NBC can't seem to get it right. Their top new show "Heroes" is like "Lost" with CSI-style gore (note to Zucker: PLEEEZE fire the dork who thought combining those two styles would work!)Then, they tried Friday Night Lights: a story designed for small-town Texas Republicans. Someone inside NBC is trying to kill the network.
Let's talk about "Heroes" for a minute. I can just see the pilot script. Great storyline, good grasp of Japanese-style manga (and brilliant casting), headed for success. Then some suit suggested adding CSI-style gore to the mix. Cool one minute, gross (and stupid) the next. Note to NBC: The demographic seems to be trending AGAINST bodies being ripped apart. Iraq isn't fun anymore and neither is death. Wise up.
And as for that nice, classy little series Friday Night Lights? You know, the one where you're showing the rest of the U.S. the gritty underbelly of middle-class Republicanism. . .TEXAS Republicanism?
Well, the reviewers like it, but the reason isn't because of the concept, it's that hand-held camera and all those Flash-scratched-lens shots: grainy, vaguely European. Reviewers love that stuff, especially in American-made films.
But everyone else? Welll. . .
Maybe not.
It's isn't that America is fed up with small-town athletes---many of which are merely junior-league versions of the standard professional sport hero assholes---it boils down to something more. (That said, I guarantee that the white-haired Allen staffer who smacked the marine blogger was a former high school football player--maybe back in the 1960s.)
It's that Friday Night Lights portrays the Republican Class System on the small town stage. Average reader: raise your hand if you're from a small town--raise the other one if you thought the athletes were given special treatment. Hmm. Lotsa hands. . .
Hard fact: Most small-town kids never see the inside of a sports team and most parents aren't privy to the lowest level country clubbi-ness prevalent in small town venues. They may aspire for that inclusion, but they know the forces are against them and it's way too much trouble to kiss the appropriate behinds to achieve inclusion into the Smart Set. Most viewers know that it wasn't their lot in life to be part of earth-shattering drama (gonna make that touchdown?!), have really photogenic teenagers, or have boys who have routine sex with beautiful cheerleaders. That all takes place in a world that few ever had---or ever will have--access to.
Instead, they have bills to pay, mouths to feed and their average, humdrum kids have homework to complete. Most viewers are probably aware that the browbeaten, hard-driving coach is a red herring. He'll win eventually, because he's a Star.
The drama in Friday Night Lights in fact was designed for the select few with the wherewithall to make it happen. The guy who pitched it to the network, for example.
While all the people--even the doctor--in ABC's LOST is a Loser, all the characters in FNL is a Winner. And someone who--without fear of consequences-- would likely get ahead of you in line at the supermarket. Or, like George Allen, spit on your floor and smile.
It was a good book, NBC, but the ex-jock who first pitched this turkey to the execs should be tracked down and fired. Then re-hired just so you can fire him AGAIN. Or sent to CBS.
So why is this on Kos? Because the low ratings for FNL is caused by the same forces that will result in a tidal wave for the democrats in the midterm election.
People may be tired of evil, crookedness, incompetence and lunacy. But they are also really, REALLY tired of exclusion, and they're tired of elitists.
They're tired of George Allen (the kind of character some of those FNL sports stars will likely grow up to be) and they're tired of the win-at-all-costs creatures that populate the Republican Congress-scape.
And, while they're at it, they've probably had enough of small-town elitist Republicans running the show like it was an NBC movie of the week.
Ask yourself the question: Can you imagine any of those FNL characters playing something by the Dixie Chicks?
Me neither.