FF:QLD terminator series in feb

If you're at Bar Wars tomorrow, Goob, I can bring you copies.

 

Hey BBN, can I also have copies, pretty please? I keep promising my dad I'll grab them for him as he's just as likely to catch it on TV as I am, and I do enjoy encouraging his inner geek.

 

Got the 4th Episode but haven't had a chance to watch it - it's waiting in line with Family Guy: Blue Harvest...

 

No worries, Morgan, ask and ye shall receive.

 

Awesome.

 

Working, BBN. I just meant that I've been lazy in my data/description aquisition, is all.

 

one more day YAY
and now there is some thing good on tuesday's again

 

It should be interesting to see how well this does on Channel Nine. Seven have really stolen the limelight with airing popular American shows, which could give the impression that a show outside the monopoly is somehow inferior. I can't shake the feeling that the network will drag the series down, rather than the show boosting ratings.

Nor can I shake the mental image of Eddie McGuire sitting sadly at a bus stop, humming Nine's "still the one" song in a minor key.

 

^ It'll go the same way as good sci-fi/fantasy shows always do on Aussie TV; It'll air around Prime Time for 2 weeks, be shifted to 11PM the next week for about 3 weeks and then they'll decided to put it on around 2AM on a weeknight until finally it just disappears in the middle of a season for no apparent reason whatsoever.

 

Well said, Neech. It'll quickly slip to the Star Trek Timeslot, just like Galactica did. That show was heavily hyped too.

Frankly, I think the matter is that most Australian sci-fi fans pirate their shows. Sci-Fi fans are tech savvy, almost by definition, and Australia is the world's biggest BitTorrent user per capita. Put 2 and 2 together. It means that the ratings on shows like that are always going to be undeservedly low. Again I'm going to take this opportunity to lament the lack of legal options for people outside the US who want to watch their shows digitally and on-demand, without being beholden to the whims of a commercial TV network. Guess I'll just keep downloading and then buying DVD boxes to salve my conscience.

 

OR...... maybe because you all download it the network does not get the ratings and it falls behind and by and by slips off the radar cause no ones watching it they are downloading it cause the couldnt be fraked watching ads or waiting ?
maybe ?
or maybe its cause I am the only person I know who is on the interweb that does not bit torrent or hoo's a gagnabit?

 

no offence, but the 'geek' demographic is actually quite insignificant and - surprise surprise - networks don't target them anyway. They target lowest common denomitor (see also: biggest loser, big brother, it takes 2, desperate housewives). Also known as people who spend money with advertisers. Take a look at the ads that are on with the show and you'll work out who they are trying to appease.

This series will survive or fail on just how much people really liked the terminator movies, and whether the 'regular' people empathise with the characters.

 

To be honest, I don't see it lasting.

 

OR...... maybe because you all download it the network does not get the ratings and it falls behind and by and by slips off the radar cause no ones watching it they are downloading it cause the couldnt be fraked watching ads or waiting ?
maybe ?

*Scratches head* Isn't that what I said?


no offence, but the 'geek' demographic is actually quite insignificant and - surprise surprise - networks don't target them anyway.

Absolutely right; hence the Star Trek Timeslot. But here's the thing: (and I hope I'm not naive in thinking this) surely shows like Battlestar Galactica and to a lesser extent The Sarah Conner Chronicles SHOULD appeal to quote-unquote "normals". They're action-packed, character-driven dramas, ferchrissakes. Galactica especially. It's only really sci-fi because it happens to be set in space. The big problem here is not the networks' dismissal, it's the stigma that the general public has towards science fiction. They think it's laser beams and space ships and shows for nerds, when in fact at its best its a powerful vehicle for telling poignant stories about the human condition. But the unwashed masses only seem to only want to watch drivel like Big Brother, and it's because of them, and the smell of money, that commercial television is in the dire state its in right now.

Commercial TV finally lost me for good a few years back when I tried to watch that year's season of 24 ("tried" being the operative word) on channel 7, and was utterly turned off by the pure contempt with which it treated its ostensibly loyal viewers. Late starts, schedule changes, skipping weeks without notice, cramming 4 episodes into a single week so they could get it over and done with... I've had it. Commercial TV is for chumps. TV in general is for chumps. I say it again: I don't watch TV, but I watch lots of TV shows. Since there is NO opportunity for me to legally get them in a digital, video-on-demand format (the format that suits my preferences and lifestyle the best) in this apparent backwater of a country, I obtain them illegally. I then purchase DVD box sets as soon as possible, in order to support and pay back the makers of the shows in question. This is the future, kids. We live in a global, networked, high-bandwidth world. What sense is there anymore in getting your media by checking your watch and sitting down in front of a screen wired up to a series of information channels that decide for themselves when they think you should see their content? (And then failing to show the content at the allotted time because garbage like Big Brother runs 20 minutes overtime as a matter of course...) That's yesterday's technology, and I've had enough of it. I'll be ever so glad to see it fall by the wayside.

