Dry spell

The holidays are approaching and that means we've hit a bit of a dry spell on TV land. Most shows have gone onhiatus and the ones that are left, well, I guess I just don't have much to say about them at the moment. I thought that I'd had plenty to say about The Wire once I was done with it but there really isn't much to say. The show is very good overall and well written but it's Goddamn depressing! It's depressing because it's very authentic and realistic which makes you even more depressed because you can't even tell yourself that it's fiction.

Speaking of depressing, at least three TV shows I follow are getting cancelled this season. Pushing Daisies, which I've talked about earlier, Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money. I always think it's awfully mean to cancel a show before they actually finish airing their season and even worse when they're still filming said season. I believe it has a lot to do with the unravelling of most shows that have this fate. Dirty Sexy Money for example, they've had flaws from the beginning sure, but these last few episodes I noticed that things were falling apart. Plot holes here and there, abandoned storylines and the overall sense of rushing towards the finish line. It makes for less than satisfying TV, which is really a shame since Peter Krause and most of the cast could do better. I suppose now that the show is over they have the chance to do that, hopefully.

Eli Stone on the other hand is not having the same problems since they're more of a "procedural" kind of show, but it has gotten a bit boring. It made big changes this season, common in TV shows on their sophmoric year, but usually the show has a chance to balance things out in the third season, which Eli Stone won't have. I feel sorry for Johnny Lee Miller, the show had potential and promise but all those hopes are squashed now. 

I wish I could say that I didn't understand why some shows make it and some don't. Why smart shows have low ratings and moronic ones stick around for forever. But I do understand why and that's only from my own experience. The experts working within the industry know even better what works and what doesn't, more importantly though they know what works in proportion to how much they cost. That makes me think about how contradictory showbusiness is. To have people who deal with art and artists in the confines of monetary rules and regulation. Is entertainment simply commoditized art?