More Weekly Rantings Bought To You By Logan

Ok, you called for it - more logan-style ranting, this week featuring television!

Having just finished watching season one of Jericho, I have come to the belief that viewers are idiots. OK, maybe not everyone, just the <1% of people who actually contribute to the ratings. So CBS cancel Jericho, they get inundated with nuts, and then they turn around with a pretty decent deal to try to get viewers into the show. This leads me to believe that CBS actually like Jericho, and they wanted to give it a chance, but the ratings forced them to try to drop it.

Which brings me to my next point - what's so good about ratings? Statistically and mathematically, nobody likes the show. Yet how is it that all these people protest its cancellation? Websites are formed, action groups are organised, and before you know it, you've got a massive fanbase peeved at loosing their show. I am willing to hazard a guess that next to none of these people have any contribution to the ratings system.

Statistical moderation works in many areas of society. It helps calculate welfare payments, criminal cases, and the likelihood of network 10 sticking to a show that doesn't have sex in it. But what it cannot calculate is people's personalities. From what I understand, the system is based on age groups, social order, and locations. I have a very different sense of humour to my sister, yet statistically we should watch exactly the same sort of programming. Which is ususally not the case. Come to think of it, last week I did not watch a single show listed in the top 20 shows of the week for melbourne. The only show that I'd watch up there was House, and I didn't bother with it SINCE IT WAS A REPEAT! I'd rather watch the DVD.

DVD sales have soared because viewers are sick of repeats shoved in between new seasons every week (10 are absolute bastards at this), tired of overdone advertising (thanks seven), advertising that gives away the ending (again, 10) and, despite the networks protestations that it doesn't happen, programming going overtime. They can't argue this point with DTV, because their program guides tell me that the next program is on, but I'm still stuck watching Big Brother!

Another prime example is Alias. The final season aired in 2005, yet 7 are only airing it now 1/2 way through 2007 at 10:30 on a sunday night! Yet we can't buy the dvd's in Australia because the tv network hasn't yet aired the show yet. So people download it illegally or buy the dvd from amazon.

Which brings me to another point - if the tv networks think their free to air advertising is so great, why do we have to wait for the dvd to be released after the show's been aired? Surely people would rather see it for free than pay the $50 for the box set. Problem is, we don't see it for free. These days tv is nothing more than a shopping channel - you see a preview of a show you like, then you go download it or buy the dvd. Fewer and fewer people are interested in the crap that you have to endure to watch the show. If I have to listen to that guy/girl adverts about 10's shows one more time...

So, back to the original rant, Jericho is a great show that is not really targeted at the moronic people who watch BB. It is a show that requires thought and intelligence, in a similar vein to prison break and lost. It is (or was) one of the best shows on television, but by the time people realised that it was back on TV, it had been axed. Good job, ten.

Anyway, I'm probably already preaching to the converted, but if nothing else, it will all make us feel partially better ridiculing TV for their crap treatment of Jericho, Stargate SG1, Stargate SG2, Family Guy, American Dad, Scrubs, House, 24, Lost, NCIS, Numb3rs (when it started they kept changing timeslots every week, then cancelled it for a while), and most definitely Whose Line Is It Anyway (a 1/3 of an episode at 3am is not worth showing).

But, on a brighter note, I bought season one of "A Bit Of Fry And Laurie" featuring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. This is a briliant sketch show and well worth watching. BBC comedy at it's best. 221 minutes of sketches for $17. Absolute bargain - unlike the IT Crowd, which JB insist on retailing for $28 for six 1/2 hour episodes. I also got season 1 & 2 of house, and season 1 of lost for $80 (buy 2 get one free).

Oh, and I nearly forgot, the most awesomest ringtone ever. I nearly lost this post adding it, so you'd better be apreciative! (I hit draft instead of publish, then when I went to publish it only 1/2 of it was there... it came back, thankfully).