Dead Zone rant.
Jul. 9th, 2006 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sydni_64I am very upset by the fact that Dead Zone this season? Not very good. No, not very good at all. Yes, there's been some lovely slashiness and yes, Bruce and Johnny have had plenty of screentime together and the two actors have obviously been hitting the gym something fierce (Anthony Michael Hall looks grrreat!). But the show as a whole is just so very... meh.
There are two main problems, as far as I can tell: 1) the production standards are down, and 2) the writing is plain inept and/or lazy.
For the second time in two weeks, I have figured out the so-called "mystery" halfway through the show. It couldn't have been more obvious--they might as well have gotten Russell Crowe to strip naked and hand-deliver the memo to me. I am watching a show about a PSYCHIC. It would be bad enough if he were supposed to be just a keenly observant citizen, or a seasoned detective, but he's a bleedin' PSYCHIC. They're revealing the "explosive twist" and all I can think about is how much I would like to smack Johnny Smith upside the head with tomorrow's paper.
The Dead Zone needs to stop retreading these plot lines they've handled much better *before* (the spectre of racial violence is clumsily tripped over in "Articles of Faith" and handled brilliantly in the Season Three ep., "Shadows"). The TPTB need to give up on trying to turn the show into a crime procedural where they can just churn these whodunnit eps out week after week. Get over it, guys--Medium may be a Janey-come-lately, but it's still much better at that than you are. Let Allison have her thing.
It's been five years, and the whole Stillson storyline has been developed in fits and starts. As long as Stillson hasn't been defeated, TPTB have a direction in which they can take the show, but seriously--it's been five years. I'm all about keeping your ace in your pocket, but this is getting ridiculous, and it's embarassing. And for the love of God, make a damn outline, if you do it--don't just write yourselves into a corner at the end of the season, write yourselves out of it in the next season premiere, and then fill the space in between with episodes that develop and advance nothing--not the mythology, not the characters, nothing.
The problem with the production values on this show goes hand-in-hand with the writing. There used to be beautiful transitions used to demonstrate Johnny's visions--now, nothing. The fact that he is a PSYCHIC seems entirely secondary, if that, to anything that happens on the show. I know that USA Network has been cutting their funding, but it remains a sad fact that this is not the sumptuously shot show I fell in love with. And it's terrible that Michael Piller is gone. It remains a sad fact that the level of storytelling on the Dead Zone has gone downhill without him. That said, although the difference between season five and season four is especially marked, there's been a slow decline in the overall quality of the show. The degradation of the writing quality has also meant that Anthony Michael Hall, a brilliant fucking actor if there's ever been one, is left with almost nothing to do besides gravely intone that "there's still time" and look like he could really use some Advil for whatever killer migraine he's got going on.
Don't even get me started about how they bring back the Dana Bright character for an episode and don't explain to us why she dropped off the face of the earth and went missing for oh, a couple *years*. Was I happy to see Kristen Dalton? Yes. Am I insulted that TPTB didn't even go to the trouble of writing Dana as though she might possibly be the same freaking character I'd been missing and hoping to see again all these years? You bet your ass.
And finally, it should be pointed out that there is something deeply perverse about USA picking up Psych--a show about two buddies, one black, one white, who solve crimes together. One of them, the white one, claims to be a psychic. Now, that doesn't remind us of anyone, does it?!
Sigh. I look at the icon I am using for this post, and wonder whether I will ever see a Dead Zone episode like "Precipitate" again. Who knows? There's still time.
There are two main problems, as far as I can tell: 1) the production standards are down, and 2) the writing is plain inept and/or lazy.
For the second time in two weeks, I have figured out the so-called "mystery" halfway through the show. It couldn't have been more obvious--they might as well have gotten Russell Crowe to strip naked and hand-deliver the memo to me. I am watching a show about a PSYCHIC. It would be bad enough if he were supposed to be just a keenly observant citizen, or a seasoned detective, but he's a bleedin' PSYCHIC. They're revealing the "explosive twist" and all I can think about is how much I would like to smack Johnny Smith upside the head with tomorrow's paper.
