Salem (WGN America's first scripted drama, starring Janet Montgomery)

[Aragorn]

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phc6SaxiJ9M[/yt]

Premieres Sunday, April 20. Anyone gonna give this show a try? I don't even get WGN America on my cable provider.

Starring Janet Montgomery (Human Target), Shane West (ER, Nikita), Xander Berkeley (24, Nikita) and Seth Gabel (Fringe).

Set in the volatile world of 17th century Massachusetts, 'Salem' explores what really fueled the town's infamous witch trials and dares to uncover the dark, supernatural truth hiding behind the veil of this infamous period in American history. In Salem, witches are real, but they are not who or what they seem.

 

[Morpheus 02]

Re: Salem (WGN America's first scripted drama, starring Janet Montgome

Uh-oh....WGN America... aren't they still owned by the Tribune company...the infamous Tribune Company that switched up their 2 sci-fi series in the early 2000's after the 2nd season, and then made the 5th season a completely cheap and horrible version of a show that really had nothing to do with the 4 previous seasons?

 

[cylkoth]

Re: Salem (WGN America's first scripted drama, starring Janet Montgome

Yes, but the people in charge now are not the same as those who, back in the day, ran the entertainment/studio division into the ground with that 'disposable' entertainment modis operandi. Hopefully that mentality died and won't be ressurrected.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

Re: Salem (WGN America's first scripted drama, starring Janet Montgome

Uh-oh....WGN America... aren't they still owned by the Tribune company...the infamous Tribune Company that switched up their 2 sci-fi series in the early 2000's after the 2nd season, and then made the 5th season a completely cheap and horrible version of a show that really had nothing to do with the 4 previous seasons?

Yes, but the people in charge now are not the same as those who, back in the day, ran the entertainment/studio division into the ground with that 'disposable' entertainment <b>modus operandi</b>. Hopefully that mentality died and won't be resurrected.

Tribune Entertainment is no more as of 2006, I believe.

 

[Vendikarr]

Re: Salem (WGN America's first scripted drama, starring Janet Montgome

I had some interest in checking this out, but seeing as I live in the Chicago area, it's not available to me unless I have satellite.

WGN America is not available on cable in the Chicago market, since we get WGN, the broadcast station. The two are not the same, and all the promos I have seen for Salem on WGN only reference seeing it on WGN America.

I think it's poor planning if they don't make this available in the third largest television market in the U.S.

 

[cylkoth]

Re: Salem (WGN America's first scripted drama, starring Janet Montgome

Yes, but the people in charge now are not the same as those who, back in the day, ran the entertainment/studio division into the ground with that 'disposable' entertainment <b>modus operandi</b>. Hopefully that mentality died and won't be resurrected.

Tribune Entertainment is no more as of 2006, I believe.

Yes. The original entity Tribune Entertainment was shut down in 2007. Salem is being produced by the newly created Tribune Studios.

 

[Melakon]

Re: Salem (WGN America's first scripted drama, starring Janet Montgome

Chicago used to be production hub for national newscasts and other shows. I was watching Garfield Goose on WGN back around 1956.

 

[Morpheus 02]

Re: Salem (WGN America's first scripted drama, starring Janet Montgome

Yes, but the people in charge now are not the same as those who, back in the day, ran the entertainment/studio division into the ground with that 'disposable' entertainment <b>modus operandi</b>. Hopefully that mentality died and won't be resurrected.

Tribune Entertainment is no more as of 2006, I believe.

Yes. The original entity Tribune Entertainment was shut down in 2007. Salem is being produced by the newly created Tribune Studios.

Well...that's like saying HYDRA was shut down at the end of WW2...

 

[Pondwater]

Re: Salem (WGN America's first scripted drama, starring Janet Montgome

Kind of interested but I'm into Turn on AMC.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

Re: Salem (WGN America's first scripted drama, starring Janet Montgome

^This should be an interesting show.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Re: Salem (WGN America's first scripted drama, starring Janet Montgome

I know this happened a long time ago and I shouldn't care, but the premise kind of bothers me.

 

[Gaith]

Re: Salem (WGN America's first scripted drama, starring Janet Montgome

^ The AV Club concurs.

 

[JD]

Re: Salem (WGN America's first scripted drama, starring Janet Montgome

I'm curious about this, but I'm probably going to wait and see what kind of overall reaction it gets before making my final decision. If more of the reactions are like AV Club's I'm not going to bother.

 

[Aragorn]

Re: Salem (WGN America's first scripted drama, starring Janet Montgome

Anyone giving this show a shot tonight?

 

[lurok]

Re: Salem (WGN America's first scripted drama, starring Janet Montgome

I know this happened a long time ago and I shouldn't care, but the premise kind of bothers me.

Ditto. Could be missing the best new show this year, but sounds like a terrible idea. Think I'll pass.

 

[Aragorn]

Re: Salem (WGN America's first scripted drama, starring Janet Montgome

I know this happened a long time ago and I shouldn't care, but the premise kind of bothers me.

Ditto. Could be missing the best new show this year, but sounds like a terrible idea. Think I'll pass.

Based on the reviews, I don't think anyone will be mistaking it for the best new show of the year. Smallville and CSI: Miami would win an Emmy before they do.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Re: Salem (WGN America's first scripted drama, starring Janet Montgome

I was already lukewarm on the concept due to it making a mockery out of the historical injustice, torture, murder, and mass hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials by saying there actually were evil Satanic witches running around, but if they had elevated the concept into something interesting I would have given it more of a chance. They did not.

It's utterly vapid, sexually juvenile to attract a young male audience without having much of a point to it (Game of Thrones does this often as well, but it's at least good the rest of the time), uses wildly anachronistic language (I'm expecting modern dialogue, but not modern expressions like "I call bullshit" or "witch hunt" used in the modern metaphorical "false persecution" sense rather than the literal "hunting for witches" sense), misses the historical point by a country mile and in a rather insulting and exploitative way to the victims of this tragedy, and does nothing we haven't seen in better shows and films (including ones on the air now) to at least overcome the other complaints.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Re: Salem (WGN America's first scripted drama, starring Janet Montgome

I would have rather had a couple of more seasons of Legend of the Seeker than this.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Re: Salem (WGN America's first scripted drama, starring Janet Montgome

I was already lukewarm on the concept due to it making a mockery out of the historical injustice, torture, murder, and mass hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials by saying there actually were evil Satanic witches running around, but if they had elevated the concept into something interesting I would have given it more of a chance. They did not.

There was a Time travel episode of Bewitched where Samantha and Darrin went to old Timey Salem, while acknowledging that since she was immortal, that she was already alive in that time period.

Charmed also had a time travelly episode, but they went back and taught the downtrodden women of Salem witchcraft so that they could defend themselves against the local assholes.

In real life, I've heard it qualified that spontanious LSD cultures infected the local bread supply and that's why every one beleived in witchcraft, becuase they saw witchcraft.

http://customers.hbci.com/~wenonah/history/ergot.htm

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Re: Salem (WGN America's first scripted drama, starring Janet Montgome

I never heard of this show until I saw the news blurb that Lucy Lawless was joining season 2.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...t-Townsend-join-Salem-cast-second-season.html

The official website claims I can watch season 1 on Netflix, but after looking at this year old 19 post thread that didn't make it past the pilot... I find myself hoping Lawless' character lasts as long here as it did in AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. last fall.

Has anyone watched the full season, did it improve from this decried beginning?

Maybe season 2 will be a complete retooling?

Then again, maybe I'll win the lottery tomorrow night and be too busy spending the dough to watch questionable TV.