Also I find FLASH FORWARD continual drop upsetting. It sad when a network tries to come up with some INNOVATIVE programmingn like FLASH FORWARD and V and then you see the the numbers continue to go down as viewers bleed off because they can't be bothered to follow a continuing story and would rather tune in to see the some NCIS cops doing the same story week after week or the BONES team field yet another similar case.
I always watch Bones live and DVR Flash. Since FF is heavily serialized, it's more fun to watch 2 or 3 eps in a row.
And yeah, moving FF to a new time slot probably won't help. If you don't know the back story, why bother watching now?
I think it's probably much more about people not getting into the characters. Same problem V is having. Lost is far harder to keep track of, but the characters are compelling. That's why it succeeded. As the characters started, at times, to become parodies of themselves, through excessive repetition, the ratings fell, but the characters remained interesting enough to keep a good-sized audience coming back for more.
Good analysis pisher. The characters on Flash Forward are incredibly dull. The overall storyline is interesting enough but we don't really care about the people at all. Concerning V, I still think its too early to give up and I'm still a lot more excited about those characters than FF but it is far from being Lost. I started watching Lost at the end of season three. I still have yet to watch 2 and most of 3, yet I get enough of the storyline and actually care enough about the characters to make it work.
I agree the V characters could be interesting, or at least fun to watch--like the characters in the original miniseries. But when I actually try to watch V, they completely fail to connect with me. Elizabeth Mitchell is easily one of my favorite Lost actors--I find her dull and unsexy on V. Case closed.
It's too bad Vampire Diaries was preempted in Miami last night, will be waiting for Saturday when they air it here!
Could New Moon and some preemption do that much damage? Or is it because the numbers are just so low for The CW that some damage just looks like a lot?
Posts: 113 | Location: Miami | Registered: 02 October 2007
It doesn't seem like New Moon made much difference. Overall viewing levels were about the same. I could see VD being affected, obviously. But in any event, these were not regular evening showings--they were latenight showings, and would have mainly occurred outside of primetime.
I think that the problem with this season's "Fringe" is that they keep using eps. to "set up" another episode, but there never seems to be the big reveal moment. We all thought when we tuned in ep. 1 this season (well, I did anyway!) that we'd learn more about that alternate universe where the Twin Towers still stood, and Leonard Nimoy hung out, etc. etc. But no, we kept getting setups for that ep. (and apparently giving the actor who played Charlie a plausible exit from the show). And when it was finally shown, it didn't tell us that much new. It seems to me it can't decide whether to be a serial or a standalone, and it ends up being neither.
And now it seems to be descending into self-parody. Ah well, sooner or later we all do. You, me, Maureen Dowd, even Ryan Seacrest. ;-)
quote:
Originally posted by pisher (about "Fringe):
It is a much less entertaining show this season, in the most competitive timeslot in all of television. I don't care about the ratings--my worry was that it would run too long, and turn into a mockery of itself, and sadly, it already has.
BETTER ep last night, but I still couldn't tear myself away from The Office. Recyclops!
I agree with you about ABC's taking chances, although I think that Fox has a better business model than ABC. And while I admire CBS's business model, I do hate the way they still program for 1999, with their cookie cutter shows, their refusal ever to deviate from the "YOU VILL WATCH OUR REPEATS UND YOU VILL LIKE ZEM!" and their insistence upon sliding the entire Sunday programming to accommodate football overruns instead of building it into their schedule the way Fox does. When it finally all comes crashing down, I will dance. But I don't expect to be dancing anytime soon.
quote:
Originally posted by tv avenger: I think abc should consider moving flash forward to another night. It is not the hit that they were hoping for. They have their work cut out for them and lots of holes to fill. But I still feel that they are the only network to be taking chances and that is exactly what we need. I applaud them for not taking the easy road like cbs and cloning their entire sched. to be one big NCIS/CSI/NY/LA joke.
