sf/f TV development news - 2013
- Thread starter Temis the Vorta
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Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012
^^^ Sounds like the short lived show Blind Justice.
‘Chuck’ Creators Chris Fedak And Josh Schwartz Sell ‘Midnighters’ Drama To Fox
^^^ Sounds like the short lived show Blind Justice.
‘Chuck’ Creators Chris Fedak And Josh Schwartz Sell ‘Midnighters’ Drama To Fox
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012
Hmm, at least it's not an overused concept. Zachary Levi doesn't have a TV gig right now, maybe they should rehire the guy.
Hmm, at least it's not an overused concept. Zachary Levi doesn't have a TV gig right now, maybe they should rehire the guy.
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012
According to the blurb on the first book:
So I'd expect a lot of The Dead Zone-style FX shots of people moving around in a frozen world. And Wikipedia says the "secret hour" is called "the Blue Time," so probably the whole thing will be tinted blue-ish.
According to the blurb on the first book:
So I'd expect a lot of The Dead Zone-style FX shots of people moving around in a frozen world. And Wikipedia says the "secret hour" is called "the Blue Time," so probably the whole thing will be tinted blue-ish.
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012
That's certainly an interesting idea and I'm intrigued, but we'll have to see what the execution is like.
That's certainly an interesting idea and I'm intrigued, but we'll have to see what the execution is like.
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012
Yet another SyFy reality series. It sounds like it has potential. Is a Trekkian utopia really all its cracked up to be? if forced to live in utopia, would humans go nuts and prefer the Hobbesian struggle for survival? At least, that's what I think they're describing, the description is too vague to know for sure.
Yet another SyFy reality series. It sounds like it has potential. Is a Trekkian utopia really all its cracked up to be? if forced to live in utopia, would humans go nuts and prefer the Hobbesian struggle for survival? At least, that's what I think they're describing, the description is too vague to know for sure.
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012
Yeah, a Trekkian pseudo-Utopia cannot be simulated on a game show. Plus which, none of the contestants would have the mindset of someone who is born into such a culture. Still, it has the potential to be interesting and is a more worthy topic for such a show than most.
Yeah, a Trekkian pseudo-Utopia cannot be simulated on a game show. Plus which, none of the contestants would have the mindset of someone who is born into such a culture. Still, it has the potential to be interesting and is a more worthy topic for such a show than most.
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012
^^^Yes. But you do have to understand that some of us are awful, no class people who don't find much about sexuality to be transgressive. Or are possibly even bad enough to downright favor some of it. I haven't found vampires properly creepy for a long time, barring the ones in Let the Right One In. I must admit the pedophilic overturns were pretty unnerving. Robots, spaceships and aliens may be equally well-used in literature and drama but they don't rely on an unfamiliarity with the variety in human sexuality and the usual lack of destructive consequences on society.
^^^Yes. But you do have to understand that some of us are awful, no class people who don't find much about sexuality to be transgressive. Or are possibly even bad enough to downright favor some of it. I haven't found vampires properly creepy for a long time, barring the ones in Let the Right One In. I must admit the pedophilic overturns were pretty unnerving. Robots, spaceships and aliens may be equally well-used in literature and drama but they don't rely on an unfamiliarity with the variety in human sexuality and the usual lack of destructive consequences on society.
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012
What, some people prefer different flavours of stuff. I'll never entirely get the American love of superheroes, personally, and I generally prefer vampires to zombies. So it goes.
...so Captain Kirk versus Captain Picard?
Obviously.
What, some people prefer different flavours of stuff. I'll never entirely get the American love of superheroes, personally, and I generally prefer vampires to zombies. So it goes.
I don't know if I'd just assign the utopia as the Trek end of things. Captain Kirk seemed to spend every other episode rejecting paradises and extolling the virtues of human struggle.
...so Captain Kirk versus Captain Picard?
