Fans of
Lost and
Desparate Housewives are complaining about the long hiatus between new episodes in
this article over at MSNBC.
Says Marcia from Michigan: "All of us at work watch ["Lost"], however, we are becoming very discouraged & may quit watching it. This is a show that you have to follow closely EVERY week. Then BANG, [the network] throws 2-3 reruns in the middle of everything! So please, let’s keep the show running, so that people can follow the story. I'd hate to see it go off the air for that reason."
Reader B. Williams says: "I have watched 'Lost' from the beginning and was a huge fan. The suspense was awesome, the good guys good, the bad guys bad and the plot was actually in existence. (Rare for reality-swamped television.) The problem is they keep showing reruns. At this point in time I don't care where Claire's baby is, where Ethan (or was it Evan? see, I can't even remember their names anymore) came from, whether or not the French woman is really crazy, why there are polar bears on the island, etc. ... Too bad because this show had serious potential."
You know, I'm not a huge fan of the long hiatuses myself, but I understand it's a necessary evil in today's television world where we get fewer episodes spread over a longer period of time. Also, the flip side is that such a hiatus allows new viewers to join the party and see what all the buzz is about.
Now, I don't watch
Desparate Housewives (despite my acknowledged love for all things Teri Hatcher), but I do watch
Lost. And it seems to me that
Lost is one of those shows that rewards multiple viewings.
Also, I just have to laugh at the complete lack of attention span of the people in this article. "Oh, I am confused...I don't know what is happening!" Yes, it takes such a huge commitment of mental resources to figure out if you've seen the episode or not and to remember how it fits into the overall mythology of the show. Come on people--surely you can't be that dense! And I love the attitude of--well, it's hard to figure out so I will just give up. Yes, it's thanks to people like this that the infinite clones of
CSI and
Law and Order thrive.
And ABC has nothing on the WB who every year goes top heavy on new episodes and then makes you wait almost two months for new episodes in the spring. I still remember the huge hiatus in
Buffy's second season when the show moved from Monday to Tuesday. By the end of Feburary we had seen 18 of the 22 episode that year and went into two months of repeats. So, a few weeks hiatus ain't nothing to me.
UPDATE: 3/25.
USA Today's Robert Bianco addresses the repeats issue in today's What To Watch column. I couldn't agree more..
Finally. After an extended break, ABC has a new episode of Desperate Housewives (Sunday, 9 p.m. ET/PT), featuring the return of Sharon Lawrence as Maisy. Yes, I know the wait for fresh shows has been annoying — but as with every network series, Housewives produces fewer episodes than there are weeks in the season. So you either get repeats or gaps. Deal with it, people.
posted by Michael Hickerson at 3/24/2005 01:55:00 PM |
|
