Opinion: Atlantis fans need to stop punishing Universe... IN BED!
Well, my post to a site everybody on my flist has linked to, "Opinion: Atlantis fans need to stop punishing Universe", is *still* awaiting moderation. No idea why -- yeah, it's long, but there are longer comments posted, and I don't use any profanity, or even near-profanity. Believe me, there are *much* harsher comments than mine posted! Maybe they hold comments from anyone who's never posted there before? Because a lot of the fans who commented on the essay have also noted their comments have been held in limbo.
http://www.scifinow.co.uk/news/opinion-atlantis-fans-need-to-stop-punishing-universe/
Teenygozer said: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
This is ridiculous. It's true that when SGA was canceled, I was very unhappy. I loved SGA and SG-1 and all those great characters! We never missed SGA, or SG-1 when it was on, and we still watch the reruns to this day. I was even more unhappy when I read interviews with the Stargate creators that said they thought fans of SGA were old and boring, that their new show would be much more awesome than previous Stargates, and that they were looking forward to attracting a more youthful and therefore desirable demographic. Yet I wasn't so insulted that I decided to boycott SGU - I figured it was the kind of thing TPTB had to say in interviews -- it was a marketing thing, and not meant personally. After all, Stargate's PTB and I are the same age! Surely they weren't saying that they, themselves, were old!
Problem is, these guys are good at writing "penny dreadfuls" - silly, fun, crazy scripts (with a million holes in them) that don't aspire to great art, that are acted out by amusing, heroic characters. SGA won the People's Choice award, so they must have been doing something right. Unfortunately, their aspirations have risen, and they crave the critical adulation shows like BSG and Firefly have garnered - not in and of itself a bad thing, but the problem is, their talent has not risen with their aspirations. They've stripped all the joy, silliness, and wonder from their usual brand of show and substituted irritating characters, dark sets, shaky-cam, and tiresome, plodding plots, as if that's what made shows like BSG and Firefly great, not superlative writing. They haven't a clue. And they don't take constructive criticism at all well, preferring to insult in the vilest terms anyone who points out the very real problems with SGU. The quotes in this article are an example of that - still unwilling to take the blame for their well-deserved low ratings, they blame the mean ol' fans who are purposely getting in the way of their success!
My husband and I watched every single episode of SGU's first season, or we tried to. He kept falling asleep and my attention wandered. Sometimes things didn't make sense, so we'd back it up to try to figure out if we missed something, but half the time it still didn't make sense. I don't expect something I'm watching for fun to be torture to get through. BSG and Firefly were never torture to get through, so I'm not sure why these guys think that, in order to be high art, a show has to be such a joyless, monochrome drag.
The show is NOT GOOD. In fact, it is often ACTIVELY BAD. People don't like watching shows that are NOT GOOD or ACTIVELY BAD. So, dearest Brad, whose work I’ve enjoyed in the past, if you want eyes on your show, you have to make it GOOD, or at least BETTER. You do that and we'll watch it. Suggestion: hire really good script writers, and make sure some of them are women, because your female characters are truly embarrassingly, cringingly awful. But stop blaming the mean, ol' fans for your lack of success.
http://www.scifinow.co.uk/news/opinion-atlantis-fans-need-to-stop-punishing-universe/
Teenygozer said: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
This is ridiculous. It's true that when SGA was canceled, I was very unhappy. I loved SGA and SG-1 and all those great characters! We never missed SGA, or SG-1 when it was on, and we still watch the reruns to this day. I was even more unhappy when I read interviews with the Stargate creators that said they thought fans of SGA were old and boring, that their new show would be much more awesome than previous Stargates, and that they were looking forward to attracting a more youthful and therefore desirable demographic. Yet I wasn't so insulted that I decided to boycott SGU - I figured it was the kind of thing TPTB had to say in interviews -- it was a marketing thing, and not meant personally. After all, Stargate's PTB and I are the same age! Surely they weren't saying that they, themselves, were old!
Problem is, these guys are good at writing "penny dreadfuls" - silly, fun, crazy scripts (with a million holes in them) that don't aspire to great art, that are acted out by amusing, heroic characters. SGA won the People's Choice award, so they must have been doing something right. Unfortunately, their aspirations have risen, and they crave the critical adulation shows like BSG and Firefly have garnered - not in and of itself a bad thing, but the problem is, their talent has not risen with their aspirations. They've stripped all the joy, silliness, and wonder from their usual brand of show and substituted irritating characters, dark sets, shaky-cam, and tiresome, plodding plots, as if that's what made shows like BSG and Firefly great, not superlative writing. They haven't a clue. And they don't take constructive criticism at all well, preferring to insult in the vilest terms anyone who points out the very real problems with SGU. The quotes in this article are an example of that - still unwilling to take the blame for their well-deserved low ratings, they blame the mean ol' fans who are purposely getting in the way of their success!
My husband and I watched every single episode of SGU's first season, or we tried to. He kept falling asleep and my attention wandered. Sometimes things didn't make sense, so we'd back it up to try to figure out if we missed something, but half the time it still didn't make sense. I don't expect something I'm watching for fun to be torture to get through. BSG and Firefly were never torture to get through, so I'm not sure why these guys think that, in order to be high art, a show has to be such a joyless, monochrome drag.
The show is NOT GOOD. In fact, it is often ACTIVELY BAD. People don't like watching shows that are NOT GOOD or ACTIVELY BAD. So, dearest Brad, whose work I’ve enjoyed in the past, if you want eyes on your show, you have to make it GOOD, or at least BETTER. You do that and we'll watch it. Suggestion: hire really good script writers, and make sure some of them are women, because your female characters are truly embarrassingly, cringingly awful. But stop blaming the mean, ol' fans for your lack of success.