I agree completely. And last night's ep. seemed like a parody of a "Bones" ep. So in effect it was parodying a parody of a forensic show. A head in the return lane of a bowling alley. Are you kidding me? And, of course, since Fishbourne can't seem to master the easy banter the other characters have with each other, they had to throw in a B story that would allow him to be serious and aloof from the rest.
quote:
Originally posted by saraday: It doesn't seem to me like CSI is even trying anymore. Last night's episode was okay, but nothing memorable. The Trilogy/crossover was their only rating's ploy for sweeps; it did well last week, but, clearly, it is not having any long term impact on the ratings. Lawrence Fishburne is not the face of CSI, and the producers need to accept that and move on.
I agree that the move to 10pm is probably in CSI's future, more likely next season.
I think that the problem with this season's "Fringe" is that they keep using eps. to "set up" another episode, but there never seems to be the big reveal moment.
Very well put--they seem to be in some kind of holding pattern. They're always about to start the story in earnest, but they never do.
quote:
We all thought when we tuned in ep. 1 this season (well, I did anyway!) that we'd learn more about that alternate universe where the Twin Towers still stood, and Leonard Nimoy hung out, etc. etc.
I thought Nimoy's William Bell would become a regularly recurring character. I was really jazzed about it.
quote:
But no, we kept getting setups for that ep. (and apparently giving the actor who played Charlie a plausible exit from the show).
I don't miss Charlie, but I don't like the way they got rid of him.
quote:
And when it was finally shown, it didn't tell us that much new. It seems to me it can't decide whether to be a serial or a standalone, and it ends up being neither.
Well, to be fair, The X-Files had the same problem--but it also had Glen Morgan and James Wong for the first two seasons (and part of the fourth). It had Howard Gordon, and (later on) Vince Gilligan. It also had Darin Morgan--and so does Fringe, but do we ever see a script from him? It's really hard to get him to sit down and finish something, but they should have found a way. There just isn't the kind of idiosyncratic writing talent The X-Files had, which kept it afloat when the 'mythology' ran into trouble--which happened very early on. They just kept rebooting the mythology, and it never made any sense, but the monsters were fun, and we had a good time in the first few seasons, waiting for the answers that never came and when they did we wanted to send them back.
quote:
And now it seems to be descending into self-parody. Ah well, sooner or later we all do. You, me, Maureen Dowd, even Ryan Seacrest. ;-)
But not Sarah Palin. Redundant, since she was BORN as a parody.
Too bad But what can you do about pre-emption. At least the A18-34 and W18-34 are the same as last week. 1.5/4 in those categories matches their season high, if I'm not mistaken?
Originally posted by heighteye: I think that the problem with this season's "Fringe" is that they keep using eps. to "set up" another episode, but there never seems to be the big reveal moment. We all thought when we tuned in ep. 1 this season (well, I did anyway!) that we'd learn more about that alternate universe where the Twin Towers still stood, and Leonard Nimoy hung out, etc. etc. But no, we kept getting setups for that ep. (and apparently giving the actor who played Charlie a plausible exit from the show). And when it was finally shown, it didn't tell us that much new. It seems to me it can't decide whether to be a serial or a standalone, and it ends up being neither.
And now it seems to be descending into self-parody. Ah well, sooner or later we all do. You, me, Maureen Dowd, even Ryan Seacrest. ;-)
quote:
Originally posted by pisher (about "Fringe):
It is a much less entertaining show this season, in the most competitive timeslot in all of television. I don't care about the ratings--my worry was that it would run too long, and turn into a mockery of itself, and sadly, it already has.
BETTER ep last night, but I still couldn't tear myself away from The Office. Recyclops!
Bottom line: the only difference for Fringe this season, compared to last, is this new crappy time slot, which I suspected would be the case when FOX announced this move back in mid-May. This is the real reason this show's Live ratings have fallen so greatly.
The idea that the show has somehow lost its way is a cop out. It still has its core fan base of about 8-10 million (e.g. its big DVR audience) and it still is of good quality. Now, if only it can move to a better night and time so advertisers can pay more of a premium for its ads on the show with more Live viewers.
