Good TV is not about the action...

"It's about the drama and the characters"...and whatever other pseudo-intellectual drivel someone can dream up. You ever notice that no matter what show is being discussed if someone complains about the level of action or space battles or cool special effects...you always get the same reply from people who come off trying (and failing) to sound high brow. I swear I want to club them with a small car.

EDIT: Not talking about WF, but any board where a TV show is being discussed.

Writing bad, 'splosions good, got it.

I knew there was a reason you are on ignore with JohnM and baba.

But thanks for giving the exact type of pseudo-intellectual drivel I'm talking about.

I'll continue to not bother clicking "View ignored post" when I see your name.

Ah, "pseudo-intellectual", being the new code word for not retarded apparently.

Good.

spoken like a true fan of Survivor and One Tree Hill...

Wrong forum?

Nah, I think it belongs here in Media Central.

Wait until Dicky hauls his arse out of bed around noon and comes back to tell us how we're all vacuous fanboys.

Uh....yeah...

An Unearthly Child.

Year of Hell.

Case settled.

Good TV is not about the action,
it's about the drama and the characters.

If you want to watch things blowing up without the writing or the characters being any good, just turn on the evening news. No one thinks that good action is a bad thing in television or the movies. It's using action as a crutch because you don't know how to write that's a problem. Action enhances good writing and highlights bad writing.

Balance, Daniel-san. Balance.

BSg and firefly had drama romance action boobs everything

Wrong room... wrong room... wrong room... can't tell him what you really think.

Actually, lately that's more than true. What are the hit shows, and how many space battles etc. are there? HOUSE, EARL, THE OFFICE, LOST, SCRUBS, the bloody SIMPSONS? Yep, lots of bigbaddaboom there. Those just from the top of my head without looking up the ratings.

Drama and action both have their places. The very best manage to balance both.

The reason that the space battles work so well in a show like BSG (beyond the fact that they are visually stunning) is because they are backed by real weight. In a show like that you can actually feel like there is a chance some of the good guys will lose, and they do from time to time.

On the other hand, while a show like Voyager had great special effects the battles always seem to just be going through the motions. Enemy ship(s) fire - Voyager shields up - Voyager returns fire - Enemy ship(s) get lucky shot(s) in - Voyager shields almost depleted - Voyager targets (weakness of the week here) - Enemy ship(s) destroyed.

As long as we're talking about hit shows:

Here are the top shows, in prime-time, this fall,
with approximate number of viewers.

CSI (CBS).......................................19 million
NCIS (CBS).....................................18 "
Dancing with the Stars (ABC).............17 "
Criminal Minds (CBS).........................16 "
CSI: New York (CBS).........................16 "
The Mentalist (CBS)..........................15 "
Desparate Housewives (ABC)..............15 "
Two and a Half Men (CBS)..................14 "
Grey's Anatomy (ABC)........................14 "
60 Minutes (CBS)...............................14 "
CSI: Miami (CBS)...............................13 "
Survivor (CBS)..................................13 "
House (FOX).....................................12 "
Eleventh Hour (CBS)...........................12 "
Without a Trace (CBS)........................11 "
Cold Case (CBS).................................11 "
Samantha Who (ABC)..........................11 "
Sunday Night Football (NBC).................10 "
Bones (FOX)......................................10 "
Amazing Race (CBS)............................10 "
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC)..10 "
The Big Bang Theory (CBS)....................9 "
How I Met Your Mother (CBS)................9 "
Fringe (FOX).......................................9 "
Special Victims Unit (NBC).....................9 "
Ghost Whisperer (CBS).........................9 "
NUMB3RS (CBS)..................................9 "
The Unit (CBS)...................................9 "
Bothers and Sisters (ABC)....................9 "
Worst Week (CBS)..............................9 "
Private Practice (ABC).........................9 "
The Office (NBC)................................8 "
Boston Legal (ABC).............................8 "
Ugly Betty (ABC)................................8 "
Old Christine (CBS).............................8 "
Gary Unmarried (CBS)..........................8 "
Life on Mars (ABC)..............................8 "
Heroes (NBC).....................................8 "
ER (NBC)...........................................8 "
The Simpsons (FOX)............................8 "
Family Guy (FOX)................................8 "
Deal or No Deal (NBC)..........................8 "
King of the Hill (FOX)...........................7 "
American Dad (FOX)............................7 "
Knight Rider (NBC)...............................7 "
The Biggest Loser (NBC).......................7 "
College Football (ABC)..........................7 "
My Name is Earl (NBC)..........................6 "
Life (NBC)..........................................6 "
Chuck (NBC).......................................6 "
Dirty Sexy Money (ABC)........................6 "
Pushing Daisies (ABC)...........................6 "
The Ex-List (CBS)................................6 "
Eli Stone (ABC)...................................5 "
Smarter than a 5th Grader (FOX)...........5 "
Prison Break (FOX)..............................5 "
Terminator: Sarah Conner (FOX)............5 "
Kath and Kim (NBC).............................5 "
My Own Worst Enemy (NBC).................5 "
Lipstick Jungle (NBC)...........................4 "
'Til Death (FOX).................................4 "
Don't Forget the Lyrics (FOX)...............4 "
Smallville (CW)...................................4 "
One Tree Hill (CW)..............................3 "
Gossip Girl (CW).................................3 "
Next Top Model (CW)..........................3 "
90210 (CW).......................................3 "
Supernatural (CW)..............................3 "

^
I wonder how South Park compares, including online views.

Comedy Central has reported that the season premier of South Park,
on Wednesday, Oct. 8, which slammed Lucas, Speilberg and Jones,
drew 3.7 million viewers.

This is the most viewers for a season premier of South Park since 1999.

Also on Oct. 8, the Daily Show had 2.9 million viewers for an interview
with Michele Obama. This is an all-time high for that show.

On the same night, The Colbert Report had 2.0 million viewers.

On Thursday, Oct. 9, the season premier of The Sarah Silverman Show
had 2.4 million viewers, an all time high for that show.

Seems to me if all the viewer wants to see is things exploding, they've got a plethora of video games in which they can not only watch, they can participate.

The difficulty with TV shows is that they're expected to have plots and characters and story arcs and narrative tension and maybe even occasionally a theme...

As do most of the good PC and video games.

Ah, not into gaming, so I didn't know that. I sense a trend.