If you watched Boomtown tonight on my say-so --

[tzikeh]

-- don't kill me.

The season premiere of Boomtown aired tonight - and if you watched it because I talked up what a magnificent show it is was this summer, I offer you my sincerest apologies. Absolutely everything that made this show entertaining, engaging, unique, creative, and pimp-worthy in its first season (varying p.o.v., jigsaw storytelling, loop-stitch timelines, sharp dialog that doesn't pander) is GONE, replaced by the most monotonous, mealy-mouthed exposition, sub-par direction, and Vanessa Williams. And why? Because focus groups told the network to get rid of the "confusing" concept of seeing a crime from multiple viewpoints, cut down on the number of stories being told, and for God's sake make sure the characters over-explain things to the point that apes in comas will go "Christ, we *get* it already!"

I don't know how I'll make it up to you. I feel like I need a t-shirt - "My fandoms went in for pre-frontal lobotomies over the summer, and all I got were these lousy episodes."

ETA: at the same moment I posted this, jackiekjono posted similar sentiments.

Comments

[jackiekjono.livejournal.com]

Lapillus requests that you make these shirts available on the vividcon cafe press website.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

LOL!

Actually, yahtzee63 and I are thinking of starting up a fannish sympathy card website. "Thinking of you in your time of cancellation." "Our sympathies on your change of writing staff." Hallmark is missing a huge market share.

[jackiekjono.livejournal.com]

Carol says you should at least do e-cards and also thinks you would make a killing with the t-shirt.

[renenet.livejournal.com]

Man o nam, are you right. Jesus. And, see, when they did offer the new, dumbed down p.o.v. switches, I thought they were incredibly confusing because they were there for no artistic or narrative reason. Sans the clever, they're just a vestigial marker indicating where the clever used to be. Where did they hide Boomtown? This is just another craptastic cop show.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

So, so, SO upsetting. And yes, the "pov switch" really wasn't one - because it would just pick up where the last storyteller left off, instead of looping back and telling different facets of the story.

Oh, and the precinct house? Wha-hell?? What happened, they got the Queer Eye guys in over the summer?

[jackiekjono.livejournal.com]

No, remember. This was the same weekend. They starteed the episode at the cemetary at the funeral for the two cops who were killed last season. They must not have been very popular if only four guys from the precinct bothered to show up.

[renenet.livejournal.com]

the "pov switch" really wasn't one - because it would just pick up where the last storyteller left off, instead of looping back and telling different facets of the story.

Oh, check again. It only felt that lame and pointless because it wasn't so much told from within each character's p.o.v. as just focused on them for a while. There wasn't any smart looping around to unfold the narrative (because there wasn't any smart), but there *was* backtracking over stuff we already pretty much knew to add a few piddly details. Like when the focus switched to Rebecca DeMornay's character and suddenly (and briefly) we're back in time to her getting the safe cracker in on the robbery during which the two officers were killed. They skipped over a ton of chronology (so I think there were supposed to be other robberies in between their conversation at some restaurant table and the cop shooting), but I'm think that the I-have-a-string-of-robberies-planned-leading-up-to-the-big-one-that-will-involve-extensive-tunneling-and-we-have-to-wait-for-something-specific-to-happen bit in their conversation referred to the final robbery during the building demolition with the tunneling from the subway. It was cursory and useless, but superficially and ineffectively it was a pass at the Boomtown narrative style. That wasn't the only example, but it's the one that comes to mind first. Oh god, my brain hurts just thinking about how badly written this was.

And the precinct house...gah! I think the writer monkeys need to juj more than their sleeves. Open stairways and glass offices in the sky. Is this a modeling agency?

[jackiekjono.livejournal.com]

And I was bummed out over a stupid squirrel.

All I can say is I picked the wrong frickin' week to go off my anti-depressants!

[ano-mea.livejournal.com]

I feel like I need a t-shirt - "My fandoms went in for pre-frontal lobotomies over the summer, and all I got were these lousy episodes."

Word.
I'd buy one.

I tuned in late, but a minute and a half of Vanessa Williams made me finish watching the special on animation Bravo had on.

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

Oh, NO! Not Boomtown! :-(

I'm so sorry.

-J

[nestra.livejournal.com]

Maybe it'll get better.

No, I'm not just wishful thinking. This episode smacked of "must be mindful of new viewers! must do info dump! must not move too fast and scare off new viewers!"

Besides, McNorris comes back next week, bless his twisted little heart. I live in hope that the staff is just playing along until NBC stops looking at them funny, and then they'll go back to the way it was.