Episodic TV and the Fibonacci Sequence
Just watched the first episode of Touch with Julie. Not bad, but I'm worried that the premise won't hold an audience. Also, what's with airing the pilot in January and then making us wait until the middle of March to see the rest of the series? Seems like a silly gimmick to me, but then that's the M.O. for most of the networks these days. Hopefully it doesn't suffer from "Lie to Me" syndrome. That show was good for about a season, then the bit got old. I miss shows that tell a good story, and don't rely on the "Plot of the Week" method of show-making.
I know I'm way behind the times here, but I should really watch Lost sometime. From what I can see, that wasn't at all episodic (save for it being run in episodes :-) ) but instead told a (somewhat) cohesive story from beginning to end. There needs to be more TV like that, but that means you have to keep watching, and you also have to get in on the ground floor. I think the reason I didn't watch Lost is that I didn't ever start. To be honest, the first episode, with the plane crash, that's like my worst nightmare, and it put me off the series. I also worry about sci-fi shows. The networks have a way of taking something promising, homogenizing it down to something that appeals to more of the masses, and subsequently ruining it for everyone involved: see, Jericho, Terminator, Dollhouse, Firefly (thank you, Fox, for those last three).
It's hard to commit to a show when you worry that it's going to get the axe just when things start getting good, so I've been slow to jump onto series like Fringe, although that appears to have had some staying power. Again though, and granted I've never watched a full episode, but it seems to have the same formula as the X-Files. That reeked of taking the past and rehashing it for a new generation because it worked well before. I understand that there's always going to be some of that, but we shouldn't be afraid to try new things. Then you've got shows like Alcatraz, Numbers, and the Mentalist. Like the aformentioned Lie to Me, they have a gimmick, a premise that sets up weekly plots that are all nicely self-contained. You can miss an episode or two, and it doesn't really matter in the long-run.
Which brings me back to Touch. The idea is that there's a kid who, using the Fibonacci Sequence somehow, can predict when and where bad things are going to happen, and it's his dad's job to see that they don't. On the surface of it, that's the kind of simply plot development I was just deriding, but in my mind they could do so much more with that. They talk about deep, intricate connections, the "red thread" that connects everyone you'll ever encounter to you. You can have the episodic stories, but why not take it further? Why not have an encompassing story the spans the life of the series, that literally brings all the threads together?
It is an interesting concept for a series, but right now that's all it is. I'll keep watching, but I hope the creative people behind this understand the potential of the egg their incubating, otherwise we'll have yet another in a long line of interesting concepts that fizzle out about after about thirty episodes and leave you wondering what could have been. Yes, I know it's just TV we're talking about here, but it can be more than that. I can get your mind buzzing and your imagination humming if they do it right. Here's hoping that's the case with Touch.
I know I'm way behind the times here, but I should really watch Lost sometime. From what I can see, that wasn't at all episodic (save for it being run in episodes :-) ) but instead told a (somewhat) cohesive story from beginning to end. There needs to be more TV like that, but that means you have to keep watching, and you also have to get in on the ground floor. I think the reason I didn't watch Lost is that I didn't ever start. To be honest, the first episode, with the plane crash, that's like my worst nightmare, and it put me off the series. I also worry about sci-fi shows. The networks have a way of taking something promising, homogenizing it down to something that appeals to more of the masses, and subsequently ruining it for everyone involved: see, Jericho, Terminator, Dollhouse, Firefly (thank you, Fox, for those last three).
It's hard to commit to a show when you worry that it's going to get the axe just when things start getting good, so I've been slow to jump onto series like Fringe, although that appears to have had some staying power. Again though, and granted I've never watched a full episode, but it seems to have the same formula as the X-Files. That reeked of taking the past and rehashing it for a new generation because it worked well before. I understand that there's always going to be some of that, but we shouldn't be afraid to try new things. Then you've got shows like Alcatraz, Numbers, and the Mentalist. Like the aformentioned Lie to Me, they have a gimmick, a premise that sets up weekly plots that are all nicely self-contained. You can miss an episode or two, and it doesn't really matter in the long-run.
Which brings me back to Touch. The idea is that there's a kid who, using the Fibonacci Sequence somehow, can predict when and where bad things are going to happen, and it's his dad's job to see that they don't. On the surface of it, that's the kind of simply plot development I was just deriding, but in my mind they could do so much more with that. They talk about deep, intricate connections, the "red thread" that connects everyone you'll ever encounter to you. You can have the episodic stories, but why not take it further? Why not have an encompassing story the spans the life of the series, that literally brings all the threads together?
It is an interesting concept for a series, but right now that's all it is. I'll keep watching, but I hope the creative people behind this understand the potential of the egg their incubating, otherwise we'll have yet another in a long line of interesting concepts that fizzle out about after about thirty episodes and leave you wondering what could have been. Yes, I know it's just TV we're talking about here, but it can be more than that. I can get your mind buzzing and your imagination humming if they do it right. Here's hoping that's the case with Touch.