SO, CBS HAS shitcanned Moonlight. I always thought the show was a bit half-baked. (The only vampire who can go out in the day time is Blade, and even he eventually got nailed by the silver bullet of tax evasion.)
But it does raise an interesting point, especially with True Blood waiting in the wings at HBO. What is it about vampire stories that makes them so appealing to a small audience, but not sustainable to a larger one?
(Remember, with due respect to the Legion of Whedonistas out there in the hills, neither Angel nor Buffy was ever really a hit, per se.)
Still, I only had tears to shed for one vampire tv series, and those tears are all done gone now.
But I will say this thanks to another media vampire...
Mazel Tov, Britney, for that How I Met Your Mother renewal!
3 comments:
What, no love for Forever Knight? :P
Biased by my background as a dyed-in-the-wool member of that smaller audience, of course, but I think part of the puzzle is the same kind of sophistication disconnect that's plagued sci-fi forever. There, you get the general audience periodically surprised by something like Battlestar Galactica, having it brought to their attention for whatever reason that there's an actual *gasp* story about people going on there, not just a bunch of shiny hardware and rayguns. Meanwhile, the SF fans are going "Um, yes, that would be the part we've cared about all along. Particularly good example, perhaps, but not actually a new development. Nice to meetcha, pull up some couch."
So the question becomes, what's the recipe for getting that attention from outside the core that already knows you're there to tell solid stories? Given the long-term track record, be it for vampires or anything else you can't bump into on your street corner, I think we might have to file that one under "Burning questions that will never be answered."
Darned if people don't keep trying to crack it, though. Which is a blessing for those of us in that small audience ("Okay, let's enjoy the heck out of this one until they yank it out from under us too!"), but mighty hard on the creative folks doing the actual trying.
They have the same challenge as with any other show -- "Will people care about our story?" -- with the added challenge of having to bring anyone outside the existing core audience up to speed on why their preconceptions probably don't apply, and on what the life-writ-larger purpose of the fantastic elements actually is. That's an awfully tall order when one of the primary fantastic elements you're dealing with is so culturally ingrained as something inherently silly.
That's what makes it so frustrating when we lose something like BT. If people had looked at the stories you folks were telling and found them wanting, that would be one thing. But most had no idea you were even telling them.
So... HBO's recipe is next on the menu. (When the heck is that happening, anyway? It seems like I've been hearing about it for over a year.) Some interesting ingredients: HBO itself, of course. The fact that Harris' universe is one where the supernatural is out in the open and subject to modern bureaucracy -- off the top of my head, I can't think of a show that's tried that one. Decent name recognition factor in Anna Paquin.
I'm not laying any bets, but then I never do. *shrug* More power to 'em.
It always frustrates me that every supernatural/sci-fi series gets poor ratings. I still mourn the passings of Dark Angel and Roswell and now I mourn New Amsterdam and Jericho. I really miss Buffy too and just recently I fell for Firefly through watching the DVDs.
Sci-fi/supernatural shows tend to be shows fans LOVE verses many other shows which fans just LIKE. It sucks and I'm depressed aboout it.
Why!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What I find interesting is that the CW tanked this past year and the only shows which managed okay ratings were Smallville and Supernatural. Gossip Girl, really didn't do that well yet the CW added two other like minded series to the mix for next season and not one supernatural series (sure, I know Reaper caved but that's because it was too much of a procedural). I still am angry that the CW passed on Mercy Reef (the Aquaman series) as it looked fantastic.
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