The Extratextuals

I had previously posted the following clip, but now have a few words in response. See, the thing is, I don’t really want a whole lot of answers on Lost. I like the idea that it’s just set in a world in which different things happen. Granted, I want some answers, but, for instance, if I never find out where Smokey came from, I’m fine; if I never find out why only four toes on the statue, I’m fine; and if I never find out what the numbers mean, I’m fine.

To all you who want a whole lot of answers, be careful what you wish for. Or, to reword: think of the midichlorians. Who cared why some people have The Force and others don’t? It’s not just suspension of disbelief we need, but suspension of needing to know everything. After all, our own world is hardly logical, and none of us can pretend to know why so many things happen here, so why do we need all the answers on Lost?

In short, if you’re out there Damon, it’s me Jonathan. And I’m saying, don’t tell me all the answers.

For those who want them:

viral videos Lost, viral videos

As Lost’s final season edges closer and closer to airing, I thought I’d share this:

viral videos Lost

With all of the standard noise and fanfare this week around the network upfront announcements, I almost didn’t notice this passing comment from Steve McPherson, President of the ABC Entertainment Group, about the forthcoming “re-imagination” of V:

“[It has a] normal order right now, 13 episodes. We really, from the beginning, want to craft a whole series, and we’d like to be able to announce what that is at the time that it airs. At this point we believe it’s going to be in four parts, and those will be anything from 13 to 22 episodes in each part. But it will have a beginning, middle and end,” he added.”

While the creative and business benefits of this approach will make intuitive sense to audiences of telenovelas (which are structured as long-form but limited-duration narratives) and non-American networks such as the BBC (where even mainstream hits such as “The Office” and “Life on Mars” end after only 1-2 seasons), it strikes me as proof of an important evolution among American television networks, where high-performing shows are extended indefinitely as “sure bets.”

The problem, of course, is that indefinite renewal works far better for some types of narrative (e.g, sitcoms, procedurals, episodic dramas) than others (i.e. long-form, evolving and complex narratives). I’ve addressed this topic in more depth in the chapter that I contributed to Reading Lost
, which considered some of the motives that compelled ABC to approve a firm end-date for Lost several years in advance.

In the closing paragraph of that chapter, I proposed that ABC’s unconventional (and intelligent) decision to let Lost’s showrunners work toward an established ending could have significant implications for the future of American network television:

After LOST’s first season, critics and writers suggested that the show’s most important contribution was that it cleared the path for a new wave of television programmes with rich details and complex, rewarding narratives. If Fox is right, and LOST’s final three seasons demonstrate the importance of an established end date in developing a coherent and compelling serial narrative, the show may accomplish something even more important. It may provide the precedent for a new era of television narratives that have the freedom to end.

I believed it when I wrote it, and I believe it even more now. At the same event, McPherson — who authorized Lost’s finite run — conceded that:

I think that was obviously a tough decision a few years ago to give it an ending, but I think it really paid off. This season was stronger than it’s ever been because there wasn’t an infinite middle to the show. So I think, giving them an end date, you’re going to see probably some of the strongest writing you’ve ever seen on the show, because they’ve been able to really retrofit from exactly where they want to end up.

To me, it looks like V is being granted the golden opportunity that Lost never got: the chance to plan a beginning, middle and end from the beginning. Here’s hoping V makes good use of it.

new shows ABC, Lost, serial television, upfronts

Inspired by Mike Newman’s fantastic and highly recommend Faves, 2008 list, and as a pale imitation, here are some media highlights from 2008, in installments.

First, though, a word on categorization – if I saw it in 2008, it’s on this list, even if it came out earlier; and if I saw it on the Internet, it’s web video not television.

Television

10. Chuck. The show is infinitely silly, but that’s the point. Like Pushing Daisies, it kept me sane in hard times. Adam Baldwin, Awesome, Lester – fun stuff.

