Post by sorchafyre on Dec 11, 2004 22:25:42 GMT -5
Max Headroom. 20 minutes into the future. A stylish, funny, exquisitely intelligent show that was cancelled after 13 episodes. I doubt anyone who hasn't seen the show will be on this thread, so I'll forego the recap of the show. Let me know if anyone wants/needs one.
In my opinion, the show had two things which doomed it to failure from the start.
1. You absolutely had to pay attention to it. Because the stories were so complex and had such internal consistency, not to mention flat out intelligent, if you were distracted by events around you or you missed a few minutes of it, it wasn't always easy to pick the plot thread back up. People *knew* I wouldn't go anywhere or answer the phone between 8 and 9 Friday nights. ::grin:: However, the American mass market television-watching-population isn't set up to work that way. It simply wasn't the right medium for this.
2. It was too irreverent towards television and the networks. It probably sounded like a bold, daring idea in the pitch meeting, but reality tends to be a bit surprising. It's very pertinent warnings about television overwhelming all aspects of society become even more relevant as time goes on. Remember in the early '80's MTV was just getting popular, and cable flexing it's metaphorical wings.
And Max Headroom presented a future where network executives colluded with advertisers to create more effective ads, regardless of viewer mortality. A world where it was against the law to turn off your television set. A world where the political control of a country was manipulated by the stations in power.
Smart, edgy and ultimately too realistically possible.
Thoughts, opinions, favorite episodes? Characters? Plots?
In my opinion, the show had two things which doomed it to failure from the start.
1. You absolutely had to pay attention to it. Because the stories were so complex and had such internal consistency, not to mention flat out intelligent, if you were distracted by events around you or you missed a few minutes of it, it wasn't always easy to pick the plot thread back up. People *knew* I wouldn't go anywhere or answer the phone between 8 and 9 Friday nights. ::grin:: However, the American mass market television-watching-population isn't set up to work that way. It simply wasn't the right medium for this.
2. It was too irreverent towards television and the networks. It probably sounded like a bold, daring idea in the pitch meeting, but reality tends to be a bit surprising. It's very pertinent warnings about television overwhelming all aspects of society become even more relevant as time goes on. Remember in the early '80's MTV was just getting popular, and cable flexing it's metaphorical wings.
And Max Headroom presented a future where network executives colluded with advertisers to create more effective ads, regardless of viewer mortality. A world where it was against the law to turn off your television set. A world where the political control of a country was manipulated by the stations in power.
Smart, edgy and ultimately too realistically possible.
Thoughts, opinions, favorite episodes? Characters? Plots?
