Via Sci Fi Wire, “Night Stalker Gets Staked“:
“ABC has canceled Night Stalker, the second time the network has given the axe to a series about reporter Carl Kolchak and his pursuit of supernatural phenomena, Variety reported.”
Why do all the shows I like get cancelled?
Night Stalker is the most recent. Kitchen Confidential is another. Of course, there’s Firefly. Twin Peaks … and, I remember being disappointed when they cancelled Outworld, an odd little sci-fi show back in the late 80’s. So many lost shows …
When I was a senior in high school, I stopped watching TV, even though I had a TV in my room. TV was just so horrid that I couldn’t stand to waste my time anymore. Broadcast TV is just abominable. Not only do they cancel shows most of the good shows and keep vapid, insipid tripe, but networks make their presentation and schedules as annoying as possible. It is as if they believe they will have my unconditional attention.
The fact is that I will not view whatever they put on the air. I’ve given up TV before, and will do it again. It’s a definite sign that I tend to watch old shows that are re-run. And, most of the new shows are available after a short delay. There’s nothing compelling about seeing a show the day it comes out. I’m already weaned from that through liberal use of DVD and Tivo.
That they put annoying banners at the bottom of my recorded shows, which have recently doubled in size they obscure on screen, and futz with starting times, and randomly screw with new episodes by inserting reruns between … these are all reasons that I find TV more annoying. This is not endearing behaviour, but rather behaviour that is more likely to make the break.
When I had DirecTV, I didn’t bother with any local stations, so the ridiculous chanting from cable that “We’ve got local stations!” is just stupid. Local station are getting gutted by the DVD releases of shows and, now, by the networks releasing shows online. There’s nothing left to syndicate for non-affiliates, and the affiliates are just mindless parrots without merit of their own.
King 5, the local NBC station used to have a sometimes funny sketch comedy show that was on Saturdays next to SNL, but that died a slow and painful death. What other local content is there? Local news? Bah. Local news is a joke. It’s fluff, and mostly non-local content anyway. When it is local content, the majority of that is mindless blather about the weather. The weather here is mild. It’s not that big of a deal nor is it really either a surprise or a show-stopper if it’s not great.
I just can’t bring myself to pay for all the cable channels or DirecTV, and I sure as hell am not willing to pay for digital cable as an add-on expense.
So, maybe, the Tivo was a gap-stop that prolonged the life of TV past the point when I stopped being willing to have the networks dictate my life. Now, it’s just not the benefit it was. There just isn’t enough good TV on that I feel I need to watch it broadcast. Why not wait for it on DVD, or just skip it completely. Was Tivo mere my patch, to help me quit?
I’ve mostly given up on going to the movies. Unless there’s a really compelling reason to go, that the movie is somehow going to be so much better on a larger screen … hardly a reason to call them “The Large” screen anymore since they really aren’t … I wait for movies to come to DVD or don’t bother anymore.
So, ultimately, DVD is now my primary source of choice for movies and TV shows. So why not just cancel everything except for Netflix? No, really. Why not? It would have been nice if Netflix and Tivo had gotten the download feature to work. Turns out that’s the reason I finally got a Netflix account in the first place, but it’s a feature they aren’t going to be able to really offer because, at least they say, the studios have exclusive relationships with networks to offer movies, so can’t offer them for download, even protected in some fashion.
Maybe it’s time to go cold turkey?