9. Food Network in HD. I knew when I got my HDTV that I’d love travel shows all the more, and nature shows. But I didn’t count on how much food porn I could stomach on a daily basis, and how that threshold would increase with HD.

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awards, book reviews, lists, satire 538.com, Andrew Sullivan, best of 2008, Better Living Through Reality TV, Chuck, Chutry Experiment, Colbert, Facebook, Food Network, Heartland TV, Jon Stewart, lists, Lost, Man vs. Wild, metacritic, Mike Newman, Obama, Pushing Daisies, The Daily Show, The Wire

(First, note the new design and look. On Thanksgiving, let us all give thanks to the “silent” member of The Extratextuals, Ivan Askwith, who makes the whole thing possible and recently updated our Word Press. Thanks Ivan)

Caught up in a fervor of alphabetical list making, I decided to follow up on the Alphabet Meme with a list of best television shows. There’s a slight bit of cheating involved at S/Z (ooo — very Barthesian, no?), but I couldn’t bring myself either to nominate Zoey 101 as the only Z show I know, or to choose between the two best shows in TV history, both of which inconveniently begin with S. I also went only for series or continuing shows, not one-offs (sorry, 28 Up). Without further ado:

The Amazing Race

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The Cosby Show

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

ER

Freaks and Geeks

Goodness Gracious Me

Hockey Night in Canada

Iron Chef America

Jack & Bobby (neat idea, not super, but the J’s give little competition)

The Kingdom (the Danish one, not the American atrocity)

Lost

The Muppet Show

Northern Exposure

The Office (I’ll go with the American one, though Brit one gets a gold star too)

Pushing Daisies

Quantum Leap

Roseanne

The Simpsons

The Twilight Zone

Ulysses 31 (old school cartoon. Still have the theme song in my head)

V Graham Norton

The Wire (sorry, West Wing. You picked a bad letter to begin with)

The X-Files

Yes, Minister

Zesame Street

lists list, lists, Lost, The Simpsons, The Wire

I just finished reading Michael Kackman’s piece at Flow on quality television, melodrama, and complex narratives. One of his underlying points is that in the stampede to discuss quality television, we need to be very careful to consider what else is complex and high quality, not just The Wire, Lost, and friends.

Now, I love those two shows. But my sense is that I couldn’t enjoy them this semester. Meanwhile, though I intended to watch my way through Battlestar Galactica or Deadwood this summer, I ultimately didn’t. And while I realize that this isn’t quite what Michael was talking about, that’s because I’ve become totally obsessed with television’s grandest melodrama and complex narrative going: the election.

Talk about transmedia, this interest has overflowed into almost every spare moment on my computer, as I’ve trekked from FiveThirtyEight.com to various other blogs, to news sites, to poll trackers, and onwards. I’ve rarely engaged in creative fan exploits in my adult life (childhood and Star Wars is a whole other issue), but my computer desktop is filled with Excel spreadsheets related to the various polls and poll composites out there, some of which I update often.

Meanwhile, I haven’t been able to concentrate on television serial narratives. I’ve found myself watching procedurals, or shows in which each episode is self-contained. And more comedies. I’ve heard the many criticisms of Heroes this season, and have myself struggled with it, but that has less to do with its quality (which, due to my newfound affliction, I can’t really comment upon) than with the fact that it’s asking too much of me.

I’ve come to realize, in other words, why some soap fans can only watch one soap. And why I’ve usually allowed myself only one or two fandoms at a time. The election, and its endless attack ads, multiple plots, new characters, and transmedia presence has been exhausting. If David Simon offered a sixth season of The Wire, I probably couldn’t have managed it this semester, even if it was about academia. I’m thankful that Lost is off till January, since that too would likely prove too much for me.

My point? In part, I’m just venting that I want this to be over. Can Obama win already, and let me watch Lost or BSG or something like that? This whole ordeal has reminded me of why I don’t tend to consume much transmedia, even though I’m intrigued by it, since the overflow of melodrama is too raw, rich, and requiring. But I’d also like to reiterate Kackman’s point that melodrama and complex narratives are all around us. Here’s hoping that this one has a happy ending.

