme and we could look forward to another year at least. Oh well.
Quote from: The Cosh on 23 December, 2009, 12:24:24 AM
Well, after the news that the Dollhouse has definitely been canned, the last three or four episodes have been easily the best so far.
Yeah ... they've been excellent. Bugger.
Cheers!
Jim
Quotebut some series got it end rush up cos of next season cancelled, like Angel, but it got great final episode...
*to the tune of something stupid*
and then idw go and spoil it all by publishing something shitty like after the faaaaall!
Smallville, My Family, Little Britain, My Hero, Lost, 2 pints of lager and a packet of crisps.
What have all these shows got in common?
1) They are all unimaginably awful.
2) They are all extremely popular.
3) Thay have all had many, many series.
It's time to face facts. By and large the viewing public doesn't want to watch things like Dollhouse, or Firefly, or Deadwood. They want to watch Ross saying the wrong name at his wedding, or see Jeremy Kyle screaming at a slack-jawed teen dad.
On the other hand Being Human and Misfits are getting a new series, so it's not all bad. (And I'll admit, I don't mind Smallville, although it could be so much better. I also quite like Little Britain but it got too repetitive.)
I hope they do a new series of Psychoville too. I haven't heard anything more about that since it finished!
Quote from: The Cosh on 23 December, 2009, 12:24:24 AM
Well, after the news that the Dollhouse has definitely been canned, the last three or four episodes have been easily the best so far.
Blimey! Well ... it looks like the cancellation was flagged sufficiently far in advance for Whedon and Co to have a decent stab at wrapping up all the dangling plotlines. I've just watched Episodes 11 and 12 of Season 2, which have been a succession of real "Whoa!" moments with plot twists and revelations coming thick and fast.
There's still Episode 13 which -- I understand -- is something of an epilogue but these last two episodes have been 90 minutes of damn fine television.
Cheers!
Jim
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 17 January, 2010, 07:42:54 PM
There's still Episode 13 which -- I understand -- is something of an epilogue but these last two episodes have been 90 minutes of damn fine television.
I thought the last episode was going to be a follow on from the future storyline of last year's Epitaph One, hence the final scene.
And, yes, the last half dozen episodes have been great stuff. I think I'd even buy the comics if they continued it that way!