Link Salad, the Difficult Tube Edition
-- Difficult Films: ‘Are You Here’ and Why Some of TV’s Most Celebrated Showrunners Fail at the Movies - Steven Hyden, Grantland, Sept. 30, 2014
"My appreciation for the shows that these showrunners show-run - which ranges from respectful indifference to borderline unhealthy obsessiveness - is beside the point. We have lost the plot when it comes to our showrunner fetish. We put too much stock in what these people do when they succeed, and don’t cut them nearly enough slack when they fail (or, more accurately, fail to meet our expectations, which are impossible to meet anyway). Even when the shows end, the outrage lives on. Why are we still pestering David Chase about whether Tony Soprano was really murdered and then chastising him when he sort of offers an answer? At what point will Lost fans finally forgive Damon Lindelof for the sin of delivering more than 100 hours of gripping entertainment and then capping it off with a so-so denouement? You know what we need? A brilliant showrunner to formulate a perfectly satisfying conclusion to this mania we have for brilliant showrunners so that we can move on."
-- Dreaming of Jollywood - Amos Barshad, Grantland, Sept. 30, 2014
"The international adoption of a nation’s stories and sensibility is not uncommon. A few years earlier, thanks to the beloved original versions of The Killing and The Bridge, Denmark was the international darling: a tiny place making disproportionate waves on small screens everywhere. Now, with original “formats” being pitched all over the world, it seemed like Israel’s turn. Except that at the moment of coronation - actual American shows coming to Israel to shoot, and with Israeli control - it crumbled. The embittered fictional Middle Eastern politics of Tyrant were blown to pieces by the real thing. This was still Israel. As if we could forget."
"My appreciation for the shows that these showrunners show-run - which ranges from respectful indifference to borderline unhealthy obsessiveness - is beside the point. We have lost the plot when it comes to our showrunner fetish. We put too much stock in what these people do when they succeed, and don’t cut them nearly enough slack when they fail (or, more accurately, fail to meet our expectations, which are impossible to meet anyway). Even when the shows end, the outrage lives on. Why are we still pestering David Chase about whether Tony Soprano was really murdered and then chastising him when he sort of offers an answer? At what point will Lost fans finally forgive Damon Lindelof for the sin of delivering more than 100 hours of gripping entertainment and then capping it off with a so-so denouement? You know what we need? A brilliant showrunner to formulate a perfectly satisfying conclusion to this mania we have for brilliant showrunners so that we can move on."
-- Dreaming of Jollywood - Amos Barshad, Grantland, Sept. 30, 2014
"The international adoption of a nation’s stories and sensibility is not uncommon. A few years earlier, thanks to the beloved original versions of The Killing and The Bridge, Denmark was the international darling: a tiny place making disproportionate waves on small screens everywhere. Now, with original “formats” being pitched all over the world, it seemed like Israel’s turn. Except that at the moment of coronation - actual American shows coming to Israel to shoot, and with Israeli control - it crumbled. The embittered fictional Middle Eastern politics of Tyrant were blown to pieces by the real thing. This was still Israel. As if we could forget."