Like a lot of things, it started out good, and eventually went bad (like AMC), etc. I used to enjoy the Friday retro, older B flicks, etc. Now it's cheesy made-for-TV-movies, ghost/UFO/Paranormal shows...and the one I just can't figure out....pro wrestling. And then there's that annoying trend of misspelling words like "Sci-Fi" (which is a misspelling itself).
Honestly, the wrestling is only one night a week. Yes, it's annoying, but it's not like they're running it 24/7. In the meantime, they still air plenty of good shows, both homegrown and imported: WAREHOUSE 13, BEING HUMAN, FACE/OFF, HOT SET, ALPHAS, LOST GIRL, MERLIN, etc. And I confess that I enjoy the campy tv-movies like SHARKTOPUS and FLU BIRD HORROR. If you're in the right frame of mind, they can be as fun as the "older B-flicks" you mentioned before . . . . (Say the guy who grew up watching the likes of VALLEY OF THE GWANGI and MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS.)
They got nothing worth watching anymore. Sad. The misspelling is so they could copyright their name. Can't copyright Sci Fi.
How did AMC go bad? With shows like the Walking Dead, Breaking Bad and mad men, i beg to differ. There movies are not bad either.
Walking Dead they fired two producers / creators. They almost got Mad Men canceled after the forth season because they are cheap. Breaking Bad almost went to another network because they network was too fucking cheap to give them 13 episodes. AMC is run by idiots. Defiance looks amazing, SyFy's best looking show in years. A show based on The Adjustment Bureau is being made, and High Moon, a TV series being made by Bryan Fuller. The network isn't the same, no more space operas, but there are decent enough shows around. Place I like the name change, sci-fi can be science fiction overall and SyFy is now the network shows.
I used to feel the same way until I actually gave one of their current shows a try. Warehouse 13 is good fun.
I give a lot of their shows a shot - W13, Merlin, Being Human, Alphas, Haven - but nothing ever grabs me. Not sure about Defiance, but I'll check that out too. I just don't think they're making shows to my tastes nowadays. I'm not that hard to please, I suffered through boring-ass Caprica till the bitter end, just cuz I liked the premise and many of the actors. Too many of their shows just give me no reason to keep watching at all.
SyFy is like Universal's other networks. The shows are fine, but nothing to write home about, they are fun filler episodes.
SyFy ... Sunday there is a Star Trek movie marathon. Monday the movie Pandorum is on, which I never saw, but heard it's fair, going to record it. Followed by Continuum's (I think) first season first episode, going to try it. That's followed by a new Being Human, then a repeat (that I didn't see) Lost Girl, both of which I generally like. I'll admit to getting tired of Face Off, but it was good for a while. Warehouse 13 is back sometime in April.
I like Warehouse 13 and Haven. And I will give Defiance a try. Eureka and Stargate were good. SyFy runs some good theatrical releases, which almost makes up for their horrible original movies.
For all of the complaints about SyFy, I think there are more people watching the network now than ever before, IIRC. Personally, though, I really haven't watched anything on SyFy since Stargate Universe ended, but I am looking forward to Continuum and the upcoming Defiance though.
Yeah. Personally, I think people tend to romanticize the past where Sci Fi/Syfy is concerned. Sure, they aired FARSCAPE back in the old days, but that was only one night a week. Most of their schedule consisted of reruns of old, cancelled shows. I used to refer to it as the Lost Elephant's Graveyard of Dead Genre Shows. I tended to watch the original stuff like THE INVISIBLE MAN and FARSCAPE, but had little interest in rewatching ancient episodes of THE INCREDIBLE HULK or whatever, aside from checking out an occasional ep for nostalgia's sake. And, of course, now that pretty much everything is available on DVD, there's even less point in a channel that mostly reruns vintage sf shows. Anyone who wants to veg out on old BUCK ROGERS episodes can just buy the boxed set or download them from NetFlix or whatever . . ..
Since Sci-Fi is short for Science Fiction, I have no idea what part you think is mispelt. People have hated Syfy as long as I can remember. I do recall posters here being livid about the leaked details regarding the then-upcoming Battlestar Galactica reboot, and writing off Laura Roslin as a Bonnie Hammer insert character. I don't hate Syfy, but besides their current rerun of TNG in HD and their Canadian import Continuum I have found basically nothing I want to watch on their channel. I am tenatively looking forward to Defiance, though.
I loved BSG. I liked Caprica. I enjoy their US adaptation of Being Human. Everything else on the network seems mediocre or sci-fi "lite", at best.
As far as pro wrestling, I'm not so much against it as I don't really understand it's inclusion.....sort of. While there is no direct connection with pro wrestling and sci-fi, there seems to have been a connection with sci-fi fans and pro wrestling for some time. Horror movies, paranormal reality shows are no more connected to sci-fi (but often lumped together for convenience) than pro wrestling is. But they are all out there. Pro wrestling by the way suffers the same problem sci-fi does. They both have a problem with their history. To many, pro wrestling started with Hulk Hogan, cable, pay-tv. To many it seems, sci-fi started with color and elaborate special effects. The problem with genre/theme channels is that they usually have a generational cut-off. So consequently the older sci-fi programming (movies, tv shows) get pushed aside to retro themed stations like MeTV, TCM, TVLand, etc. So it's not so much the inclusion of campy more modern movies I take issue with, but the exclusion of those older programs and movies they included in the 90's.