(Sorry for the soapbox feel of this post. This stuff just irritates me no end. I hate being forced to be painted as a criminal just because I'm trying to embrace a better way of doing things.)

 

Preach on Brother Tim. Every word is the Truth. Commercial television is dying a slow death, and it's because the population is slowly getting smarter and wiser to better forms of distribution of the media in question.

 

Nah TV is for live sports and that is where it stops...

 

Just to add my two cents briefly - I think shows like Sarah Connor Cronicals should appeal to the general public because it's still set on contemporary earth. As much as Battlestar is brilliant, it has nothing really to do with our current earth society and some of the audience who watch things like big brother need stuff like that to latch on to.

Heroes did better than most of the sort of genre because it is dealing with every day people in contemporary society who just happen to have superpowers.

It's a generalisation of the greater audience probably, but I do think the general public needs to have the things they recognise about their world to latch onto before they're willing to just immerse themselves in great story-telling. They like the familiar.

Anywho...

 

I'd agree with that Morgs. That is why things like the Sims and 2nd Life are so popular. People want to immerse themselves in the familiar. I think they need a whack over the head and a touch more imagination, personally.

I'm more into things like Battlestar and LotR etc, because I prefer escapism to immersion - that and the fact I've enough imagination to find immersion in the fantastic.

 

The Lowest Common Denominator or as I like to call them: The Unwashed Masses, don't like to think while watching TV. So it doesn't matter how much action shows like Terminator or Battlestar have, them-there thinkin' sections will turn 'em all away.

The Terminator movies are very successful because they're movies. People go in expecting to invest 2-3 hours of their time and will be more attentive and thoughtful because of it. TV on the other hand is a turn on a forget about it medium for most people and so, most of the intelligent shows don't last long.

And to Sith Star; Aussies were being dicked over by the commercial TV stations when it came to good shows long before the internet came about so I think that it's more a case of the internet savvy Australian audiences anticipating what the networks would do with their favourite shows and finding ways to get them somewhere else.

Sci-Fi and fantasy shows have never been rated highly on Australian TV - look at Space: Above and Beyond or even Buffy.

 

Definitely. I think the only reason Star Trek still gets shown (albeit at 11:30 at night) is because of the cachet of the name.

Morgan and Loz are sadly right about quote-unquote "mainstream" TV audiences being reluctant to watch sci-fi. I just wish they would re-educate themselves, because part of what makes sci-fi great is that it does relate to the modern world. The similarities to our world in shows like BSG or Trek are much more important than the differences. It's using a fantastical setting as a canvass upon which to tell stories about human beings and about the world we live in. And if I was to pick nits, part of the appeal of Galactica and a huge part of makes it such a great show is how UN-sci fi it is. Its style is so grounded and real and Earthlike, not like the quasi-communist jumpsuit-wearing utopia of Star Trek. Same with Firefly.

Sigh. Sorry, I know I'm preaching to the choir here, I just need to get this stuff off my chest.

 

Of course we could re-educate them... with a cricket bat

 

"If he wasn't such a likable old soul, I'd have to reeducate the tar out of him." - Max

 

I don't really think it's the case of the LCD being incapable of appreciating sci-fi. The success of Heroes and Lost can attest to that. It's more a case of there being a lack of characters for people to identify with. You can make them as flawed as you want, but if they go around with a scowl on their face the whole time most people are going to turn off.

 

I may be slightly drunk atm, but LCD*? What is that, besides a standard of telly-veeshon... (Drunk!) I kinda think that was my point though - people like things like Heroes because it's in contemporary society and they can associate with contemporary themes. It's still a world that the general public are familiar with. They like personal archetypes they can identify with.


* wait wait, sorry - I figured it out. Like I said, drunk (or at least tipsy).

 

It does irk me sometimes that sci fans consider themselves above the general viewing audience. I do love sci-fi, and Tv in general, and can be found watching reality programs too. Often I find sci-fi trieds too hard to be allegorical and talk about the world and sometimes watching a reality program about people trying to be a supermodel is so much less like real life. That's my escapism. I'll watch Battlestar or Star Trek when I feel like thinking, reading between the lines, comparing the political landscape. How people use TV is up to them. Many people's lives are far different to ours and their use of TV is purely for relaxation and allowing their brains to slow down. That's what alot of TV has always been about, and it's not a crime.

We aren't above anyone or smarter that anyone because we like sci-fi or because we choose to watch the programs we love before commercial tv watchers. Just feels like some people get a bit snobby about their place in the tv viewing landscape. Maybe we love tv and movies more than most which is why we won't compromise with being fluffed around by timeslot changes and having to wait for things other countries have already seen. That's how I see it anyway.