like a sinner before the gates of heaven
I keep thinking of things I want to post about and then forgetting them, and then I got my period this morning, and realized, ah, that's why my brain has been wonky all week. Joy.
One thing I did want to mention is that if you are spoilerphobic, which I am not, really - I am generally plot-twist-spoiler-avoidant. there's a difference. I like casting spoilers, and sometimes I can't resist clicking on other types of things, and also, I don't think TV guide type blurbs are actually spoilers, which I will get to in a second - you probably have already learned not to have the EW feeds on your Google reader. Because yesterday, there were two separate posts with SPN spoilers (well, the same SPN spoiler) in the subject line. I mean, it was something that was obviously going to happen from the preview shown last week, but if you are the kind of person who avoids the previews, then you would probably consider it a spoiler.
And this is the thing I find interesting - it was something that probably a large number of people would consider a spoiler, and yet it is something that the promo department felt was good marketing to show.
Now, we all know the promo departments are sometimes godawful at keeping things a secret that should be kept secret - NBC promos are infamous for spoiling the endings of shows - but in the general run of things, what we see as spoilers, they (being the networks etc.) feel is good advertising.
Dean's going to take off his shirt? Booth and Brennan are going to smooch? Denny is coming back to Grey's? Tell the world, because then more people (i.e., casual viewers) will tune in!
I mean, we've all seen trailers that basically obviate the need to see the movie, since all the major plot twists and best jokes are included in that two minutes, and that is totally a problem, but sometimes you've gotta dangle a lure, as with advertising that a beloved actor is coming back, or a lot of long-standing UST is going to be R'd, and hope it will bring in viewers who might have drifted away or meant to watch but forgot etc. And yet, I'm sure that they - the networks and the showrunners - also want to keep their secrets. They don't want to show that, say, JDM is going to return to SPN (NOT A REAL SPOILER) if he's going to show up in the last two minutes of a cliff-hanger. The surprise appearance of George Clooney on ER when Carol Hathaway left was awesome. Yet, if he agrees to come back for the ER series finale, I would imagine they'd trumpet that all over the place. Then again, maybe not - maybe the suspense of will he/won't he will be enough to get people to watch.
The fact that so much more news about entertainment is available to us now - look at how early people freak out about stuff because of sides - makes the tension between giving too much away and giving enough to hook people into watching really interesting.
And speaking of the impact of the internet and timeshifting and all that fun stuff on entertainment, how dumb is Tim Kring? James Poniewozik and Maureen Ryan both eviscerate his stupid remarks, but seriously, "DVRs are bad for serialized storytelling"? Seriously? What the fuck is Tim Kring smoking? And calling the people still actually watching his show in real time "saps and dipshits" is really poor repayment to the folks who are still actually watching his suckfest and providing the ratings. He's a stutter step away from telling people they're interrogating his text from the wrong perspective.
*shakes head*
I knew he didn't understand fandom, or the comics tropes he was mining, but this is a whole new level of dumn (sic).
Protip to Tim Kring: you are not Aaron Sorkin. The last thing you want to do is emulate Aaron Sorkin's antagonism towards his fans (even Aaron Sorkin should give up his antagonism towards his fans, but at least he's a talented dickwad). It's a bad idea all around.
Otoh, I am still not sure about how I feel about Kripke-levels of fanservice. Surely there's a happy medium?
And I am still processing last night's SPN, but I do have one question:
How does Dean know about J-Date?
Okay, I admit that amused me a lot.
Also, given Kripke's self-admitted fanboying of Neil Gaiman, I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that he basically redid Stardust last night, though I wish he were as creative about hell as Gaiman and Mike Carey were.
I also really like seperis's idea that Bela should lead a revolt in hell. I would dearly LOVE to see Bela again. I am still bitter about how they wasted her, even though I am loving Pamela. It doesn't have to be an either/or situation! And Bela is way more cut out to be Mazikeen than Ruby (though Ruby definitely has potential to be awesome. I just wish they'd cast someone else).