The Dead Zone needs to stop retreading these plot lines they've handled much better *before* (the spectre of racial violence is clumsily tripped over in "Articles of Faith" and handled brilliantly in the Season Three ep., "Shadows"). The TPTB need to give up on trying to turn the show into a crime procedural where they can just churn these whodunnit eps out week after week. Get over it, guys--Medium may be a Janey-come-lately, but it's still much better at that than you are. Let Allison have her thing.
It's been five years, and the whole Stillson storyline has been developed in fits and starts. As long as Stillson hasn't been defeated, TPTB have a direction in which they can take the show, but seriously--it's been five years. I'm all about keeping your ace in your pocket, but this is getting ridiculous, and it's embarassing. And for the love of God, make a damn outline, if you do it--don't just write yourselves into a corner at the end of the season, write yourselves out of it in the next season premiere, and then fill the space in between with episodes that develop and advance nothing--not the mythology, not the characters, nothing.
The problem with the production values on this show goes hand-in-hand with the writing. There used to be beautiful transitions used to demonstrate Johnny's visions--now, nothing. The fact that he is a PSYCHIC seems entirely secondary, if that, to anything that happens on the show. I know that USA Network has been cutting their funding, but it remains a sad fact that this is not the sumptuously shot show I fell in love with. And it's terrible that Michael Piller is gone. It remains a sad fact that the level of storytelling on the Dead Zone has gone downhill without him. That said, although the difference between season five and season four is especially marked, there's been a slow decline in the overall quality of the show. The degradation of the writing quality has also meant that Anthony Michael Hall, a brilliant fucking actor if there's ever been one, is left with almost nothing to do besides gravely intone that "there's still time" and look like he could really use some Advil for whatever killer migraine he's got going on.
Don't even get me started about how they bring back the Dana Bright character for an episode and don't explain to us why she dropped off the face of the earth and went missing for oh, a couple *years*. Was I happy to see Kristen Dalton? Yes. Am I insulted that TPTB didn't even go to the trouble of writing Dana as though she might possibly be the same freaking character I'd been missing and hoping to see again all these years? You bet your ass.
And finally, it should be pointed out that there is something deeply perverse about USA picking up Psych--a show about two buddies, one black, one white, who solve crimes together. One of them, the white one, claims to be a psychic. Now, that doesn't remind us of anyone, does it?!
Sigh. I look at the icon I am using for this post, and wonder whether I will ever see a Dead Zone episode like "Precipitate" again. Who knows? There's still time.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-10 11:53 am (UTC)Bwah! Well-put.
And for the love of God, make a damn outline, if you do it--don't just write yourselves into a corner at the end of the season, write yourselves out of it in the next season premiere, and then fill the space in between with episodes that develop and advance nothing--not the mythology, not the characters, nothing.
A very succinct and accurate description of what this show has been like since season four.
Another thing that has bothered me lately is the way Johnny tells people he's psychic every ten seconds. I remember a time when the creators of the show actually tried to minimize the use of that word for very good reasons. He must have said it three or four times last night.
There used to be beautiful transitions used to demonstrate Johnny's visions--now, nothing.
I had forgotten about this until I was rewatching some season three eps (not even the best season three eps, but just some of the okay ones) and I was astounded by how cool the visions were. Anymore they just go "whoosh" and cut.
The one thing I did like was the way Johnny actually swung whatever he had in his hand when he was trying to identify the murderer. I've really missed the way the personalities of the people in Johnny's visions used to bleed into his own. That was one of the best, freakieset things about the two-part pilot. This show just isn't scary anymore.
The similarities between Psych and The Dead Zone seem pretty superficial and coincidental to me, though. I like Psych. It really is a good companion for Monk because it's just as funny, but in a completely different way. I'm not sure yet about the quality of the mysteries, though...
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-10 07:17 pm (UTC)It makes me crazy. It would be interesting if we saw Johnny at least wrestle emotionally with this concession to expedience. I could buy that it's just a lot easier and faster for him to explain that he's a "psychic" when he's in a pinch to explain his abilities, but it was always a part of Johnny's character that he hated being defined in this way, and that makes sense to me.
I've really missed the way the personalities of the people in Johnny's visions used to bleed into his own.
