Nielsen Gave Me A TV Diary, But Not For My Fannish Emo
Roomie wandered out to the mailbox earlier today and discovered that the Nielsen folks had sent us a TV diary. Apparently, starting Thursday, I'm supposed to dutifully record every show I watch or listen to for more than five minutes, and to record when the television is turned off. I am oddly thrilled with this assignment, though I do wonder what they'll think when they see that I watch The Exterminators, CSI:NY,, and The Golden Girls in the same one-hour period through the magic of channel-surfing. Hell, last night, I spent eight hours watching The Golden Girls because I think that show is funny as hell, and I'm sure I'm not in their target demographic since I have all my teeth and have not yet begun to confuse the bar soap with an after-dinner mint.
On the main, my viewing habits are rather pedestrian. My schedule is largely dictated by CBS crime dramas, with occasional detours to TNT and A&E and the History Channel. In fact, if my age weren't listed on the diary, the bean counters at Nielsen would likely mistake me for a libidinous octogenarian with a secret and carefully nurtured predilection for sanitized violence. Or maybe a deeply misanthropic history professor who curses the Fates for unspooling his life thread in the twentieth century instead of the Bronze Age, where he so clearly belonged. How else to explain a TV viewing schedule riddled with crime dramas, moldering sitcoms, and shows about ancient warfare?
Anyway, they paid me five dollars to pick my TV brain, and because I'm an opinionated blowhard when it comes to the make-believe people who live in the magic box, I'll be only too happy to oblige them. For ten dollars, I'd've included a literate screed on why Pam Veasey is a perniciously destructive nitwit as a bonus. I still might because they said I could write whatever I wanted in the comment box, and letting that particular fart out of the underwear would give me a great deal of satisfaction, even if it would do no good.
I was going to clarify my position on the use of Adam Ross in "No Good Deed", but I don't see the point of reheating that pot of hash at this late date, nor do I want to expend the effort of rolling my eyes at the Adam apologists who will immediately leap to his defense.
Actually...
I like Adam. I think Adam has a place on the show. But no one will be able to convince me that his extensive presence in "No Good Deed" wasn't fanservice. The franchise has a history of fanservice, from moving Greg Sanders into the field to Calleigh/Eric to DL to making Danny largely indistinguishable from Carmine. I don't count GSR as fanservice because that seed had clearly been planted from the series' outset; Sara was pining so hard during those early seasons that it's a wonder she didn't scrawl Evanescence lyrics on her locker and drown her sorrows with absinthe by the glass. However, I think the ship's development was expedited once it became clear just how popular it was. It's the nature of the beast. Producers see what generates buzz and milk it for all it's worth.
Greg attracted a following, so they put him in the field(and promptly bled the quirky charisma from his character, though Szmanda has managed to imbue Greg with a more mature likeability since S7).
Danny was popular and charismatic, so they hitched their angst wagon to his emo llama and drove him hard, and he paid dividends until they saddled him with the succubus known as Lindsay Monroe.
Adam is getting popular, and so they're trotting out that show pony with abandon. A.J. Buckley got Adam noticed, and he deserves every credit for that. I'm not denying his talent or raw magnetism. I'm not an idiot. But I don't think it's a stretch to assert that if the fans hadn't noticed Adam, and if the producers hadn't noticed the fans' sudden infatuation, Adam never would've been anything but a named lab tech who appeared from time to time to dispense information. But because the producers have noticed the fannish interest Adam has generated, their plans for the character diverged from their original intent.
I can't prove this because I'm not privy to producers' meetings or writing sessions in the studio bullshit room. It's just a vibe I get from watching the episodes. Adam's shift from recurring, low-level tech to show regular and burgeoning mainstay has happened too quickly to be organic or wholly credible, and I suspect his sudden increase in airtime is directly related to TPTB's desperate attempt to curry favor with fans increasingly disgusted with the show's lack of clear direction and abundance of shoddy writing. Adam distracts fans from the atrocity and narrative clusterfucks that are the DL baby bump and Danny's clumsily retconned, nonsensical backstory because A.J. Buckley exudes charm and talent like musk and can infuse even the most lackluster dialogue with enthusiasm. Adam makes the pablum on offer tastes good, and so the fans eat it up with a spoon, and TPTB have decided to peddle his wares at every opportunity. I don't blame them, but that doesn't change the fact that it's blatant fan pandering.
In the last two episodes, Adam has received more screen time than Flack and Hawkes combined. His presence in "The Party's Over" made narrative sense and provided development of both plot and character. His presence in "No Good Deed" was superfluous and added nothing to either the plot or his character. It was Adam for the sake of Adam because the writers couldn't be assed to write anything else. Why not explore Mac's sudden personality transplant instead, or quickly revisit Stella's clandestine, behind-the-Mac machinations since they're supposed to play a pivotal role in the season denouement? We know Adam is shy and self-deprecating and funny. We don't need to be reminded of his awesomeness. Perhaps I wouldn't feel this way if the episodes hadn't aired back-to-back, but as it is, I can't shake the feeling that the writers are using Adam as an affable Macguffin with which to distract us while the rot of bad writing and uninspired stories sets in. And I'm not fooled.
