This is the Golden Age for Sci Fi, Horror, and Fantasy. Think about that for a moment. Take your hands off the mouse; take a deep breath;
and close your eyes. Think about what you are watching. Think about the
popularity of some shows.
That’s right, I’m asking you to stop and smell the roses.
This is the most prolific time these genres have ever seen. It
is a time of sensory overload. Your DVR is overflowing with options. You actually need to pick and choose what you
will and won’t watch. You can’t watch it
all.
There has never been a time with so many movies and TV shows
and conventions than now. Viewers can
build cliques and fan groups instantly and constantly stay in touch. They can delve
into the minutiae of a show with a few clicks of a mouse. Fans have access to the celebrities through
conventions and social media.
Stars Wars has ramped up and is releasing a movie a year for
the next 3 years. Star Trek is returning
to TV after a long hiatus. Marvel had released multiple movies a year (an
amazing 14 movies so far and 9 more scheduled) and they are all over Netflix. DC is
still trying to make a decent movie but owns the CW network on TV. My God, even MTV has
2 genre shows.
Over the last decade, some of the top TV shows have been
True Blood, Walking Dead, and The Game of Thrones. Everyone is watching them
and they have crossed over to the main stream population. The largest grossing
movies in the last 10 years were Star Wars, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, and
Avengers.
To top it all off, we are being given quality. Don’t confuse
the ‘cost to make’ with value or worth. It’s
very possible to make an obscenely expensive ‘B’ movie. Today, the genres have some
real craftmasters and it is showing.
While you smell those roses, don’t become complacent or spoiled.
The young ones don’t even know the dark ages.
While the 70’s produced Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind,
it also produced Laserblast and Saturn 3.
Other than Kolchak: The Night Stalker, was there any good sci fi on TV doing
the 70’s? I remember Logan’s Run, Holmes
and Yo-Yo, Quark, UFO, and Space 1999. I watched them all as I had no choice.
The 80’s relaunched Star Trek. The quality was very uneven but again, we
were desperate and we ardently watched. If those shows aired today, would they
last a season? The shining light in the darkness of V, Alf, Knight Rider, and Mork
and Mindy was Quantum Leap, Alien Nation, and War of the Worlds.
X-Files created a sensation in the 90’s which caused the rival
networks to scramble to catch up. Those attempts
had a lot of misses like Babylon 5, Total Recall 2070, and Sea Quest DSV. Yet Stargate SG-1, and Farscape carved niches
and hung on.
Enjoy the now. Whether
it lasts a decade or only a few years, enjoy it. Just know it won’t last. Remember,
people thought Oaters would be around forever. Soon, we could be forced to
watch remakes of My Favorite Martian and Lost in Space as nothing else is on.
Oh, the pain…the pain…
AH
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