I can't find anything decent to watch. I started out sampling some seemingly promising new shows since most of the returning shows I long ago lost interest in because they were aging poorly(Supernatural). But after a few promising episodes I just couldn't finish out the season
Revenge not a very compelling soap and poorly plotted, the scheming not very inventive
Alcatraz was essentially a cop procedural
Terra Nova never could quite find its identity.
Grimm was pretty much a cross between a cop show and Buffy/Angel--neither which I cared for
Awake--boring
Missing--just another generic action conspiracy thriller on the small screen
Touch--another formulaic sappy series with a worn out "intertwined destiny" theme that thanks to LOST/Heroes/BSG really has grown old
About the only show I consistently enjoyed was Ringer yet I probably won't be upset if it doesn't return because if the last ten years has taught me anything is that those type of shows if they even manage to be even halfway decent out the gate can't sustain it passed year 1(hello Heroes, hello nBSG)
And while I appreciated the novelty of LOST in hindsight it was one of the worst things to happen to tv--ever since 2004 more and more shows want to copy its unique style--flashbacks, large unwieldy cast, interconnected stories, too much plot in an hour, dragging out unanswered questions frustrating the audience only to then never provide answers or satisfying ones making the audience wonder why they even introduced a complicated mythology into the mix to begin with. More and more characters are treated as plot devices and the casting in recent years in my opinion has been lacklustre. Writers are depending more and more on frenetic pacing, action, plot twists or wild cliffhangers--which I love--but they can't exist solely for pure instant gratification--they need to be a springbroad for more fully developed storylines.
After sampling and coming away disappointed from so many(Surface, Invasion, Lost, post S1 Heroes, Caprica, Kidnapped, Daybreak, Vanished, V, The Event, Flash Forward, Reunion, Caprica, Persons Unknown, The Nine, Alcatraz, Fringe, Revenge, Once Upon a Time, The Traveler, Damages, The River, Rubicon etc) I have decided no matter how intriguing any new fall 2012 shows maybe premise-wise if they sound like they are going to adopt this limited mystery show premise I'm skipping them altogether. They simply do not work
I think the main problem is the writers don't know how to be good writers so they think if they include all those superficial elements, incorporate ADD pacing and throw so much at you you'll not see the poor writing. I would love writers to slow down and actually start creating series with a more open generalized premise that can sustain good storytelling for years. And it doesn't need to be episodic.
Before LOST there were two decades worth of television that told serialized storylines--the key to their success in my opinion :a modest ensemble of 7-9 characters who were developed first, no games with the audience, straightforward linear storytelling, they effectively took two or three plot threads for a season, stuck with them and developed them for 20 episodes providing a nice payoff before starting up a new set of threads for the following season. They didn't frantically jump from scene to scene never giving the audience time to take it in. They didn't need to explain things off screen in recaps, questions & answers, podcasts or other supplemental materials the way LOST, Heroes or nBSG sometimes did. They didn't have a massive cast of characters where they were rotated out for episodes at a time and got lost in the mix. They answered the season's mysteries by the end. Character deaths were treated as special events back then not just as an expected item on a season checklist coming across more like an abrupt means to get rid of a character with not much of anything said afterwards.
SyFy programming has just gotten terrible, USA is nothing but really tired spy/cop shows(In Plain Sight, Burn Notice, Fairly Legal, Psych). CBS is nothing but plain vanilla cop shows and if that isn't enough they spawn more creating franchises. VH1 has becoming BET 2.0. MTV doesn't have VJs or play videos anymore--it is all about Jersey Shore repeats and pregnancies. CNN has Anderson Cooper and Piers Morgan as their talent--Yawn, I can't even watch MSNBC anymore.
Remakes are always pretty much horrible(MP 2.0, 90210 2.0, Knight Rider 2.0, Bionic Woman 2.0, Charlies Angels 2.0, Hawaii 5-0 2.0, Nikita 2.0, V 2.0 etc)--enough already.
