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Something’s definitely wrong at NBC

By fred | August 6, 2008

Listen, if Lost is the hit it is today, it’s for a very large part due to the creative minds behind the show, surely not some stupid network executive, same goes for any other great shows out there. That is what we, the public, the audience, the viewers, that is what we want : a show where the creative people behind it have a (strong) vision of what they want to do and how they want to do it, we want them to express their creativity as they fell is needed to, not to try to please some idiotic network executives or get better “ratings” given out by a system which is probably as flawed and irrelevant as network execs are.

You want another example ? I’m a huge fan of NBC series Life. Yes, at first it can look like another one of those stupid “cop drama with a twist”, and I know there’s way too many out there already. But that’s only on the surface, that’s about like saying Lost is only about survivors of a plane crash much like Cast Away, only with more people. Life is a real piece of art; the writing, directing, music selection, acting, it’s all brilliant and I really loved every minute of the show - probably even more so during those times I watched it again, and I had time to do so since last episode aired back in 2007 !

The point is, the creative minds behind this show have turned what could have been the most boring and uninteresting show out there into a masterpiece, one of my favorite shows ever, no less, a show loved by millions of fans already. And then, I found this - an official NBC promo for the new season of Life. And now I’m worried like crazy, because for those of us who know the show, it’s about the worst thing ever. Imagine you’re a fan of Heroes, you love the show immensely, and you see the season one finale and that awful awful second season ? Yeah, that’s about right…

Because in this video, it’s all wrong. It’s not the oh-so special atmosphere of the show, it’s not the tone of the show, it’s nothing like the show I’ve watched and fell in love with last season. Dani doesn’t look anything like who she is, and even Charlie doesn’t look like himself! This, simply, isn’t Life. It looks like some freaking idiot at NBC walked in and asked for more this and less that, that they of all people had any clues of what the show should be like, or what we want to see.

Creator/showrunner Rand Ravich is still working on Life, but maybe that’s because he gave up, or simply because he’s still trying to fight from the inside as much as he possibly can, and I pray for the latter, but sadly there’s no doubt in my mind that NBC is messing things up. Just like I’m sure they are with many other shows, and I really wouldn’t care much if this was CBS, but this is NBC and, oddly enough, they got some really awesome shows on, shows I love, shows I’m now worried sick about…

Posted in News
Shows: Crusoe, Life, My Own Worst Enemy, The Office, The Philanthropist