I'm not going to post this on Talk because four days is four years in Internet time and that ship has peacefully sailed. Besides, I can only imagine the fulminating butthurt it might engender, and I'm too tired to strap on my tinhat and gold-plated e-peen and wade into a wankfest.
On the main, my viewing habits are rather pedestrian. My schedule is largely dictated by CBS crime dramas, with occasional detours to TNT and A&E and the History Channel. In fact, if my age weren't listed on the diary, the bean counters at Nielsen would likely mistake me for a libidinous octogenarian with a secret and carefully nurtured predilection for sanitized violence. Or maybe a deeply misanthropic history professor who curses the Fates for unspooling his life thread in the twentieth century instead of the Bronze Age, where he so clearly belonged. How else to explain a TV viewing schedule riddled with crime dramas, moldering sitcoms, and shows about ancient warfare?
Anyway, they paid me five dollars to pick my TV brain, and because I'm an opinionated blowhard when it comes to the make-believe people who live in the magic box, I'll be only too happy to oblige them. For ten dollars, I'd've included a literate screed on why Pam Veasey is a perniciously destructive nitwit as a bonus. I still might because they said I could write whatever I wanted in the comment box, and letting that particular fart out of the underwear would give me a great deal of satisfaction, even if it would do no good.
I was going to clarify my position on the use of Adam Ross in "No Good Deed", but I don't see the point of reheating that pot of hash at this late date, nor do I want to expend the effort of rolling my eyes at the Adam apologists who will immediately leap to his defense.
Actually...
I like Adam. I think Adam has a place on the show. But no one will be able to convince me that his extensive presence in "No Good Deed" wasn't fanservice. The franchise has a history of fanservice, from moving Greg Sanders into the field to Calleigh/Eric to DL to making Danny largely indistinguishable from Carmine. I don't count GSR as fanservice because that seed had clearly been planted from the series' outset; Sara was pining so hard during those early seasons that it's a wonder she didn't scrawl Evanescence lyrics on her locker and drown her sorrows with absinthe by the glass. However, I think the ship's development was expedited once it became clear just how popular it was. It's the nature of the beast. Producers see what generates buzz and milk it for all it's worth.
Greg attracted a following, so they put him in the field(and promptly bled the quirky charisma from his character, though Szmanda has managed to imbue Greg with a more mature likeability since S7).
Danny was popular and charismatic, so they hitched their angst wagon to his emo llama and drove him hard, and he paid dividends until they saddled him with the succubus known as Lindsay Monroe.
Adam is getting popular, and so they're trotting out that show pony with abandon. A.J. Buckley got Adam noticed, and he deserves every credit for that. I'm not denying his talent or raw magnetism. I'm not an idiot. But I don't think it's a stretch to assert that if the fans hadn't noticed Adam, and if the producers hadn't noticed the fans' sudden infatuation, Adam never would've been anything but a named lab tech who appeared from time to time to dispense information. But because the producers have noticed the fannish interest Adam has generated, their plans for the character diverged from their original intent.
I can't prove this because I'm not privy to producers' meetings or writing sessions in the studio bullshit room. It's just a vibe I get from watching the episodes. Adam's shift from recurring, low-level tech to show regular and burgeoning mainstay has happened too quickly to be organic or wholly credible, and I suspect his sudden increase in airtime is directly related to TPTB's desperate attempt to curry favor with fans increasingly disgusted with the show's lack of clear direction and abundance of shoddy writing. Adam distracts fans from the atrocity and narrative clusterfucks that are the DL baby bump and Danny's clumsily retconned, nonsensical backstory because A.J. Buckley exudes charm and talent like musk and can infuse even the most lackluster dialogue with enthusiasm. Adam makes the pablum on offer tastes good, and so the fans eat it up with a spoon, and TPTB have decided to peddle his wares at every opportunity. I don't blame them, but that doesn't change the fact that it's blatant fan pandering.
In the last two episodes, Adam has received more screen time than Flack and Hawkes combined. His presence in "The Party's Over" made narrative sense and provided development of both plot and character. His presence in "No Good Deed" was superfluous and added nothing to either the plot or his character. It was Adam for the sake of Adam because the writers couldn't be assed to write anything else. Why not explore Mac's sudden personality transplant instead, or quickly revisit Stella's clandestine, behind-the-Mac machinations since they're supposed to play a pivotal role in the season denouement? We know Adam is shy and self-deprecating and funny. We don't need to be reminded of his awesomeness. Perhaps I wouldn't feel this way if the episodes hadn't aired back-to-back, but as it is, I can't shake the feeling that the writers are using Adam as an affable Macguffin with which to distract us while the rot of bad writing and uninspired stories sets in. And I'm not fooled.
I'm not going to post this on Talk because four days is four years in Internet time and that ship has peacefully sailed. Besides, I can only imagine the fulminating butthurt it might engender, and I'm too tired to strap on my tinhat and gold-plated e-peen and wade into a wankfest.