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Spielberg's Taken
A few people submitted asking for an open discussion for Spielberg's Taken miniseries that premiered last night on SciFi
last night. I watched it, and I gotta say I dug it, and set Tivo up to snag the rest of it. I wish that they were spacing it out a bit more (in terms of scheduling, not in terms of leaving the Earth's atmosphere ;) What do folks think?
Myself, I was rather appauled by the use of Steven Speilberg so prominently. Each of these episodes was directed by a different director, then Speilberg looked it over and tried to alter it ever so slightly IN THE POST PRODUCTION!
As I understand it, the miniseries was basically Spielberg's brainchild. Even if he wasn't responsible for the actual directing, it still came from his head. Credit is due.
Its a 10 part(2 hours each) miniseries, not a weekly show.
Yes. They will reair episode 1 on the follwing days and times:
SciFi EAST: All time in EST
03-DEC-02 7:00PM
08-DEC-02 11:00AM
14-DEC-02 11:00AM
More complet chart of airings.
Date 7pm 9pm 11pm
02-DEC-02 -- 1 1
03-DEC-02 1 2 2
04-DEC-02 2 3 3
05-DEC-02 3 4 4
06-DEC-02 4 5 5
09-DEC-02 5 6 6
10-DEC-02 6 7 7
11-DEC-02 7 8 8
12-DEC-02 8 9 9
13-DEC-02 9 10 10
Also Note on:
07-DEC-02 and 08-DEC-02 and 14-DEC-02 they will be showing episodes 1-5 in order from 11am to 9pm
on 15-DEC-02 they will show episodes 6-10 in order from 11am to 9pm.
I hope this helps answer the airing question.
I think he means we wishes that there was more space between episodes. As in, once a week for ten weeks as opposed to every day for ten days.
I can't help feeling that I was watching a weird mélange of Spielberg's visual sensibilities all in one film.
I also am seeing, what appears to me, to be the beginning of the end for the Sci-Fi channel.
The first clue was canning Farscape. While it may not have been a ratings powerhouse, it was arguably one of the most creative shows on television - and elevated the SciFI genre far beyond it's peers. The show was perceived as the fledgling channel's flagship show and, when combined with it's on-air identity, really got folks pumped-up about the SCIFI brand. I wish more conglomerates understood the power of a franchise beyond it's initial ratings.
The second clue is the channels reaction to John Edwards and it's new-show-to-be "The Dream Team with Annabelle and Michael". These are shows that are cheap to produce, attract a strong female audience - if not skew heavy female - and get ratings. Despite the fact that these shows are only marginally related to "science fiction/fantasy" etc. and are better suited aired on it's USA sister channel - belies the fact that they are polluting what made the Sci-Fi channel so strong to begin with and what gives these shows such strong lead-ins.
The third clue is the new on-air ID and identity spots currently running. I speak from experience here, as I am a broadcast designer who has done some high profile work as well as sit-in on the meetings where the politics of changing something as momentous as a logo are in full-play. First let me say this: The new logo is clunky and horrible and the new spots that I have seen are mostly insipid and mushy. Everyone I know in the Broadcast Design/ID business has for years been in agreement with me when I say "SciFi has the best, most innovative broadcast design on the planet. No contest". The work now looks like it was designed by a committee and not a visionary. What's particularly telling is the new logo. Why on earth change the logo? The old logo is far superior to the ham-fisted hack-job logo they now use. The only thing I can think of, and if anyone has any information on this I'd love to hear it, is that "new management" came in and wanted to put their stamp on everything. The whole "If it ain't broke - I'm gonna fix it anyway 'cause im the new person!" seems pretty strong here.
In conclusion, SCIFI is trading Farscape for John Edwards and in the process losing its soul. Instead of watching a particular show, I would watch "SCIFI" - I don't do that anymore, I pick and choose from a rapidly shrinking pool of shows I want to see. And the shows that do remain could be as easily shown on many other, less distinct, channels. I'm sure "The Dream Team" would do just as well on VH1. So sad to see you go SCIFI, it was fun while it lasted.
As I understand it, the miniseries was basically Spielberg's brainchild. Even if he wasn't responsible for the actual directing, it still came from his head. Credit is due.
It was a combination of Leslie Bohem (the writer of each episode) and Spielberg. CNN has a good article on where it came from.
Stargate is returning Monday December 16th and 23rd. According to scifi.com's stargate-sg1 page, Stargate will be airing new Episodes on Friday's starting January 10th.
...quicker, easier, more seductive the darkside is...but more powerful, it is not.