For what it’s worth, I have no problem plunking down $100 for a season of good drama. I have three TNG seasons and two of the X-Files. Granted I don’t have a large amount of disposable income so it’s taking me a while, but so far I’ve been very satisfied with what I’ve gotten for my money. I should point out that I’ve bought a couple of these used and paid more around the $60-$70 range for those. Anything over $100 is too much for me, however, and I’ve seen places carrying both series for $125+.

You owe it to yourself to at least watch the rest of that season. It plays out more after that episode, in ways that I think you'll like. And for reasons that they talk about in that episode.

I understand where you're coming from, but I don't think it was as big a disappointment as you do. At the same time, I don't think that knowing that it would have been picked up for another season would have changed the ending of that storyline significantly. It was obviously what he intended to do. The fact that it pissed you off so much obviously means that he didn't do his job properly, though.

Let me ask you, what would have been a more appropriate ending? For there to have been a big space battle that resulted in the rout of the Old Ones? A big battle followed by the psychobabble that you hated? I suppose we could go with the idea that the bad guys end up winning and the human race is marginalized.

It just seems to me that there had to be some ultimate resolution, not just another thousand-year delay, and that it couldn't be as a direct result of human influence. He may have written himself into a corner, but I don't see a better way out. Honestly, though, given his source material, I can see his choice, and I don't think that he unintentionally wrote himself into a corner.

> $75.00 is too much to buy a season's worth of a TV show, even if it's the best show in the world.

That is quite a bit, what series has sold for that much? I find most run in the 50 dollar range. But still, from a pure hours-of-entertainment-per-dollar perspective, they are a very good deal. You are getting eight or nine DVDs and close to 20 hours of material for that price. I have bought several now; the complete Monty Python, 3 seasons of Highlander, 4 seasons of Sopranos, the first season of Law And Order. All of them have been a great deal and I will certainly buy the remainder of all those sets as they come out. Hell, at this point, I would guess I have twice as many TV DVDs as I have movie ones.

That is quite a bit, what series has sold for that much?

Both X-Files and Star Trek. And that's used. New it's difficult to find either for les than $90.

All the Star Trek series, X-Files, Babylon 5, others I can't think of. Oh, The Prisoner. Any BBC/A&E released thing.

BTW, they need to release the animated Star Trek series on DVD. That'd be cool.

> You owe it to yourself to at least watch the rest of that season.

Yeah, I was pretty miffed at the time; I was pretty emotionally attached to the series. Perhaps now I could watch it a bit more objectively. I do plan on watching it again, I considered it to be the best sci-fi series ever made during the time I did watch it, and certainly nothing has come along since to top it.

You really ought to check out Firefly. It really is one of the top few sci-fi TV series of all time. It's hard to compare a dozen episodes of one show versus five or seven seasons of another, but I'd say that it is my favorite sci-fi show of all time.

I did see the first epidode, and it seemed ok. Certainly better than TNG's or Babylon5's first episodes. But the network did an amazingly good job of hiding the rest, I never managed to catch another episode.

35 bucks heh...ok, I will check it out....click (just one)

If you're referring to the first episode broadcast that had a train robbery in it, then I'd say that was the next-to-worst episode (the worst being one of the ones never broadcast). And it was written as a new pilot over a single weekend when FOX told them that they needed a new pilot on a Friday afternoon and wanted the script on their desk before they came in Monday morning. Given that that's what they can do under extreme pressure, expect better for ones written on a normal schedule.

You really ought to check out Firefly. It really is one of the top few sci-fi TV series of all time. It's hard to compare a dozen episodes of one show versus five or seven seasons of another, but I'd say that it is my favorite sci-fi show of all time.

I second that. Awesome show. I'd rank it as my favorite sci-fi show as well. Joss is a genious. I was so pissed when they took it off the air.

It occurs to me that my other favorite sci-fi TV show, Max Headroom only lasted 14 episodes, too. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with those that last longer.

And of course one of the best TV series ever, Fawlty Towers, only made it to a dozen episodes.

This?

Yeah, but there's a whole different paradigm in the UK in regards to producing TV shows. In the US, we tend to make aound 24 episodes a year until the ratings no longer bear out the production. In the UK, the thing to do seems to be to make six episodes, wait four years, then make another six episodes and call it quits, regardless of how popular the show might be.

I, honestly, still don't get it.

I, honestly, still don't get it.

What don't you get:

a) the UK way of doing it
b) the US way of doing it
c) Fawlty Towers

It think the UK/US difference comes down to two factors, budget and writing team sizes. In the US lots of shows are written by large teams of writers, so coming up with 26 episodes of material every 12 months (even if it isn't all good) is easier than with the typical UK writing team of one or two people.

I'd far rather have a dozen or two dozen episodes of a consistently well written show than 5 years of 26 episodes a year with patchy writing. Not that there aren't some US shows that manage 26 good episodes every year.

I guess the part I don't get is the delay. In the case of Fawlty Towers, there was a delay of four years and some between the two series. It just seems to cause so many issues. Actors constantly looking for new jobs. Getting the audience to remember from one series to the next. Scheduling. I don't know. It's just a different paradigm that doesn't inherently make sense to me.

I guess thinking about it as the product of a very few writers as opposed to a staff of writers makes more sense. I suppose that Curb Your Enthusiasm is more like a UK production in that sense.

Except, of course, for Seinfeld. If they ever decide how much money each of them gets for participating, we'll end up paying $100 a season

I wouldn't pay $100 to have every Seinfeld episode ever recorded, even if they threw in a $110 rebate.

It must be a good show because so many people praise it so highly, so I guess that the problem lies with me.

Nonetheless, I can state that of all the Seinfeld I have ever watched (maybe three hours total) I never saw anything that even made me smile, much less laugh.

I suspect it is a generational thing -- I am probably too old (within spitting distance of 6 decades now) to "get it".

tanstaafl.

but what really matters, and what makes it so good is the relationship of the characters to each other, how they change, and how the characters change.

YES!

I was going to write interminable paragraphs saying just that, but you did it better than I would have.

I didn't know who was behind Firefly when I watched the first two episodes, but I commented on how similar it was in execution to Buffy. So when I finally got around to checking, I wasn't surprised to find out it was Joss Whedon.

That method he uses of taking a truly eclectic cast of characters and building a series around their interrelationships without making it a story about just one "star" character and a bunch of satellites... I love it.

If you like that type of program, another one you should check out is "Joan of Arcadia". The story premise sounds so awful I won't even reference it here, because if I did nobody would bother to watch it. Just remember, as in Firefly, it isn't about the story, it's about the PEOPLE. I recommend it highly.

tanstaafl.

Really? It did sound awful. I might check it out.

If you like that type of program, another one you should check out is "Joan of Arcadia". The story premise sounds so awful I won't even reference it here, because if I did nobody would bother to watch it. Just remember, as in Firefly, it isn't about the story, it's about the PEOPLE. I recommend it highly.

I'll second that. I never thought to watch it and I happened to see an episode over at a friends house and actually liked it. It's well written. It has a good "feel" to it. Funny too.

Wonderful! I've been watching Joan as well! It's one of my "guilty pleasure" TV downloads. Along with Tru Calling, Smallville, and several others. It's a very good show. I've always really liked Joe Mantegna, too.

So yeah, I'm a recent college graduate who drives a minivan and really likes a family TV show


And Doug, I don't admit it to my friends much, but I'm not the biggest Seinfeld fan either. I like it more than you do, as in I can watch an episode when it's on and chuckle from time to time, but my best friends considers it his favorite TV show of all time. I, on the other hand, can think of dozens of shows I like better than that.