On Mon, 03 Oct 2005 07:40:51 GMT, "ottomatic" <nospam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
>sorry steveo, the prob with JoA was not that they did too many shows,
>but that Barb, lost her way somewhere around mid-S1 and only rarely got
>back on track
See, but that's yet another reason some shows should be done as movies
or novels, and not as TV at all. I'm not saying that you absolutely,
positively could not do JOA as a weekly series for five years, and
keep the quality high for most episodes. But by it's nature, it is a
show that defied formula -- you really have to be thinking pretty
deeply every time you are sitting at the word processor if you want to
get this show right -- and that's asking a lot of merely mortal
writers. Even Shakespeare only wrote about two dozen plays in the
course of a lifetime.
So, apart from having a better chance of keeping the marketing guys
from mucking with the concept, the other reason to do this as a movie,
or novel, is that there is much, much more time to carefully think
about where you want to go with the stories and the characters. I
think that having the time to reflect, the freedom from weekly
production pressures, can only work in favor of a complex, innovative
concept like JOA.
Granted, that did not keep George Lucas from totally, miserably
f***ing up his Star Wars prequels, but I sense that Barbara Hall has
more depth than George Lucas. (My cat has more depth than George
Lucas.) Given the time to carefully plan the story and character
arcs, Hall could have made a masterpiece of four to six Joan Of
Arcadia movies or novels, methinks.
Still haven't seen too many other replies here about other shows that
would have been better as movies/novels. No one else has thoughts on
this!?
Steve O.
>
>"Steven O." <null@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>news:2ei0k19sg2sv6leh799v9s0on2d3qshkem@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> >On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 14:36:52 GMT, "ottomatic" <spamout@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>> >3) The "Touched By an Angel" Message Show vibe skews older and
>> >allegedly religious -- although, IMO, the show's more liberal,
>> >tolerant-skewing message actuallly *alienated* the closeminded,
>> >literalist evangelicals who were the target audience for "TBAA." So
>> >[JOA]'s premise turned off liberals before they watched the show
>> >due to the quasi-religious premise and it turned off fundamentalists
>> >after *they* saw the show and what was left was those of us who just
>> >didn't give a **** either way, tried the show just for the hell of it
>> >(pun not intended, but appreciated) and stuck around as the show
>> >quickly proved itself to confound every pre-existing notion about it.
>>
>> In other words, Joan Of Arcadia was for people who could actually
>> *think* -- whether or not you have liberal or conservative
>> predispositions to begin with, as long as you have an open mind to
>> novel ideas about God and the meaning of life. But people who wanted
>> a pat, standard-issue message (Touched By An Angel for
>> fundamentalists, West Wing for liberals) would have a hard time
>> getting past JOA's Zen-like elusiveness and playfulness.
>>
>> In hindsight, this would have been much better as a series of three or
>> four moderate budget movies, or possibly even a series of novels,
>> where the sole author could have done whatever he or she wanted, with
>> total creative control (especially in a novel or series of novels),
>> without the executives constantly trying to steer the show for higher
>> ratings.
>>
>> Anyone else care to suggest other shows that should have been done as
>> movies or novels, for the sake of total creative integrity and
>> creative control by the creator? One that comes to my mind was a very
>> short-lived but brilliant UPN show, Nowhere Man. One could make the
>> case that the entire Star Trek phenomena might have been better as
>> series of novels -- real novels, with a sole author, not the canned
>> crap that's been churned out over the years. Others?
>>
>> Steve O.
>
>sorry steveo, the prob with JoA was not that they did too many shows,
>but that Barb, lost her way somewhere around mid-S1 and only rarely got
>back on track
>the first 6 or so epps..., recall the wit and 'tude of the pilot:
>"So, you're God, as in God...", and the Jean D'Arc test, re-test...
>
>how did that all get mired in the blandfest that followed?
> with the exception of half-a-dozen or so up-to-standard epps scattered
>throught the remainder of the 2 season run, JoA became a sad song of what
>might have been.
>
>Otto
>
>
>>
>>
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