Okay, that was one question and one observation and one bit of spec.
And the phones just went crazy, so I'm gonna hit post now.
***
One thing I did want to mention is that if you are spoilerphobic, which I am not, really - I am generally plot-twist-spoiler-avoidant. there's a difference. I like casting spoilers, and sometimes I can't resist clicking on other types of things, and also, I don't think TV guide type blurbs are actually spoilers, which I will get to in a second - you probably have already learned not to have the EW feeds on your Google reader. Because yesterday, there were two separate posts with SPN spoilers (well, the same SPN spoiler) in the subject line. I mean, it was something that was obviously going to happen from the preview shown last week, but if you are the kind of person who avoids the previews, then you would probably consider it a spoiler.
And this is the thing I find interesting - it was something that probably a large number of people would consider a spoiler, and yet it is something that the promo department felt was good marketing to show.
Now, we all know the promo departments are sometimes godawful at keeping things a secret that should be kept secret - NBC promos are infamous for spoiling the endings of shows - but in the general run of things, what we see as spoilers, they (being the networks etc.) feel is good advertising.
Dean's going to take off his shirt? Booth and Brennan are going to smooch? Denny is coming back to Grey's? Tell the world, because then more people (i.e., casual viewers) will tune in!
I mean, we've all seen trailers that basically obviate the need to see the movie, since all the major plot twists and best jokes are included in that two minutes, and that is totally a problem, but sometimes you've gotta dangle a lure, as with advertising that a beloved actor is coming back, or a lot of long-standing UST is going to be R'd, and hope it will bring in viewers who might have drifted away or meant to watch but forgot etc. And yet, I'm sure that they - the networks and the showrunners - also want to keep their secrets. They don't want to show that, say, JDM is going to return to SPN (NOT A REAL SPOILER) if he's going to show up in the last two minutes of a cliff-hanger. The surprise appearance of George Clooney on ER when Carol Hathaway left was awesome. Yet, if he agrees to come back for the ER series finale, I would imagine they'd trumpet that all over the place. Then again, maybe not - maybe the suspense of will he/won't he will be enough to get people to watch.
The fact that so much more news about entertainment is available to us now - look at how early people freak out about stuff because of sides - makes the tension between giving too much away and giving enough to hook people into watching really interesting.
And speaking of the impact of the internet and timeshifting and all that fun stuff on entertainment, how dumb is Tim Kring? James Poniewozik and Maureen Ryan both eviscerate his stupid remarks, but seriously, "DVRs are bad for serialized storytelling"? Seriously? What the fuck is Tim Kring smoking? And calling the people still actually watching his show in real time "saps and dipshits" is really poor repayment to the folks who are still actually watching his suckfest and providing the ratings. He's a stutter step away from telling people they're interrogating his text from the wrong perspective.
*shakes head*
I knew he didn't understand fandom, or the comics tropes he was mining, but this is a whole new level of dumn (sic).
Protip to Tim Kring: you are not Aaron Sorkin. The last thing you want to do is emulate Aaron Sorkin's antagonism towards his fans (even Aaron Sorkin should give up his antagonism towards his fans, but at least he's a talented dickwad). It's a bad idea all around.
Otoh, I am still not sure about how I feel about Kripke-levels of fanservice. Surely there's a happy medium?
And I am still processing last night's SPN, but I do have one question:
How does Dean know about J-Date?
Okay, I admit that amused me a lot.
Also, given Kripke's self-admitted fanboying of Neil Gaiman, I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that he basically redid Stardust last night, though I wish he were as creative about hell as Gaiman and Mike Carey were.
I also really like seperis's idea that Bela should lead a revolt in hell. I would dearly LOVE to see Bela again. I am still bitter about how they wasted her, even though I am loving Pamela. It doesn't have to be an either/or situation! And Bela is way more cut out to be Mazikeen than Ruby (though Ruby definitely has potential to be awesome. I just wish they'd cast someone else).
Okay, that was one question and one observation and one bit of spec.
And the phones just went crazy, so I'm gonna hit post now.
***