I miss that, too! (Jimmy crack cooorn, and Ah don't caaaaare!!) TPTB are blessed with this frighteningly versatile actor in AMH, and his talents are severely underused these days. It's sad to see that potential being squandered on "very special episodes" where we all learn that Klansmen are people, too.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-10 08:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-30 04:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-10 12:36 pm (UTC)It's actually the same season. They filmed it all at once, and then once they had all the eps in the can, USA decided to split the eps in half and air them as two seasons so they could pair it up with The 4400.
And yes, it is dreadful. I hung on grimly all last season, right up until the Christmas Special, and then I just wept. I think it had something to do with the way they all marveled at the snow as though it were a miracle. In December. In MAINE. I tried again this season, but it was the writing more than anything that made the show, and it's just not *there* anymore. I'll put a lot of that down to the fact that these eps were being filmed during Piller's illness, which would have taken both father and son out of the picture for most of it, but it's pretty indicative of the fact that the show hinged on their talent. (And yes, the cash which they clearly no longer have. Even the new theme song makes me cringe.)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-10 06:37 pm (UTC)re: the writing, I was knocking around the official DZ site just now, and imagine my surprise to learn that "Articles of Faith" was written by the same guy, Michael Taylor, who did "Dinner with Dana." To me, DwD is the definitive episode in terms of establishing Dana's character. It makes it all the more astonishing that Dana could be so one-dimensional and boring in AoF.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-30 04:30 am (UTC)A-freaking-men. U_U And now with the potential of this being the last season? Fuck. Seriously, that's what I have to say in response to the teaser summary about this season's finale. Whatever. *growl*
And for the love of God, make a damn outline,
LMAO! So true. When I first started watching (watched season one through library copies, couldn't believe where the finale left...) I had to hurry out and get the next season.... only to find that the plotline was still going. And going. I don't expect an ending anymore, which totally kills that wonderful thrill of anticipation that captivated me early on. And the in between episodes tend very much like shit. =p
...and look like he could really use some Advil for whatever killer migraine he's got going on.
Heh, I agree. And I really freaking love John L. Adams and Chris Bruno... I fell in love with the characters--all of them who've been there from the start. (Me and Rebecca do not get along *g*) Then I fell in love with the actors. These are awesome people. They deserve top-rate scripts to work with, not this drivel that's destroying these amazing characters they've been portraying all these years.
Dana. What the heck was the issue of the flippant "oh, well it's not Seattle or (whatever)" about Boston. Um... hello, that'd be a helluva news place to be, imo. And if she's not real thrilled about it, why go anyway? And who else besides her father, her creepy posessive boyfriend, and Purdy have been teh manipulitive men? I mean, that seemed to have ended as of season one. And I highly doubt she's been totally single all this time. So what the heck happened? Talk about a dropped storyline!
And I agree that there's something sketchy about having DZ and Psych together. On the other hand, I absolutely freaking LOVE Psych. There's no way I can say the same thing of Dead Zone anymore. Yes, I like the series. I love the characters. Bruce/Johnny still one of my top OTPs of all fandoms. But the show? Pfft.
Did it piss you off as much as it did me that there was no explanation of why journalist-homophobe-gay beat his boyfriend to death? Jesus. And then set up everything to make it look like a hate crime. But no regret... just totally apathetic. But not like he was in shock. I was disgusted how it was handled. Gimme the "Dios mio, he's gay!" bit any day of the week! (Whatcha think about DZ going to an independent channel and veering in the direction of a positive, realistic spin on a gay relationship? *g* I would kill to see that. Would freaking rock. *daydreams*)
Sigh..... Now I'm feeling depressed. I need new, really good J/B stuff to pull me through! *pouts* It totally exhausts me trying to find stuff. I'm very, very, very rarely successful. Always seem to end up writing 'em myself. =p Like there's at least 10 huge ideas after "Articles of Faith." Including a morbid one about Johnny getting too caught up in that damn vision and actually slamming Bruce with the flashlight.
I'm such a sick, sick person. ^_~ But I swear, the boys would pull through in the end. *really, really craving J/B-ness now...* X_X