TurquoiseB wrote: > > The problem with the premise is that the American > public wants "instant payoff" in a TV series. They > often want to understand everything in the first or > second episode. So that's tough for creators like > Joss Whedon or Alan Ball or David Milch who like to > "take their time" developing characterization and > plot. For me it is often about the arc of the episode. If it doesn't quite take off then it loses me. But I didn't like the arc in Fringe all that much but gave it a couple more episodes and it got better so I watch it regularly. I expected Milch to be good and liked JFC and the episodes had good arcs. There is some good writing out and production out there. "Burn Notice" is like a guilty pleasure but last Thursday's was an exceptionally good episode. "CSI" always gets me back because it isn't "the cops are always right" type of show because a lot of times they mess up and it has some running humor and personal stories too. What may be lacking from "Dollhouse" would be some of Whedon's characteristic humor.
That said, last night Sci-Fi played "Splinters" which was a critically praised horror flick that played some theaters last year. Funny thing was as I was recording it the weekly "At The Movies" guys bashed the new version of "Friday the 13th" and in doing so praised "Splinters" as a innovative horror film. The Sci-Fi version was bizarre because they bleeped out the f word so much that there was all this blank space but it IS a good film. I don't think I've seen it on the shelves yet so this might have been a special deal. Too bad it has to be censored in backward America.
