SciFi and the SciFi channel - why so bad?

[tscards]

Farscape totally rocked, though!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Haven't been interested in anything on there since then.

[omaha_red]

i like "ghost hunters" and "scare tactics"..

and they used to show "dark shadows" in the mornings..

[ghostrunner]

The thing about all the bad sci fi movies is that they're supposed to be bad. They keep making them because they make a lot of money, believe it or not, from DVD sales.

Like which movies?

Total crap ones. Stuff that never even makes it to theaters. You'd be amazed how much money they make. Not like $100 million or anything, but when you consider how low budget they are the return is quite good.

Yeah, I think the foreign take is always solid on these kinds of things too. I saw Independence Day on cable the other day. Lord, is that bad.

Sci-fi and horror movie fans have a long, long history of being willing to sit through crap. Hard to blame the Sci-Fi Channel for churning out the kind of crap that sci-fi fans have shown a willingness to sit through for 60+ years.

This is true.

[maddash]

My brother is working on some sort of project to track horror movie box office receipts.....Their theatrical take, over $7 billion. $7,041,665,676, to be exact. And that doesn't include DVD sales.

What a pansy; if he's going to go down to the exact dollar he might as well go all out and give us the final tally down to the cent. Wuss.

That's where he makes his money. The first 10 digits are free, the rest you pay for.

[BenNX74205]

It's a shame that Sci-Fi as a network hasn't used the bank of credibility that Galactica has brought them through things like the Peabody Award to up the overall level of programming and continue to draw in viewers from outside their traditional demographic. And I mean in a way other than putting wrestling on one night a week.

I gotta stand up for Eureka a bit, though. I wouldn't classify it as a B-movie. It's generally a lighter piece of science fiction. I view it as the other side of the coin from BSG. BSG is compelling human drama, so the setting of outer space with killer robots, while adding to the mystique, isn't the driving force of the show. That is the human drama, at least for me. Eureka uses science fiction ideas with a more comedic approach. Both shows are basically saying "here's a group of characters, let's put them all in this world." Eureka got a lot darker and more serious in season 2, which I liked, but that wasn't what I liked most about Eureka. For season 3 they're moving back towards the "lighter" stuff, and I'm glad it'll be getting back to that style.

Plus, without Sci-Fi making those awful awful movies, we never would have gotten "BLACK HOLE," the story of scientists opening a black hole in St. Louis, only to unleash a creature that wreaks havoc on our fair city. That movie probably pushed tourism .00042% on its own. You can't BUY that kind of advertising!

[ghostrunner]

I gotta stand up for Eureka a bit, though. I wouldn't classify it as a B-movie. It's generally a lighter piece of science fiction. I view it as the other side of the coin from BSG. BSG is compelling human drama, so the setting of outer space with killer robots, while adding to the mystique, isn't the driving force of the show. That is the human drama, at least for me. Eureka uses science fiction ideas with a more comedic approach. Both shows are basically saying "here's a group of characters, let's put them all in this world." Eureka got a lot darker and more serious in season 2, which I liked, but that wasn't what I liked most about Eureka. For season 3 they're moving back towards the "lighter" stuff, and I'm glad it'll be getting back to that style.

I should probably watch some more. I saw a few episodes over the first season, thinking it looked awesome. But it felt unfinished and the zaniness seemed a little forced. Also the acting wasn't great, with the lead being kind of ho-hum. A good idea, but so-so execution.

I wish The Lost Room had been made a series. It's easily one of the best miniseries I've ever seen.

[BenNX74205]

I should probably watch some more. I saw a few episodes over the first season, thinking it looked awesome. But it felt unfinished and the zaniness seemed a little forced. Also the acting wasn't great, with the lead being kind of ho-hum. A good idea, but so-so execution.

I wish The Lost Room had been made a series. It's easily one of the best miniseries I've ever seen.

You should give it another chance. Sometimes the zaniness would get a bit much, but a lot of times the first season of a series has the writers/producers searching for the the right "zone" for the show to sit. The second season they moved into a more serious direction, which I thought the show didn't need, but that was mostly relegated to the underlying thread of the whole season, so it only predominated a couple episodes.

Try and Netflix or rent (or go here) the first season and give it a fuller chance. Season 3 starts up at the end of July, so you've got some more time.

[JL21]

That movie probably pushed tourism .00042% on its own. You can't BUY that kind of advertising!

I'm not sure it had an effect.

[StatmanCrothers]

Farscape totally rocked, though!!!!!!!!!!!!!

.

yes.

now, battlestar is great.

they can apparently only afford one well budgeted show at a time.

[ghostrunner]

I thought Farscape looked interesting and I liked that they went further in making different races than Star Trek. By that I mean they didn't just use a forehead prosthetic. However, that little mustachioed puppet character scared me off.