BREAKING NEWS: "V" and "Flash Forward" ain't dead yet, and neither is Stargate Universe

Sounds like a job title!

Well, yeah, I noticed it once you pointed it out to me. I doubt I would have noticed it otherwise.

It seemed a little awkward to credit it when it was just an offhand mention in a response, but I should have done it. Sorry. I didn't run it as an actual article (though it's certainly big enough news to qualify) because IO9 had already run a story on it, and since we're kind of rivals with them, I try not to run stuff they're also running so that it won't look like we're just copying them.

Actually, I'll fix that now. Re-read this article when you get a chance.

Syfy announced that Stargate Universe and Sanctuary are greenlit to start the next season of shows. I mailed this news to R3, but no article has been posted here yet, so here is the link http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i27f167feba4e...

Edit: Aha, I see it now. R3 buried it in the comments of a week-old post on SGU where he claims that "he noticed" it. News Ninja!

Lost really is an anomaly. It's a total watershed show that changed the way people tell stories on TV, it's balanced very nicely between arc and human stories, and it kept itself in the closet for such a long time before it outed itself that people who don't like SF were so invested in the characters that they weren't gonna' just walk away.

It hit in just the right place at just the right time, a one-in-a-million thing. The network has tried a half-dozen shows to be "The Next Lost" in the last six years, and all of 'em have crashed and burned within a season because "Lost" is unique, both in format, and in timing, you know? Thus all the putative replacements end up coming across as ripoffs.

Flash Forward had the best premise of any of 'em, but it's kind of flushed it down the toilet, alas.

It will be interesting to see how they screw up V by trying to bow to the critics that say it’s anti Obama. It might be helpful if the left did not act like fascists then people might not see them in that light. But like I have written on more than one occasion the plot of this type of alien invasion story is inherently anti establishment and anti whichever party is in power.

The networks have a basic problem with genre shows they see how much money they make at the box office for the studios. But the culture of TV makes it hard for the networks to pull off the same kind of success. A movie can make money by having a small core of fans going to see a movie over and over again but in TV they need mass appeal which is harder to do. This need for mass appeal also makes the networks afraid of certain subject matters. V is the prime example of this, it does not matter if the producers intended it to be anti Obama all the networks care about is that a number of people see it that way.

Science fiction is at its best when it is expanding the envelope and playing with taboo subjects. But that is the last thing that a network wants they want bubblegum for the brain that will not anger anyone. ABC’s hit Lost is a genre show that hid the fact it was one for most of the first season. There are still fans of the show that do not understand that it’s sci fi (not ever good sci fi at that) and that is the way the network likes it.

Abc is trying to do the same slide of hand with Flash Forward and failing it’s hard to catch lighting twice. The problem with Flash Forward is that it’s such a good sci fi idea it’s hard to make it into an adventure/spy story like they have been trying. The show is not helped by the poor character development so far or the fact that the last few episodes seem to show that the writers have no plan and are making it up as they go. That was the ultimate failure of the X-files the writers had no end game mapped out as the series matured.