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012
Hmm. While there's no denying that there's often been an erotic element to vampire fiction, I wouldn't go so far as to say that it only appeals to conservative, anti-sex prudes. (I suspect there are plenty of Goth types who would argue strenuously with that proposition.) I think vampires are basically a potent combination of blood, sex, death, immortality, morbidity, and mythology that's proven remarkably versatile for nearly two centuries now.
Vampires (like space aliens) are all-purpose metaphors for anything you care to think of: capitalism, tyranny, predatory relationships, addiction, disease, etc. And, as a genre, it embraces everything from traditional Gothic horror (which can be fun if you're into that kind of thing) to pseudo-scientific stuff like I AM LEGEND, psychological character studies like Sturgeon's SOME OF YOUR BLOOD, action flicks like the UNDERWORLD series, and, yes, florid romance stories and kinky erotica. (Which some "awful, no-class people" actually enjoy.)
My point being that I'm not sure why the same fans who seem to think there can't be enough space operas on TV tend to roll their eyes at the prospect of another vampire show. Is it that the popularity of TWILIGHT has tainted the entire genre in some peoples' eyes? Is it that some fans prefer their fictions more Apollonian than Dionysian? Or is there some sort of sf vs. horror rivalry going on?
Vampires. Zombies. Aliens. Androids. Time-travel. They're all just well-established plot devices to be used as needed. And they can all be equally entertaining if executed well.
Hmm. While there's no denying that there's often been an erotic element to vampire fiction, I wouldn't go so far as to say that it only appeals to conservative, anti-sex prudes. (I suspect there are plenty of Goth types who would argue strenuously with that proposition.) I think vampires are basically a potent combination of blood, sex, death, immortality, morbidity, and mythology that's proven remarkably versatile for nearly two centuries now.
Vampires (like space aliens) are all-purpose metaphors for anything you care to think of: capitalism, tyranny, predatory relationships, addiction, disease, etc. And, as a genre, it embraces everything from traditional Gothic horror (which can be fun if you're into that kind of thing) to pseudo-scientific stuff like I AM LEGEND, psychological character studies like Sturgeon's SOME OF YOUR BLOOD, action flicks like the UNDERWORLD series, and, yes, florid romance stories and kinky erotica. (Which some "awful, no-class people" actually enjoy.)
My point being that I'm not sure why the same fans who seem to think there can't be enough space operas on TV tend to roll their eyes at the prospect of another vampire show. Is it that the popularity of TWILIGHT has tainted the entire genre in some peoples' eyes? Is it that some fans prefer their fictions more Apollonian than Dionysian? Or is there some sort of sf vs. horror rivalry going on?
Vampires. Zombies. Aliens. Androids. Time-travel. They're all just well-established plot devices to be used as needed. And they can all be equally entertaining if executed well.
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Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012
SyFy can simulate a sanitized sort of utopia (which is why it reminds me of Star Trek) just by installing contestants in a house and getting them pizza etc whenever they like. I can't see SyFy getting too crazy with what they'll deliver, but they could certainly set up an experiment where nobody has to lift a finger to get all their PG-13 desires fulfilled and then see how long it takes them to all get completely bored and beg to be sent to the brutish and short reality.
If the Utopia part of the show is just a reward and not part of the show per se, then it's only about the Hobbesian struggle, and Survivor already does that. The only way this idea is interesting and not redundant with other reality shows is if we see how people react to both "realities" and whether expectations of being happier in Utopia actually pan out.
Personally, I think it would take me longer than one TV season to get bored of Utopia, but if I was stuck in it for years on end, yeah, I'd be climbing the walls.
SyFy can simulate a sanitized sort of utopia (which is why it reminds me of Star Trek) just by installing contestants in a house and getting them pizza etc whenever they like. I can't see SyFy getting too crazy with what they'll deliver, but they could certainly set up an experiment where nobody has to lift a finger to get all their PG-13 desires fulfilled and then see how long it takes them to all get completely bored and beg to be sent to the brutish and short reality.
