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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?
for those of us unable to grab the premiere, but interested in possibly watching going forward. thanks
No way in Hell do I have 20 hours to watch a "mini" series. Unless Sci-Fi reruns this in some all-day marathon session, while my wife and kids are out of town, this one will pass me by.
WTF were they thinking?
- Necron69
The whole series is a total of 10 - 2 hour events. Now with all respects, how much more space would someone need.
The series revolves around three families spaced out over 50 years of history. From strange lights over Nazi Germany, to modern day. As far as the first airing, it appears as though each family will receive 3 - 2 hours episodes, then a 2 hour finalie where everyone is brought together.
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!. By tagging on a big league name, the further drew people in. That mixed with constant TV commercial marketing.
My ignorance is a perfect shield against your logic.
Lessee... they can take any shape. They can convert to energy and just vanish. They are telpathic. They can learn English really, really fast. I mean, what's next? Flying bicycles?
Sure, I guess that these things could be part of the same super technology that allows them to get here in the first place, but I'd think its a lot easier to move faster than light than to establish communications with a totally alien species, much less assume their biology and all that jazz.
Bottom line - too much fantasy is being injected into this science fiction.
By saying that he set up his Tivo to watch the rest of it is saying that he enjoyed the show enough to record it all, not that he was going to skip the commercials. Gawd, you sound like an AOL exec, expecting him to "steal" the programming.
By Tivo'ing the show, our dear author will be assured of not missing ANY episodes, because, like me, he probably has no time to slot for several hours worth of programming when Sci-fi chooses to air it.
And, like as not, our dear author is going to watch some of those commercials, because, since Tivo has no 30 second skip function, he will have to see some of them, even in fast forward, and will stop to watch commercials he is interested in. I do it all the time.
Now tack on the fact that the Tivo can track which commercials he is watching and narrowing down the demographic that our dear advertisers need to target, saving them money for not showing commercials to people that don't care about their products, and allowing Sci-Fi to charge more for their time because they can show exactly who is watching what. (assuming they all don't have their heads up their arses, the different companies ought to be doing this...)
So, no, Sci-Fi does not NEED to lose money on Tivo customers, and you are an unenlighted media conglomerate tool.
And I have yet to hear a remotely reasonable explanation as to why an alien species would expend the enormous amounts of energy it would take to get to the one of the obscure spokes of the galaxy (way away from the interesting concentrated center) and spend even two seconds watching us. Denibian slime worms would more interesting.
Did it ever occur to you that the first hour of the first episode is more an introduction than anything? I haven't seen it yet, but I know enough from past experience with scifi to give the show some time to develop before giving up on it completely.
I'd wager your type of attitude is why FireFly isn't doing so well - its first couple episodes were relatively uninteresting, however it's really picked up since. But the masses of impatient Americans tuned out because the first 10 minutes of the first episode weren't utterly spectacular. First impressions aren't everything, you know.
Unless he is in a neilson family, no one can tell if he watches the commercials or not...
I wouldn't expect a ton of originality from Spielberg, his claim to fame is the lowest common denominator
Actually, I'm pretty sure his "claim to fame" is making Schindler's List, which is widely and rightfully regarded as one of the best motion pictures of the 20th century.
I write in my journal
>> Actually, I'm pretty sure his "claim to fame" is making Schindler's List, which is widely and rightfully regarded as one of the best motion pictures of the 20th century.
No, I'm pretty sure it's ET, Gremlins, Jurrasic Park and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Frankly, anyone could have made Schindlers List. Making Nazi's look bad is like shooting fish in a barrel.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
I have been boycotting the Sci-Fi channel since they dumped Farscape. If Taken gets good reviews, I will just get it on DVD when it comes out.
Support bacteria! It's the only culture most people seem to get.
I wouldn't expect a ton of originality from Spielberg, his claim to fame is the lowest common denominator
If you mean "regular people," you're right, he makes movies lots of regular people like to watch. However, he has done his share of weighty matter...
Schindler's List
Saving Private Ryan
Amistad
The Color Purple
Band of Brothers
AI (even though I didn't like it)
Empire of the Sun
E.T. (both weighty AND appeals to the masses)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
"Lowest common denominator," indeed.
"And like that
crash at Roswell, abductions, military cover-up, etc etc etc.
How the hell does a military of humans cover up a race of beings who have conquered inter-galatic travel? We would be to them as ants are to us.
1. I hate the logo. The 'A' in taken consists of a human figure with arms and legs out ascending through the sky, illuminated by a burst of backlighting. The lighting is more prominent than the figure, so it looks like the title reads 'TOKEN'.
2. I liked this series better the first time... when it was called "Amazing Stories".
(oh yeah, and 3. ???, 4. Profit.)
I mean really. "Field of dreams" is sci fi? "Cape Fear"? "The flintstones"? Give me a fucking break.