Now stop reading this, and go out and do what I as a Canadian can’t: line up and vote.

Uncategorized Lost, serial television, The Wire

For those waiting for part 4 of the Malawian media consumption saga, I promise it’s coming. In the meantime, though, I wanted to write about the 2008 Disney and International Radio and Television Society Foundation’s Digital Media Summit in Burbank, CA. This was a three day event that I attended last week. In this post, I’ll set the thing up and give some data about Disney’s online Full Episode Player. In the next, I’ll list some random things overheard, and I’ll yabber on about the hazy line between promotion and creativity.

Granted, at times I felt like I was in a cult indoctrination program, with some insisting that Disney was the only true source for all that is good on this planet. However, it was also a fantastic opportunity if not to see behind the curtain, at least to be allowed into the front row, where peeks behind the curtain were possible. I met some tremendously helpful individuals whose brains I picked with joy. I finally got on a TV set (take that, Bob Rehak! Sorry to anyone not at MIT’s MiT5 conference: an inside joke there). I got a bunch of data. I saw some cool new tech toys. I met Damon Lindelof and got an Apollo candybar t-shirt. I got fed well. I got to hang out with Jenn Holt and Kevin Sandler. And as much as cynical Jonathan could gripe, I’m very thankful for the experience, and applaud Disney and IRTS for shelling out the time and money to produce the thing.

More after the fold …
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conferences, ratings Desperate Housewives, Digital Media Summit, Disney, Full Episode Player, Grey's Anatomy, Lost, Ugly Betty

Tired of grading and writing papers? Ever wanted to visit “Portland”? Evidently, the Dharma Initiative is hiring, not only at this year’s Comic-Con, but also at www.dharmawantsyou.com. Pass 17 questions and you can register. The questions are suitably creepy, very befitting of Dharma, as are the odd incantations and hangar-announcer-in-another-language style that accompany the test.

Their boast of wanting “a better tomorrow for everyone” hardly sounds like the Benjamin Linus I’ve come to know. Yet the neat Flash trick of changing the dimensional perspective of their logo is thematically appropriate to the world of Lost. A fun little bit of transmedia, let’s see where it leads.

ARGs Lost, transmedia

Just before I start with our third installment, this one on TV opening credit sequences, I wanted to give a shout-out to Michael Newman’s fantastic blog post on the best of 2007 across media. His list makes no distinctions between media, and thus is chock-full of good extratextuals. It also preceded ours significantly, so don’t let my belated link suggest we got there first.

Anyways, kudos offered, let me proceed. The best opening credit sequences ready you for the program, performing the careful act of transferring you from your world to the show’s world. The best ones also bear out multiple viewings, becoming a favored announcement of the show, and a generator of anticipation. Think of the orchestra’s hum of tuning instruments before a performance, of the grand curtains being lifted at a theatre, of the “Let’s get ready to rumble” before a boxing match, or other ritualistic intros. Hence I divided this category into newer shows and long-running ones, since it’s something special when an older show can still do the business with its intro. First, the new recruits.

Best TV Opening Credit Sequence: Newer Show

Runner-Up: Chuck. One of my favorite new shows, and it has a very playful opening credit sequence that captures the silliness and fun of the show as a whole. Stick man spies seem to capture exactly what Chuck is. And the first spy falling out of Chuck’s nose cues the irreverence: Chuck doesn’t take itself seriously, and this is made clear from the very beginning. It’s perhaps worth noting, too, that the action is all shown to occur within the barcode on Chuck’s shirt lapel, appropriate for a program whose title character has a massive spy computer in his brain. The theme song’s fun, too. Moreover, it cues following an opening scene that sets up this week’s spy issue: very James Bond, yet clearly not James Bond at one and the same time.

Winner after the fold…

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awards Amazing Race, American Idol, Chuck, CSI: Miami, Dexter, Lost, opening credit sequences