If the Utopia part of the show is just a reward and not part of the show per se, then it's only about the Hobbesian struggle, and Survivor already does that. The only way this idea is interesting and not redundant with other reality shows is if we see how people react to both "realities" and whether expectations of being happier in Utopia actually pan out.
Personally, I think it would take me longer than one TV season to get bored of Utopia, but if I was stuck in it for years on end, yeah, I'd be climbing the walls.
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012
In my case, it's partly that for the past couple of decades there have been so many of the latter and so few of the former. I suppose if I actually counted them, there wouldn't be that much difference, but it seems to be far, far easier to get a vampire show on the air than a starship show. Just in general, my tastes run more toward SF than fantasy or horror, yet the tastes of TV audiences and programmers in general tend to run the other way.
Besides, I don't think it's really a fair comparison. Vampires are just one thing, one category of character or trope. Undead, bloodsucking, evil and/or tortured, just a few variations on a pretty repetitive pattern. Shows that are initially about vampires tend to need to broaden their focus in order to generate enough stories; Buffy the Vampire Slayer got to the point where the vampire slaying was a sidebar to battling demons and cyborgs and elder gods and so forth. But space opera is a far broader and more versatile genre. It can encompass just about anything -- including the occasional vampire story. So it's not as easy to get bored with.
In my case, it's partly that for the past couple of decades there have been so many of the latter and so few of the former. I suppose if I actually counted them, there wouldn't be that much difference, but it seems to be far, far easier to get a vampire show on the air than a starship show. Just in general, my tastes run more toward SF than fantasy or horror, yet the tastes of TV audiences and programmers in general tend to run the other way.
Besides, I don't think it's really a fair comparison. Vampires are just one thing, one category of character or trope. Undead, bloodsucking, evil and/or tortured, just a few variations on a pretty repetitive pattern. Shows that are initially about vampires tend to need to broaden their focus in order to generate enough stories; Buffy the Vampire Slayer got to the point where the vampire slaying was a sidebar to battling demons and cyborgs and elder gods and so forth. But space opera is a far broader and more versatile genre. It can encompass just about anything -- including the occasional vampire story. So it's not as easy to get bored with.
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012
Somebody posted a comment about vampires being boring. I'm not sure in reference to what. Then somebody else implied that people who like vampire fiction are sexually conservative . . . .
...and how did the discussion veer into vampires allasudden?
Somebody posted a comment about vampires being boring. I'm not sure in reference to what. Then somebody else implied that people who like vampire fiction are sexually conservative . . . .
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012
It's more the lack of space opera that's annoying than the vampire glut. There are, what, two or three vampire shows on now? That's not outrageous. Post-apocalyptic scenarios are the flavor du jour that's sucking up too much bandwidth right now.
Personally, I've never found a vampire show I can really get into, because the whole schitck seems very limited. But there's always the possibility of a show that upends the rules in a way that makes the topic fresh and interesting.
It's more the lack of space opera that's annoying than the vampire glut. There are, what, two or three vampire shows on now? That's not outrageous. Post-apocalyptic scenarios are the flavor du jour that's sucking up too much bandwidth right now.
Personally, I've never found a vampire show I can really get into, because the whole schitck seems very limited. But there's always the possibility of a show that upends the rules in a way that makes the topic fresh and interesting.
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012
That was more of a rhetorical comment - "good grief, people - FOCUS!" - about the endearingly random nature of this thread but I realized that focus is the last thing I want to see here so I edited it out.
...and how did the discussion veer into vampires allasudden?
Somebody posted a comment about vampires being boring. I'm not sure in reference to what. Then somebody else implied that people who like vampire fiction are sexually conservative . . . .
That was more of a rhetorical comment - "good grief, people - FOCUS!" - about the endearingly random nature of this thread but I realized that focus is the last thing I want to see here so I edited it out.
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