Too Many Spin-offs????

dgiharris · Oct 2, 2009

So, i'm watching TV and a preview for another Stargate comes on.

This one will be called Stargate Universe. But problem is the previews don't look all that good.

Is it just me, or are there too many spin offs?

Law and Order, CSI, Stargate, etc. etc.

Is it just me, or are too many networks going to the same well too often.

I mean, you can only get soo much milk out of a cow right?

Thoughts?

Any spin offs that you felt were just in poor taste?

Conversely, any favorite spin-offs?

Mel...

Zoombie · Oct 2, 2009

I liked Angel for about a season, but then it got too angsty. You know, part of me is kind of glad...as evil as this sounds...I'm kinda glad sometimes that Joss Wheydon didn't get to continue firefly. I keep remembering how horrible Buffy and Angel got as the seasons rolled by.

I dunnkow, I think it might have tarnished the awesome of Firefly to have later seasons suck.

Which is why I say, you need shows that have pre-planned ENDINGS. That way you can end with a bang, rather than a fizzle!

As for spin-offs?

There are too many of them. We should kill 90% of them.

dgiharris · Oct 2, 2009

Zoombie said:
You know, part of me is kind of glad...as evil as this sounds...I'm kinda glad sometimes that Joss Wheydon didn't get to continue firefly.

How could you even think such a thought? There is blasphemy and then there is BLASPHEMY. And you, sir, have crossed the line into the unthinkable. Why not throw some kittens in a camp fire and eat a few babies while your at it?

I'm sorry, but the magnitude of this 'mistake' is too great to ignore.

I will have to authorize a 're-education' team to visit you post haste.

And in the future, (that is, assuming you survive the reprogramming) do not speak ill of Firefly, ever again.

Men have been tortured to death for far far less.

Mel...

Kitty Pryde · Oct 2, 2009

I like Sarah Jane Adventures and I loooooooove Torchwood, both Doctor Who spinoffs.

The thing about Stargate is, I think the movie sucked. Then the show sucked. And the new show is just one more iteration of the suck (though John Scalzi was a creative advisor this season, so that might be neat). My dad loves Stargate. They could make a preschooler's cartoon about sassy baby aliens using the Stargate to go on adventures to find milk and cookies, and my dad would watch that too! The equation goes, big fanbase=pump out more crap.

There are going to be, I dunno, 10 transformers movies, because the fanbase for colorful robots blowing shit up is, naturally, huge.

katiemac · Oct 2, 2009

The types of shows that have spin-offs are not the kind of show I like watching anyway. (Sci-fi kind of exempt, here, because I've never seen Doctor Who or the Stargates or Star Treks, etc.)

But on the regular channels ... yeah, the constant stream of CSIs and NSCIs and Law and Order is REALLY tiring. It doesn't help that they're all, in some way or another, a crime procedurals. Too many crime shows, too many hospital shows.

If people stopped watching them, they'll stop making them. But more and more I'm realizing people who want more complicated TV viewing, like LOST or something, are not the average TV audience. This isn't to say someone who watches LOST doesn't also watch CSI and love it, it's just that most people would rather watch something that can be contained in an hour and then just move on. You miss an episode, it's not the end of the world.

Personally I hate that, I think it's such a waste of the TV format.

CACTUSWENDY · Oct 2, 2009

My thoughts are that like the books out there that seem to drag a topic to death so does the film industry. I mean, just with what I have seen in the SYW shorts right here in AW there are some really great stories around that would do well in book and/or film modes.

I have always wondered why the powers that be get into such ruts. The human mind has such a vast imagination.....I think they have businessmen and not artists at the helm. IMHO

BenPanced · Oct 2, 2009

Real Housewives of... on Bravo.

Lock. Thread.

Celia Cyanide · Oct 2, 2009

I think Law & Order: SVU is the best out of all of them.

Enzo · Oct 4, 2009

They could spin off "Law & Order: SUV" about crimes committed in cars. Just a thought.

Zoombie · Oct 4, 2009

dgiharris said:
How could you even think such a thought? There is blasphemy and then there is BLASPHEMY. And you, sir, have crossed the line into the unthinkable. Why not throw some kittens in a camp fire and eat a few babies while your at it?

I'm sorry, but the magnitude of this 'mistake' is too great to ignore.

I will have to authorize a 're-education' team to visit you post haste.

And in the future, (that is, assuming you survive the reprogramming) do not speak ill of Firefly, ever again.

Men have been tortured to death for far far less.

Mel...

I didn't speak ill of Firefly. I'm just being paranoid...see, in almost every TV show that does not plan things out well in advance (like Babylon 5), later seasons start to really suck. And almost all of Joss' shows get really...angsty.

Maybe its cause he was writing teenage vampire stuff, or maybe its just a trait of his writing...I dunnkow.

But imagine the quality of writing seen in the last season of Buffy, played out with Firefly cast and crew, and you will have seen my nightmares!

nighttimer · Oct 4, 2009

Celia Cyanide said:
I think Law & Order: SVU is the best out of all of them.

