Alias. Spoilers from earlier seasons. You have been warned.
There was a time when I would stay up all night with my eyes riveted to the computer screen as the download status bar crept along at in infuriatingly halting pace. Few things gave me as much joy as when the next episode of Alias finished downloading, and few things caused as much agony when the downloads crashed with 99% of the file completed. This is sad, I'll admit. No doubt about it--but that's how much I used to love that show. It was all action, angst, suspense, and even a little romance. It was a high tech soap opera flying on Bond-esque weapons and assassins around every corner.
Now, in the beginning of its fifth season, I refuse to watch any more. Somewhere along the way, the show got lost (no pun intended) in itself, and all we're left with is watching the results of behind-the-scenes drama unfold onscreen. Jennifer Garner gets knocked up, Greg Grunberg decides he's tired of playing sidekick, Michael Vartan still has issues with his ex (Garner) and vice-versa. Who knows what the hell is going on with Mia Maestro. All this leads to is writers scrambling back and forth trying to maintain a storyline that fits in with the past while still moving the story forward. Clearly, it's failing.
All I see now, is a show under the strain of trying to please everyone. Please the actors, please the rabid fans, please the people just tuning in. They're even trying to please the idiots who can't figure out what's going on, so they have to dumb down the show even more. For example:
CIA team tracks down a mercenary who works for some crime lord.
Mercenary gets cornered by CIA team. This causes him to get very emotional.
Mercenary: "He won't get me! My family! I won't be made an example of! I won't have it! My wife! My kids!"
Mercenary slits throat.
Sydney, the main character, supposedly a genius: IS UNABLE TO FIGURE OUT WHY THE MAN KILLED HIMSELF.
Hm. Could it be that his boss is a mean old bastard who leverages the lives of his men's families?
A few minutes later in the show, the brilliant CIA team discusses the daily agenda. It appears that the bad guys have a weapon. Jack (a senior member of the team) describes it thus:
"...This device would facilitate the targeting of an individual based only on a DNA sample or a biometric scan."
This is where Sydney finds it necessary to sum it up by saying, "Next-gen sniper."
Thank you. Thank you very much for clearing that up. As if you or anyone else in your team had trouble understanding that.
Maybe I'm nitpicking. Maybe all spy shows have to do this to accommodate the masses, but you have to draw the line somewhere. You can't claim that your character is brilliant, yet suffers from sporadic fits of impaired faculties of deductive reasoning. You can't start off a season with half your actors going off in all different directions due to personal reasons. You can't drastically change the style of the show, thereby eradicating everything that made the show watchable just to get more viewers, because you'll lose your original base and the newcomers won't stick around anyway. And if you have to go against all reason and commit these crimes of television, then Jesus H. Christ, DON'T TALK TO ME LIKE I'M AN IDIOT. Thank you.
Now, in the beginning of its fifth season, I refuse to watch any more. Somewhere along the way, the show got lost (no pun intended) in itself, and all we're left with is watching the results of behind-the-scenes drama unfold onscreen. Jennifer Garner gets knocked up, Greg Grunberg decides he's tired of playing sidekick, Michael Vartan still has issues with his ex (Garner) and vice-versa. Who knows what the hell is going on with Mia Maestro. All this leads to is writers scrambling back and forth trying to maintain a storyline that fits in with the past while still moving the story forward. Clearly, it's failing.
All I see now, is a show under the strain of trying to please everyone. Please the actors, please the rabid fans, please the people just tuning in. They're even trying to please the idiots who can't figure out what's going on, so they have to dumb down the show even more. For example:
CIA team tracks down a mercenary who works for some crime lord.
Mercenary gets cornered by CIA team. This causes him to get very emotional.
Mercenary: "He won't get me! My family! I won't be made an example of! I won't have it! My wife! My kids!"
Mercenary slits throat.
Sydney, the main character, supposedly a genius: IS UNABLE TO FIGURE OUT WHY THE MAN KILLED HIMSELF.
Hm. Could it be that his boss is a mean old bastard who leverages the lives of his men's families?
A few minutes later in the show, the brilliant CIA team discusses the daily agenda. It appears that the bad guys have a weapon. Jack (a senior member of the team) describes it thus:
"...This device would facilitate the targeting of an individual based only on a DNA sample or a biometric scan."
This is where Sydney finds it necessary to sum it up by saying, "Next-gen sniper."
Thank you. Thank you very much for clearing that up. As if you or anyone else in your team had trouble understanding that.
Maybe I'm nitpicking. Maybe all spy shows have to do this to accommodate the masses, but you have to draw the line somewhere. You can't claim that your character is brilliant, yet suffers from sporadic fits of impaired faculties of deductive reasoning. You can't start off a season with half your actors going off in all different directions due to personal reasons. You can't drastically change the style of the show, thereby eradicating everything that made the show watchable just to get more viewers, because you'll lose your original base and the newcomers won't stick around anyway. And if you have to go against all reason and commit these crimes of television, then Jesus H. Christ, DON'T TALK TO ME LIKE I'M AN IDIOT. Thank you.