Posts Tagged ‘television’
I will not be making a habit of doing these, but I saw it over at Captain Incredible and Electronic Cerebrectomy and figured that I could bold a fair bit of that list out. I was surprised at the end of how much but in fairness a lot of them come in at the three episodes or so mark.
Actually there were one or two that could have been marked bold but I can remember if I’ve seen more than …
Tags: television Television meme
There is a scene in an episode of The Simpsons where they are showing a flashback of Marge and Homer coming out of the film Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Homer says, as only he can ‘Wow who would have believed that Darth Vader was really Luke’s father!?’ or words to that effect (cool I found the video).
The problem here wasn’t that Homer was:
- excited about the film
- enjoyed the film
- could not believe such a great twist
- wanted to talk to someone about the amazing twist.
No, the problem was that he happened to be standing in front of the line of eager film goers waiting to see the film, the majority of, one would imagine seeing the film for the first time.
So the other day I had my own ‘Simpsons Empire Strike Back’ moment, I wasn’t however out and about, it was on Twitter and after being on there for over a year and a half it was actually the very first time. The fact that it hadn’t happened before is I suspect a minor miracle in the Twitter universe. But it really pissed me off.
As you may have gathered, I love movies and television, more importantly I love stories, I just happen to prefer the filmed or comic book medium but if it is a good story I’ll go anywhere for it. Often it’s the experience of the story, which is why I can say that a book series such as Twilight had my attention, the writing was not good but the story had me and I just wanted to know what happened, I wanted to experience it.
So when someone ruins a story by blurting out the pay off, they’ve robbed me of an experience, an experience I like to savor much like a rich cup of coffee. Actually that’s a good metaphor.
Being told that a cup of coffee is great is not so nearly as satisfying as actually drinking the coffee.
Now it’s the internet, I’m not so naive to expect there to be no spoilers, collaboration is all about sharing and when talking about movies or books often one is completely unable to avoid spoilers. What Homer Simpson should have done though when leaving the movie is wait until he was in the car before announcing plot details.
When I complained about spoilers on Twitter, the reaction my tweet got was interesting, ranging from mocking to actual discussion regarding how best to handle spoilers especially in a real time environment like Twitter. The latter comments inspired this post.
So I can’t say what the rules are for dealing in potential spoilers online, the internet has yet to announce me the lord and master of all things online and so my oppressive rule is still some time off. But I do personally have a code regarding spoilers.
In here, if there are going to be spoilers I’ll let you know. I won’t tolerate spoilers in the comments if the spoiler warning wasn’t mentioned within the post and I sure as shit don’t post spoilers on other people’s blogs if they haven’t opened it up for them.
If a movie has left the cinema and is now on DVD I generally relax my spoiler concerns a little unless I know that the spoiler is the pay off in the film, an example would be The Sixth Sense (which in my opinion is old enough now to get a spoiler pass) and the twist in that film.
If I know someone hasn’t seen the show or movie and are going to see it then I’m not an asshole and ruin it for them, because you are being dick by doing so.
If a scene is in the trailer then it is not a spoiler. Although some film companies seem to think it a good idea to have spoilers in the trailers (Terminator: Salvation for example).
I personally watch a lot of imported shows which are yet to actually show here on Australian television so I do tend to try and be a bit more careful with those as I have two or three local readers.
Specifically on Twitter, if you spoil a show or movie then I will unfollow you. It’s the brilliance of the system in that I don’t have to follow you and you most certainly are welcome not to follow me. If someone has just watched a show that has a cool twist and I want to talk specifics then I will direct message them. If there is a sporting event or a show like MasterChef that I can’t watch but will later I will turn Twitter off.
Twitter is amazing for real time reactions from people and to illustrate the point I would show people the ‘Star Trek’ search which would show people’s immediate reactions to the film and not once did I read what I personally would consider a spoiler so it is possible.
I might also mention that the person who did drop the spoiler on Twitter did DM me after the event to warn that I should avoid his tweets as he would be writing spoilers.
So what are your spoiler guidelines?
What do you think is fair game and have you ever had anything really spoilt for you?
I absolutely hate hearing the term ‘motion picture television’.
No, it’s just really good television. The same goes on in the gaming industry and I just wish that they would stop comparing themselves, like their field of entertainment is somehow lessor than the motion picture industry.
There is some really high quality work going on in television, upcoming shows like The Walking Dead give me a lot of hope for the future of the medium and so my thoughts (and fanboy’ish dreams) drift to what I think will be an inevitable return of the Star Trek franchise to television.
The movie did really well and despite the last two series of the television show lacking the same pull as The Next Generation eventually some executive is going to work out that with the reboot movie’s popularity the time is probably right to produce one series (and only one series).
So what should they do?
Obviously I’m highly qualified to make grand suggestions that will never actually be produced so I’m actually a little hesitant to make my suggestions public and would rather keep them in my heart in the off chance that someone actually does produce the show. See the moment I write something fanboy’ish down it’s the moment that it will not be fulfilled.
It’s like imagining the worst thing that could happen just so it doesn’t happen. Shit works both ways despite what The Secret will tell you.
Oh well.
Here’s what I would do if I was running the Star Trek department at CBS television.
First off despite the popularity of the Star Trek reboot I would actually stay away from that era. Save that for the movies, Star Trek did that generally successfully whilst The Next Generation was on and personally I see it working now as long as they don’t try to mix the two.
Second of all I would avoid unknown. There is already an established Star Trek television demographic out there who just didn’t warm to Voyager or Enterprise, but they exist and they will watch a Star Trek show as long as it is well written and interesting (I’m not saying that either Enterprise or Voyager weren’t these but… you know, I mean they weren’t great all the time). So with this established market you want to give them a reason to come back and straying too far from the USS Enterprise is not going to cut it. But of course we can’t have an Enterprise based show but we can do the next best thing.
USS Titan captained by William T Riker.
There were a series of novels that came out that took the idea from the film Nemesis that Riker and Troi were going on to serve on the deep space exploration vessel Titan. In the full script it was also mentioned that Wesley Crusher would be joining them. So three characters from the hugely successful Star Trek: The Next Generation on a new ship doing what the original Enterprise was tasked with doing in the first place.
I’d watch that.
I’d so watch that!
It doesn’t impinge on the film series and it doesn’t abandon the Next Generation history. In fact I see no reason why it couldn’t be set in the new timeline. The universe/timeline attempts to repair itself and so future events will still try and happen along similar lines. One mention of the loss of Vulcan and it’s back on track 
Actually it’s not that hard of a concept considering the stupid Mirror Universe.
So that’s my ideal Star Trek return to television, don’t get too excited because it won’t happen now. I was also a big supporter of an Excelsior series.