I agree with you Celia, but it's gone on way too long. No way Benson and Stabler would be allowed to handle these violent, sick, sadistic and twisted sex crime cases for this long without being rotated out. Either or both of them should be ready to eat a bullet by now.

Plus, it's obvious Olivia has the hots for Elliot. Don't fight the feeling. :e2kissy:

jodiodi · Oct 4, 2009

I've never watched (or at least never watched more than a few moments of) any of the Firefly, Real Housewives, Stargate, etc., shows. I didn't watch Buffy or Angel.

I do, however, enjoy the Law & Orders, CSIs, Bones and occasional NCISs.

My favorite, however, is Dexter. It's the only show I plan my week around. Everything else I can take or leave. If Ghost Hunters is on, I'll watch it, and a few of the other myterious things shows. But Dexter is the only show I MUST watch. I'll try to make it a point to watch House, but it's getting dangerously soap-opera-ish.

I like the 'procedurals' because they rarely, if ever, delve into the main characters' personal lives, SVU excepted. I don't care who's sleeping with who or who's pining or who or tragic family secrets. Just show me the crime and solve it. That's all I care about.

katiemac · Oct 4, 2009

I like the 'procedurals' because they rarely, if ever, delve into the main characters' personal lives, SVU excepted. I don't care who's sleeping with who or who's pining or who or tragic family secrets. Just show me the crime and solve it. That's all I care about.

We're the exact opposite, then.

Don't get me wrong, who's sleeping with who and tragic family secrets should stay in the soaps if you ask me, but I can't stand a TV show that leaves it at story-of-the-week. It's for this reason I can't watch the CSIs or other procedurals.

The TV format alone has so many advantages ... the ability to tell a layered, in-depth story. So few shows take advantage of it, and I know a lot of that has to do with the networks, but man. Even if someone isn't a fan of the plot or premise of, say, LOST, more shows should be taking advantage of the TV format the way this show does.

dgiharris · Oct 4, 2009

Though it's not a spin off.

If you like Law and Order, then you should try TNT's Raising the Bar.

The show has procedurals + great human drama.

I feel that Law and Order is a hamburger and that Raising the Bar is a Steak. Great drama, great stories.

Mel...

charlotte49ers · Oct 4, 2009

nighttimer said:
I agree with you Celia, but it's gone on way too long. No way Benson and Stabler would be allowed to handle these violent, sick, sadistic and twisted sex crime cases for this long without being rotated out. Either or both of them should be ready to eat a bullet by now.

Plus, it's obvious Olivia has the hots for Elliot. Don't fight the feeling.

I love this show, but oh my gosh, YES!

jodiodi · Oct 4, 2009

I think I've always liked stuff without the melodrama of wangsting around. I hated daytime soaps, never read romances (at least not plain romance), and couldn't stand the nighttime soaps like Dallas, Dynasty, etc.,.

Even when I was young, I didn't care for romances. I don't watch the movies that are romance-based, either.

If I'm going to read anything romance-ish, it should be a secondary plotline. There'd better be murder, mayhem, horror, terror and other stuff going on in order to hold my interest.

And the weird thing is, I write romance.

Just romance with horror, terror, horrible things going on.

BenPanced · Oct 4, 2009

nighttimer said:
Plus, it's obvious ~~Olivia~~ BenPanced has the hots for Elliot. Don't fight the feeling.

Not enough to make me continue watching, though. I watched maybe a season and a half's worth before I began to feel like I needed to take at least three showers after each episode. "Lurid" doesn't even begin to describe it.

BenPanced, not a Whedon fan, as well

nighttimer · Oct 4, 2009

BenPanced said:
Not enough to make me continue watching, though. I watched maybe a season and a half's worth before I began to feel like I needed to take at least three showers after each episode. "Lurid" doesn't even begin to describe it.

It goes there, I'll grant you that.

But if you're a guy and have the hots for Chris Meloni, you had to have checked him out when he was doing Oz on HBO. Let's just say you saw sides of Meloni on that show that Olivia could only dream about.

Prozyan · Oct 5, 2009

Meloni was awesome in Oz.

And, well, Oz was just awesome in general.

Anyway, the only real gripe I have with SVU is the parade of ADA's they've been dragging through recently. Each is worse than the next.

rhymegirl · Oct 5, 2009

Yes, there are too many spin-offs.

RickN · Oct 5, 2009

jodiodi said:
I like the 'procedurals' because they rarely, if ever, delve into the main characters' personal lives, SVU excepted. I don't care who's sleeping with who or who's pining or who or tragic family secrets. Just show me the crime and solve it. That's all I care about.

This is why I stopped watching CSI New York and Miami. Too much of "which cast member is sleeping with whom today..." and "I'm pregnant with your love child".

I really don't care.

Bones has been walking that line for me too, but I'm still watching. A few more endings likes last week's "resolution" and they'll be history too.

Celia Cyanide · Oct 5, 2009

Enzo said:
They could spin off "Law & Order: SUV" about crimes committed in cars. Just a thought.

I'd like to see Gary Oldman in "Law & Order: MCU" about Commissioner Gordon solving crimes in Gotham City.

Too Many Spin-offs????

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