Also I find FLASH FORWARD continual drop upsetting. It sad when a network tries to come up with some INNOVATIVE programmingn like FLASH FORWARD and V and then you see the the numbers continue to go down as viewers bleed off because they can't be bothered to follow a continuing story and would rather tune in to see the some NCIS cops doing the same story week after week or the BONES team field yet another similar case.
I always watch Bones live and DVR Flash. Since FF is heavily serialized, it's more fun to watch 2 or 3 eps in a row.
And yeah, moving FF to a new time slot probably won't help. If you don't know the back story, why bother watching now?
I think it's probably much more about people not getting into the characters. Same problem V is having. Lost is far harder to keep track of, but the characters are compelling. That's why it succeeded. As the characters started, at times, to become parodies of themselves, through excessive repetition, the ratings fell, but the characters remained interesting enough to keep a good-sized audience coming back for more.
Good analysis pisher. The characters on Flash Forward are incredibly dull. The overall storyline is interesting enough but we don't really care about the people at all. Concerning V, I still think its too early to give up and I'm still a lot more excited about those characters than FF but it is far from being Lost. I started watching Lost at the end of season three. I still have yet to watch 2 and most of 3, yet I get enough of the storyline and actually care enough about the characters to make it work.
I think last night was FF's strongest episode since the pilot. They finally made me care about a character but unfortunately it took them 9 episodes to accomlish that. I think one of the problems with the characters is that they are so damn joyless that they are not fun to watch, for example the drunk dad who finally met his daughter after thinking she was dead and one episode later they are already fighting and having arguments for no apparent reason other than to generate contrived conflict... one would think that both father daughter would respond with more joy but no they are back to their emo moping. Similarly I'm so sick of Mark and his wife's drama which to me seems like they are creating a mountain out of a molehill, I can understand the guy who is gonna be murdered to freak out but these two have nothing to complain, their destiny is in their own hands and if his wife can't stop herself from cheating even after she has had a warning 4 months in advance then maybe you're meant to be together, either way I could care less about them.
Last night was an amazing episode though. I literally groaned when I first saw the character on whom this episode was focused but once it got going it told a relatively simple story so well that I was completely sold on Bryce and his situation. There was finally a sense of joy and fun to the show rather than Joeseph Finnes giving brooding looks for 1 hour. I hope this is the direction the show continues to take and maybe people will give it a second chance
Originally posted by heighteye: I think that the problem with this season's "Fringe" is that they keep using eps. to "set up" another episode, but there never seems to be the big reveal moment. We all thought when we tuned in ep. 1 this season (well, I did anyway!) that we'd learn more about that alternate universe where the Twin Towers still stood, and Leonard Nimoy hung out, etc. etc. But no, we kept getting setups for that ep. (and apparently giving the actor who played Charlie a plausible exit from the show). And when it was finally shown, it didn't tell us that much new. It seems to me it can't decide whether to be a serial or a standalone, and it ends up being neither.
And now it seems to be descending into self-parody. Ah well, sooner or later we all do. You, me, Maureen Dowd, even Ryan Seacrest. ;-)
quote:
Originally posted by pisher (about "Fringe):
It is a much less entertaining show this season, in the most competitive timeslot in all of television. I don't care about the ratings--my worry was that it would run too long, and turn into a mockery of itself, and sadly, it already has.
BETTER ep last night, but I still couldn't tear myself away from The Office. Recyclops!
Bottom line: the only difference for Fringe this season, compared to last, is this new crappy time slot, which I suspected would be the case when FOX announced this move back in mid-May. This is the real reason this show's Live ratings have fallen so greatly.
The idea that the show has somehow lost its way is a cop out. It still has its core fan base of about 8-10 million (e.g. its big DVR audience) and it still is of good quality. Now, if only it can move to a better night and time so advertisers can pay more of a premium for its ads on the show with more Live viewers.
Yeah, I don't think Fringe is necessarily worse than last year, I'm just sick of the standalone episodes. I've loved all the mythology episodes but they are so few and far between. Esp now with the ratings the show is gonna be canceled forsure, we need more mythology episodes to give us as many answers as possible before it goes offair.