I used to think I could never get tired of tv but I think I might be.
Revenge not a very compelling soap and poorly plotted, the scheming not very inventive
Alcatraz was essentially a cop procedural
Terra Nova never could quite find its identity.
Grimm was pretty much a cross between a cop show and Buffy/Angel--neither which I cared for
Awake--boring
Missing--just another generic action conspiracy thriller on the small screen
Touch--another formulaic sappy series with a worn out "intertwined destiny" theme that thanks to LOST/Heroes/BSG really has grown old
About the only show I consistently enjoyed was Ringer yet I probably won't be upset if it doesn't return because if the last ten years has taught me anything is that those type of shows if they even manage to be even halfway decent out the gate can't sustain it passed year 1(hello Heroes, hello nBSG)
And while I appreciated the novelty of LOST in hindsight it was one of the worst things to happen to tv--ever since 2004 more and more shows want to copy its unique style--flashbacks, large unwieldy cast, interconnected stories, too much plot in an hour, dragging out unanswered questions frustrating the audience only to then never provide answers or satisfying ones making the audience wonder why they even introduced a complicated mythology into the mix to begin with. More and more characters are treated as plot devices and the casting in recent years in my opinion has been lacklustre. Writers are depending more and more on frenetic pacing, action, plot twists or wild cliffhangers--which I love--but they can't exist solely for pure instant gratification--they need to be a springbroad for more fully developed storylines.
After sampling and coming away disappointed from so many(Surface, Invasion, Lost, post S1 Heroes, Caprica, Kidnapped, Daybreak, Vanished, V, The Event, Flash Forward, Reunion, Caprica, Persons Unknown, The Nine, Alcatraz, Fringe, Revenge, Once Upon a Time, The Traveler, Damages, The River, Rubicon etc) I have decided no matter how intriguing any new fall 2012 shows maybe premise-wise if they sound like they are going to adopt this limited mystery show premise I'm skipping them altogether. They simply do not work
I think the main problem is the writers don't know how to be good writers so they think if they include all those superficial elements, incorporate ADD pacing and throw so much at you you'll not see the poor writing. I would love writers to slow down and actually start creating series with a more open generalized premise that can sustain good storytelling for years. And it doesn't need to be episodic.
Before LOST there were two decades worth of television that told serialized storylines--the key to their success in my opinion :a modest ensemble of 7-9 characters who were developed first, no games with the audience, straightforward linear storytelling, they effectively took two or three plot threads for a season, stuck with them and developed them for 20 episodes providing a nice payoff before starting up a new set of threads for the following season. They didn't frantically jump from scene to scene never giving the audience time to take it in. They didn't need to explain things off screen in recaps, questions & answers, podcasts or other supplemental materials the way LOST, Heroes or nBSG sometimes did. They didn't have a massive cast of characters where they were rotated out for episodes at a time and got lost in the mix. They answered the season's mysteries by the end. Character deaths were treated as special events back then not just as an expected item on a season checklist coming across more like an abrupt means to get rid of a character with not much of anything said afterwards.
SyFy programming has just gotten terrible, USA is nothing but really tired spy/cop shows(In Plain Sight, Burn Notice, Fairly Legal, Psych). CBS is nothing but plain vanilla cop shows and if that isn't enough they spawn more creating franchises. VH1 has becoming BET 2.0. MTV doesn't have VJs or play videos anymore--it is all about Jersey Shore repeats and pregnancies. CNN has Anderson Cooper and Piers Morgan as their talent--Yawn, I can't even watch MSNBC anymore.
Remakes are always pretty much horrible(MP 2.0, 90210 2.0, Knight Rider 2.0, Bionic Woman 2.0, Charlies Angels 2.0, Hawaii 5-0 2.0, Nikita 2.0, V 2.0 etc)--enough already.
I used to think I could never get tired of tv but I think I might be.
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Thank goodness for cable, or else I might as well put my TV on the sidewalk and let the garbagemen haul it away. 
