My TL;DR Thoughts on the Strike
I try to admit my biases upfront, so here goes - I watch a lot of reality TV and the writers for those shows (yes, they are actually scripted shows, so the term “unscripted” is inaccurate with regard to them) are not covered by the WGA strike. That means most of the shows I like will continue unaffected and there will be new shows I like coming out earlier than expected, and even a few that might not have come out at all getting air time. In other words, I’m personally benefitting from the strike.
That doesn’t necessarily mean I’m ecstatic or even happy about it.
There are a few WGA-scripted shows I already enjoyed and watched regularly (House especially and sometimes Heroes) and three I’ve started watching this season (Dirty Sexy Money, Chuck, and Moonlight). I’ll be very sad if any of those 5 shows are adversely affected by the strike. I don’t think Heroes will be. It’s done too well not to come back when all this mess is resolved. Same goes for House. I’ve read that Chuck is likely to be cancelled and that makes me sad. Dirty Sex Money was doing very well before the strike started and I think has enough shows finished to make it a while, but I’m not sure about that. At any rate, I think it’s one of the stronger contenders for new series surviving the strike. Moonlight, on the other hand, I am somewhat unsure about. While it hasn’t had dramatically splendiferous ratings, it has been capturing the target demographic handily week after week. And CBS and the show’s producers seem very committed to it. In fact last week, with the strike looming, there was an interview with the President of CBS Entertainment declaring “Oh! I love my vampire!” That does not assure its survival, but it does make me pretty hopeful.
It sounds like FOX is going to skip 24 altogether this year, and I think that’s probably a good decision due to the format of that show. It also sounds like that means it will be back next year with the season that should have aired this year. I would bet that Desperate Housewives and other ratings-toppers are in no danger at all. I don’t watch Smallville anymore, and I’ve never watched Supernatural or any of the SG shows and I have no opinion regarding their survival whatsoever. With apologies to you all, I could not care less if Pushing Daisies is cancelled and its spot goes to some reality TV show I love. Actually, I take that back. I could care a lot less. I’m so sick of hearing about it that I think I might even be glad. I’m sure some of you feel the same about some shows I like. I guess we all have our pets and babies that we hope make it through this and some shows we’d just as well see gone. Variety and differences are what makes the world go round.
I read a comment or two somewhere on LJ that amounted to “Those mean producers should pay the writers for DVDs and downloads!!!” Thing is, they already do. (Correction - They aren't currently being paid for downloads.) This isn’t about whether or not writers should be paid for those two things, it’s about how much. The majority of commentary, both pro and am, that I’ve read seems to come down on the side of the writers. They may very well be more in the right. But I suspect there’s greed fueling both sides of the issue.
And as an interesting side discussion, while I was determining what features to add to my new computer with Computer Dude, we discussed possibly including a TV tuner. Computer Dude strongly recommended against doing so, partly because he thinks they don’t work very well, and partly because so many TV shows are now available legally and for free online or via Netflix. And then he said the thought that between that and all TV going digital at the first of the year, TV as we know it was going to have to find something else to do rather than showing us television shows.
I agree, but I don’t think that will happen as soon as he does. Fandom tends to be on the cutting edge of technology, or at least aware of it. And so are the Computer Dudes. But there are still a lot of people who can barely figure out how to send an email. And I have trouble believing that the FCC will walk away from (and allow the Networks to walk away from) its general policy of free access for all to TV programming.
I do wonder what y’all are planning if the strike goes on for a while. I’ll have my reality TV shows and new computer games and movies to keep me busy. And I may try to catch up on some shows I missed by watching them online. So what about y’all? Are you stocking up on books and movies? Planning on drowning your sorrows and escaping into WoW? Going to watch tapes of your shows or finally watch everything you Tivoed? Or will the HP Lexicon wank continue growing into a giant blob of entertainment that overtakes your world?
