TV Stuff: The CW Continues to Perplex and These Weird Olympics

The Television Critic's Association Press tour has been the last couple of weeks which..would have felt like a much bigger deal if not for the distraction of the Olympics and some other stuff like my Harry Potter reread. But I did catch a little bit of news from the CW which is basically the network that I wish was something different than it is. Two things stood out to me from the coverage I read: their very weird ideas about Battle Royale and a perhaps offhand statement about the failure of The Secret Circle that made me think a lot.

The CW had a show based on the new YA series The Selection in development, I mean it got as far as a filmed pilot but didn't get picked up. It was all kind of weird for me because I was so turned off by the early option I wanted to shun the book, ended up reading it and being excited by the possibilities for a show only to have it not get ordered! Anyway, they are still trying to rework it and see if they can salvage a show, but in the meantime they mentioned the possibility of Battle Royale I've never seen the Battle Royale movie but I do love the book and I cannot conceive how it could be a TV show. Even more than that, critics pressed the CW president on the wisdom of the subject matter as a TV show right now (high school kids killing high school kids) and I kid you not, this was his response: "So the answer to that question is, no, we’re not going to go in that direction." What direction? Kids killing kids?? CW please leave Battle Royale alone.

In another article, I read that Mark Pedowitz (the president of the CW) said the failure of The Secret Circle was due to the lack of "enough good looking men or humor." This really gave me pause, because even before the show started I saw a lot of people express discontent with the lack of boys on the show. It was actually one of the things I liked about the show, that they planned to have the female cast really carry it, but I do understand that the landscape of a teen soap is really different....people want to have couples to watch and root for and cute boys to..admire. But...if the target audience is girls and you're looking for great female characters on TV it's just SAD that we still need to have males to make the show appealing. For what it's worth, I think this is a simplistic diagnosis...the show lacked depth of characterization and a gripping plot. The central triangle--one boy and two girls COULD have been really great, but they rushed it and handled it all weirdly. (TVD is also ruining their triangle, sigh) Anyway, this little tidbit was mentioned in a discussion of trying to get more men on the network, which just...makes me sad, lol.

I've been enjoying the Olympics, surprisingly watching sports like volleyball and soccer feel like they've had the most payoff (like we BARELY saw any of the gymnasts besides the US ones on the NBC coverage which was just reallllly irritating to me. I think we saw THREE performances from the bronze medalists!) but it's been really weird the way NBC has chosen to cover it. It's like...they are pretending social media is something completely different than what it is. The social experience of watching these games should be...I don't know an advantage, but instead I feel like I can't really talk about the Olympics or engage on my social networks at all because I get spoiled for what happens. Also, I get like...beyond stressed watching sports, I nearly had a nervous breakdown during the World Series last year and so the temptation to spoil myself is MIGHTY. And yet...I feel like I'm cheating myself if I do. Life is hard, okay? Anyway, it's just weird the way they pretend that everything is actually happening now when by the time I see it it's like 12 hours old, ugh.

Also, the US women's gymnasts were so cute and so good but Gabby Douglas deserves heaps of credit and I really needed them to stop talking about Jordyn Weiber being lifted by her team. And that song they chose as the theme song or whatever, "Home" (isn't that like the American Idol song or something?) just seemed bizarre. BUT despite my grumbling about this stuff, they really were so cute and good! Yay for them!

Okay in slightly happy-making news...Caroline Dhavernas has been cast in Hannibal! Hopefully it's better than that doctor show was, because I loooove her and she deserves a good show. Also, you all should watch Wonderfalls.

Also are any of you watching Political Animals? I really feel the need to talk about the last episode from a feminist perspective...like I need someone to tell me what the heck the show is saying about women. I liked this last episode the most though in that it made me actually want to discuss this stuff.

Thanks for indulging this post of TV talk!