Lost became a chore. An ungrateful & tedious chore the last 3 seasons. The last season was as grim & stupid as the George W Bush administration. These are just my opinions but ultimately, it was a huge failure because I was probably one of its biggest fans (first 2 seasons).  When word got out of a possible successor to LOST but with zombies I was optimistic. Maybe too much so. My filmmaker friends sang THE WALKING DEAD’ praises. I stayed away so I could watch it all in 1 sitting & here is my impression. I known it’s based on a graphic novel/comic book of the same name & I have no exposure to it. Maybe with that context I’d feel differently but without, the first season is a big serving of MEH. Nothing great. Nothing grand. Nothing unknown. Maybe the sub genre (I consider zombie films to be a sub genre of vampire films) is dead. Maybe it’s got little left in it to be revived. There’s a strange hyper sexuality in the first 2 episodes with the lead hero always barely naked which constantly bugged me. There’s a business with the lead hero’s wife sleeping with his friend & that’s handled badly, too (not blaming the script here but maybe I’m blaming the direction & editing). The whole thing would be fine as a a vehicle for something else (if it were cut scenes for a video game). But all I can go by are its stark lack of soundtrack & over the top realism in direction & with that, it doesn’t succeed. At least Jericho, Surface, Survivors, Torchwood, & countless other short lived Sci-Fi/Action miniseries/shows with small budgets proved to be charming & different. Sorry TWD. You’re not for me & I can see why the show was gutted in the hope of surviving through a second season. Hope they make it out alive the second time around 
Zoom

Lost became a chore. An ungrateful & tedious chore the last 3 seasons. The last season was as grim & stupid as the George W Bush administration. These are just my opinions but ultimately, it was a huge failure because I was probably one of its biggest fans (first 2 seasons). 

When word got out of a possible successor to LOST but with zombies I was optimistic. Maybe too much so. My filmmaker friends sang THE WALKING DEAD’ praises. I stayed away so I could watch it all in 1 sitting & here is my impression.

I known it’s based on a graphic novel/comic book of the same name & I have no exposure to it. Maybe with that context I’d feel differently but without, the first season is a big serving of MEH. Nothing great. Nothing grand. Nothing unknown. Maybe the sub genre (I consider zombie films to be a sub genre of vampire films) is dead. Maybe it’s got little left in it to be revived. There’s a strange hyper sexuality in the first 2 episodes with the lead hero always barely naked which constantly bugged me.

There’s a business with the lead hero’s wife sleeping with his friend & that’s handled badly, too (not blaming the script here but maybe I’m blaming the direction & editing). The whole thing would be fine as a a vehicle for something else (if it were cut scenes for a video game). But all I can go by are its stark lack of soundtrack & over the top realism in direction & with that, it doesn’t succeed. At least Jericho, Surface, Survivors, Torchwood, & countless other short lived Sci-Fi/Action miniseries/shows with small budgets proved to be charming & different. Sorry TWD. You’re not for me & I can see why the show was gutted in the hope of surviving through a second season. Hope they make it out alive the second time around 

Remembering ‘the internet’

Remember when we thought AOL was ‘the internet’?  Well these days, facebook seems to be the internet. Or so everyone likes to tell us how social networks have changed the playing field. Have they? We heard this before. A few years ago, it was Myspace & Google.com. They were big game changers, too, right? Tonight, I stumbled up on this TV commercial on youtube (remember youtube was ‘the internet’ a few years ago, too).

I think the biggest lesson I get from this (now very aged & dated) commercial is that what works brilliantly about ‘the internet’ is exploration & content, which can’t be contained & hoarded. I’m talking to you Mr. Network Police & Mr. Cable/Telecom & Mr. Social Network. But I’m mainly talking to the user which is the most valuable part of the equation yet gets overlooked for the ‘revenue’.

The desire to hoard & trap attention spans is driven by that much outdated ‘content VS ad revenue’ fantasy that has taken down so many companies/brands. When will we move away from that fantasy & see that ‘the internet’ doesn’t give a damn about ad revenue but is driven by interesting modular experiences & unique content? Should every site become a mini-studio? No, but every site should look at their fantasy that ad revenue is king.

When will we let go of the TV & publishing models & admit that they slowly became vulgar & not worth paying for? How many commercials & ads did it take to make you stop watching or paying for that magazine or watching that tv show/network? Revenue is NOT enough when it comes to ‘the internet’ (& possibly not enough for other mediums). Maybe I’m wrong but maybe I’m on to something. Sometimes an idea or fantasy can spread like a virus & poison other ideas.

Surely, there’s enough intelligent minds in the room to try a different model. Or create one. Anyone? Anyone? Maybe we’ll just sit around & hoard only to find ourselves looking back on how tacky & outdated our thinking was (like this commercial)?