TV: I like simple answers and I have an elevated capacity for violence

[sigma7]

Day 01 - A show that should never have been cancelled
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season)
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever
Day 05 - A show you hate
Day 06 - Favorite episode of one of your favorite shows
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of one of your favorite TV shows
Day 08 - A show that's had a significant effect on who you are today
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death

"If you are the best at what you do, no matter how strange or obscure or mundane, one day Miranda Zero appears on your door and hands you the phone. That means that what you do will save lives. You are needed. I'm needed."

There's a network of 1,001 agents across the world. Each of them carries a beyond-the-state-of-the-art cellphone. They pray it never goes off. If it does, it means that they are needed to prevent, at best, thousands of deaths or, at worst, the end of the world. It's an X-Files flash mob. It's the Global Frequency.

Global Frequency was birthday boy warren_ellis's 12-issue limited series with each issue being a self-contained, stand-alone story involving its founder and director (the ruthless Miranda Zero), its tactical coordinator (the uber-resourceful Aleph) and any number of field agents, each experts in their respective fields, often contributing from afar, often putting the agents in mortal peril. It was an impressive, intense, brutal little series. And someone got the idea of making it into a TV pilot with a relatively faithful adaptation of the series' first issue.

The pilot found its way onto the Internet and, buoyed by P2P distribution, a very receptive audience. But according to Ellis, this pissed off Warner Brothers enough that they decided to kibosh any further work on the show [note: see glumpish below for timeline clarification that eluded yours truly]. Tell me that makes a lick of sense. A viewership goes out of its way to "circulate the tapes," if you will, of a show they want to watch, and instead of catering to that demographic, WB chooses to spite it. It's not a perfect pilot, but there's so much potential here that smothering it in its sleep just seems criminal.

So you tell me. Would you watch this every week? Two more words to sell you on it: Michelle Forbes.

Comments

[glumpish.livejournal.com]

I'm not trying to be an "Um, ACTUALLY" jerk, honest, but I think you're telescoping the timeline. The WB ordered the pilot, which was shot in the fall of 2004. They passed on it that winter. The following June it was leaked online.

At which point Rogers looked the possibility of direct-to-DVD production, and there was also a question as to whether the pilot could be put on iTunes for download. WB (the company, not the network) was apparently annoyed enough by the torrents that they had no interest in doing either. You can argue that those were bad decisions, too, but "smothering it in its sleep" makes it sound as if the network killed the show in response to the torrents. It was already dead & buried by then.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Actually, good call -- it's been so long I was fuzzy on the whole causal relationship between pilot/no-series-for-yoo/P2P, and the Wikipedia entry certainly implies the torrenting killed the series pickup, which is how I'd come to remember it. And as we know, Wikipedia is the sole arbiter of Truth, especially for those of us with colander memories.

So, yeah, "smothering it in its sleep" is a bit wrong. But "digging up its corpse, smothering it anew and promptly reburying it under nine tons of concrete" just doesn't have the right vibe. And we can still debate the wisdom or the capriciousness of their decisions independent of the timeline. (And actually, given that the torrenting would eat into the potential market that would be targeted by either a DVD or digital release, it makes a bit more business sense thusly. Even if Rogers and Ellis are ready to chalk their kiboshery up to anger/spite/frustration -- nobody says both answers can't be a little right.)

[glumpish.livejournal.com]

Oh, definitely. I've sorta figured that a good portion of it was grumpiness because they assumed (probably wrongly) the original leak came from someone connected to the production. So: still silly, but it was 2005 and they hadn't yet worked out that the RIAA approach was a huge failure.

While I'm chattering I should say cheers for the whole TV meme (even if you're so wrong about Connor, sniff) and particularly for the Probe links way back -- I remember it dimly but fondly and have them marked for a rainy weekend to be named later.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Aw, thanks! I hope it's catching -- I know it's a huge undertaking (honestly, I can't wait for it to be over) and a bit redundant in places (like, tomorrow), but I find it oddly insightful -- both into others' takes on their own TV watching and appreciation and my own. But I can't blame anyone for looking at it and saying "fff, 30 days? Pass."

And while we're at it, thank you for your collected body of televisual critical work. I confess, I actually unironically enjoyed Drive to the point that for about a two-month span I was ending every sentence with the word "homes."

Not Kidding

[kcopeland82.livejournal.com]

He's not kidding about the "homes" part...

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Considering that there's a "willing to pay the lawful IP rights-holder for additional product" audience that's declared itself as such here...

[manekikoneko.livejournal.com]

That's Grayson from Cougar Town!

[manekikoneko.livejournal.com]

I can, however, see how this would be on the expensive side, if the pilot is any indication; lots of sets, actors with one line, etc. I don't think there were a lot of similar shows on the air then that would suggest it was worth the investment.

Now, however, pseudo-superheroes/things based on comic books are more popular, and I notice that Wiki says they decided to give it another go. I don't think Michelle Forbes has anything on right now, fingers crossed, huh?

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

It's been about a year, so while my optimism is still high, I'm hoping we woulda heard something by now.

My preference: if you can keep Forbes and Baird and maybe Hopkins (I'm not really married to Garcia as Aleph), get it done. Otherwise my interest ebbs. And yeah, Michelle Forbes fits the role like a glove, doesn't she?

[manekikoneko.livejournal.com]

It's not necessarily abandoned, it could just be stuck in development hell. Or, and this is what I'd worry about, the script could be undergoing major overhaul and a million script doctors, and it won't be the same show at all if it ever gets made.

Michelle Forbes is a bad ass. I really like Hopkins on Cougar Town though, I'd just as well he and that show stick around for a while.

[xx40.livejournal.com]

i thought miranda zero was pretty lame
until she started kicking ass

that 'i don't trust you' at the end
was pretty obligatory

seriously, they killed it
just because it was leaked?

LAME

i'd watch it