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Scifi's new programming

Ascension and 12 Monkeys look great. Childhood's End was one of my favorite books growing up and I enjoyed Leviathan Wakes (the first of The Expanse novels), so I'm looking forward to those. All in all, a promising slate of new programming, and I'm happy to see SyFy getting back to its roots.
 
I saw a trailer for Ascension before Interstellar, it really did look very good!
 
Gasp! You mean, Syfy actually promoted one of their shows...beyond the confines of the channel itself?!! And in a movie theater to boot?

I too am happy for the shift back towards scripted, and hopefully, quality series and miniseries. But my biggest fear is that they've done sooooo much damage to themselves by driving away audiences that wanted to watch the network, if these initial projects don't succeed at garnering impressive ratings right off the bat, that they won't have the drive to continue on the path, and retreat back to the likes of "Man-Octopus vs Dino-Potato Girl on Zombie Island".
 
I hope this has a trickle-down effect to other networks who have drifted away from their original programming mandates. I also hope it means they don't restrict themselves to new shows, but shows that they've missed in the interim, shows like Being Erica. And while they're at it, I hope they get rid of the Wrestling which never belonged there to begin with. Surely they can find a better channel for it to belong to.
 
Gasp! You mean, Syfy actually promoted one of their shows...beyond the confines of the channel itself?!! And in a movie theater to boot?

I too am happy for the shift back towards scripted, and hopefully, quality series and miniseries. But my biggest fear is that they've done sooooo much damage to themselves by driving away audiences that wanted to watch the network, if these initial projects don't succeed at garnering impressive ratings right off the bat, that they won't have the drive to continue on the path, and retreat back to the likes of "Man-Octopus vs Dino-Potato Girl on Zombie Island".

I don't know. I'd hope they wouldn't give up the cheesy drive-in monster movies entirely. If you're in the right frame of mind, they can be fun.

Maybe once a week, every Saturday night?

And I refuse to concede that the Warehouse 13/Eureka/Being Human era was any sort of mistake. Those were great shows.
 
Yeah, I especially loved Eureka. Don't know how they can say that was a negative. There's nothing wrong with lighthearted. There's also nothing wrong with more serious shows either, but I do think that there should be a compromise, as I think both types can co-exist.
 
And while they're at it, I hope they get rid of the Wrestling which never belonged there to begin with. Surely they can find a better channel for it to belong to.
Well, come January, Smack down will be moved to Thursday nights. Maybe a block of entertaining shows can return to populate a new Sci Fridays. I miss those days.
 
^^ Has Lost Girl ever made sense? :rommie:

I'm keeping my fingers crossed here. Ascension looks great, and I hope it lives up to that. I'm excited about Childhood's End and 3001. The series don't look as intriguing, with the exception of The Expanse. Stuff like Helix, Defiance, and 12 Monkeys doesn't do it for me.

I don't know. I'd hope they wouldn't give up the cheesy drive-in monster movies entirely. If you're in the right frame of mind, they can be fun.
Agreed. Nothing like a good bad movie.

And I refuse to concede that the Warehouse 13/Eureka/Being Human era was any sort of mistake. Those were great shows.
Agreed again. Those are among my favorite shows of the modern era, along with Sanctuary.

Yeah, I especially loved Eureka. Don't know how they can say that was a negative. There's nothing wrong with lighthearted. There's also nothing wrong with more serious shows either, but I do think that there should be a compromise, as I think both types can co-exist.
They definitely should have that variety, but their "serious" stuff has a tendency to be cringe worthy. And the interview wasn't encouraging in that respect. "We can kill kids and dogs" is not the attitude I'm looking for.
 
I enjoyed Leviathan Wakes
For a glorious second there I thought that show was called Leviathan Frakes.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water...

Bu5FpWZ.jpg
 
I'm looking forward to Ascension, Childhood's End and The Expanse. Less so 12 Monkeys, a movie I never enjoyed, or 3001, which is my least favorite book in the series.

As regards The Expanse, I've read the first book, Leviathan Wakes, and am curious as to how they're going to budget the series. That book is a space opera that would require multiple sets and an huge amount of CGI to pull it off. If Farscape was costing around two million an episode ten years ago, The Expanse would probably be more.
 
They definitely should have that variety, but their "serious" stuff has a tendency to be cringe worthy. And the interview wasn't encouraging in that respect. "We can kill kids and dogs" is not the attitude I'm looking for.

I don't know, but I think it has a lot of promise to be good. It's just the attitude discounts the lighterhearted fare, painting that as a problem rather than their "reality" programming. It comes across as misguided to me. I watched BSG for awhile, but in the end found it hard to watch due to the tone it had throughout, and I think I'd appreciate something a little lighter. The thing that made me appreciate Eureka was that it didn't take itself too seriously, in fact I felt it had a lot of similar properties to Trek that a lot of modern sci-fi lacked.

That said though, there's a lot to look forward to from their new list of upcoming shows. One thing I'm puzzled about though is the popularity of 12 Monkeys, enough to make a TV show out of it. I saw the movie several years ago and I didn't think very much of it, didn't think it was that great.
 
I love 12 Monkeys, but don't see it being a good TV show. Would it be like the Fugitive, except the guy's from the future?

The Future-tive!


None of these new shows excites me, but execution is everything.
 
And I refuse to concede that the Warehouse 13/Eureka/Being Human era was any sort of mistake. Those were great shows.
Yes and no.

I didn't watch being Human so I'll just refer to the other two - they were 'fluff'. Enjoyable, well made and watchable, but insubstantial.

That isn't necessarily a problem in itself, but scifi and fantasy has until very recently struggled to be viewed as anything other than crappy ray gun or monsters fayre - Lost In Space and its ilk cast a long shadow.

A station called the Syfy Channel that is wall to wall crud or fluff simply perpetuates the public perception of all genre shows being so. If they've realised that Galactica was the way they should have continued and Game Of Thrones is what they could aim for, that's no bad thing imho...
 
^ I found Warehouse 13 fairly inane, but Eureka was a great show. If it had been on a more widely watched network it would be regarded as a classic. If Syfy mixed HBO-style drama with lighter dramedies of that quality, well, they'd have a lot more viewers.
 
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