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Warren Ellis's Global Frequency May Not Air
ajs writes "According to Ain't It Cool News, the WB network has cancelled Warren Ellis's Global Frequency, a wonderfully twisted modern-day SF TV series which may yet air, but the company that owns the series will now have to shop it around to other networks. If you're a fan of the comic series or you have just been starving for good non-space SF since the X-Files went away, you might want to send words of support to your favorite non-WB network. Slashdot has previously interviewed Ellis."
Uh... no.
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American TV has become riddled with reality shows. It's quite discusting:
* Wife Swap - Who watches this!? Some sick, twisted indiciduals, that's who.
* Survivor - Isn't this like the 80th episode or something? How many different spins can they put on the challenges?
* Big Brother - People tune in to this waiting, just anticipating two of the people boarded to have sex.
* Extreme Makeover - The epitome of our obsession with aesthetic qualities.
* Much, much more crap...
Please, turn it off!
LOST, Adult Swim, and various Comedy Central programs are the only reason I watch TV anymore. They're the only reason I haven't lost all hope in American entertainment.
Real programmers can write assembly code in any language. -- Larry Wall
Well, anybody that refers to the X-Files as good non-space SF obviously has no clue anyway.
If you're an X-Files fan, wonderful. Love it to you heart's content. But, space aliens not withstanding, X-Files was not SF, good, bad or indifferent. It was fantasy.
"The legitimate powers of government extend only to such acts as are injurious to others." Thomas Jefferson.
Thankfully, though, the WB has released the pilot back to the company that produced it instead of holding onto it like some networks to prevent it from ever being made.
Right now, Ellis and the folks are negotiating with other television stations with the pilot, which Ellis remarked as impressive. There's still hopes yet, folks. You might still be on the Global Frequency.
My postings are informational and does not constitute legal advice. Act on it at your risk.
Granted, it didn't happen IN outer space per se, but I'm pretty sure the entire plot revolved around the concept of aliens from outer space. I seem to remember several UFOs as well... ;)
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Perhaps you should read the comic book before you bash it instead of reading just the show summary.
Sure, the show summary sounds like more of the same, but the book dealt with issues like bioterror weapons in a large populated city, memetic viruses (ideas that reproduce and self propogate in a malignant way), and the terror organizations who carry out mass bombings.
But then again, you don't seem to be one of those people who'd actually read instead of reading a blurb.
My postings are informational and does not constitute legal advice. Act on it at your risk.
It also seems a quintessentially American trait to worry about what OTHER people are watching. Turn it off if you don't like it. You list 4 examples of American horror and 3 reasons to be proud. I agree with you on CC and AS, and I might add The Sopranos, Curb your enthusiasm, Nova and more reasons not to be worried as to the state of American entertainment. I even admit to being intrigued by the current Survivor. To each his own. One thing seems clear to me, on most nights of the week, something good can be found in American entertainment.
Not a bloody chance.
SF has *science* in it - one definition is that it must obey all known scientific laws, unless breaking one is required for the story, and then even the handwaving explantion must be reasonable.
Fantasy is *NOT* SF - the two are related, but not the same. However, as Lord Dunsay said, fantasy is *very* hard to do right: you have to make all the rules...and then *NEVER* break any of them, or the reader's suspenders of disbelief go "snap", and you've lost it.
X-Files was inconsistant conspiracy theory. This is about one step short of, say, Bush's energy policy, or his fight against accepting that global warming exists, and is human-caused - that is, the Hollywood idea that a "theory" is what you come up with in the nightmare after you've had too much bheer and pizza.
Non-space sf on tv? Max Headroom. Non-space fantasy on tv? The Chronicle.
None of the above? Cattlecar Galaxative (22 planets strafed to death, and a flamable covered wagon, er, spaceship in the hard vacuum of space).
mark "s'ppose a movie of Charles de Lint
would be too much to ask for"
Who believes that there are ideas, ideas, that we mustn't be exposed to, because they'll do something evil.
I don't think anyone doubts that ideas can be dangerous to those exposed to them. On the simplest level, "eat arsenic and you'll be cured of all disease" is an idea with lethal potential.
The only question would be what steps you feel are acceptable in fighting ideas. Can you only combat them with alternative ideas "don't touch it!" or can other steps ever be acceptable?
Does the mental capacity of the audience make a difference? e.g. can it be appropriate to use force to prevent someone from communicating maliciously dangerous ideas to children? or to the mentally ill?
Is the likely outcome relevant? Is it ever acceptable to treat information/disinformation centres as military targets because they spread ideas dangerous to your cause? There's no point in us pretending our countries don't do this, we know they do. Is it wrong because all ideas are somehow sacrosanct?
yes , and paramount has did promise us no more Star Trek franchise..... nope wait a moment ... buggerville, there it is ... another Enterpise season......... how the heck did this beat firefly for renewal..
And thats why Firecrackers and kittens don't mix.
That's not sci-fi, that's pseudo-scientific psychic crap
You may not like science fiction of the X-Files variety, but that's tough. It is, in fact, speculative fiction, though almost always very soft SF (the difference between hard and soft SF being the extent to which it is rooted in science, and no there's no absolute line between the two).
And what are the odds that this show gives legitmacy to The Department of Fath^H^H^H^H Homeland Security
Ha! You don't know Ellis very well do you? Read Transmetropolitan someday (essentially it comes down to a distopian near-future with our protagonist, a reporter modeled on Hunter S Thompson, attempting to expose the corruption of society to itself). Ellis is anything but the kind of status-quo apologist that you suggest, and I suspect that the fact that he was willing to be involved in this series indicates a) that it was of a quality we have rarely if ever seen on television and b) the very reason that the WB couldn't stomach it.
I'll be glad if it never airs. So much crap on TV. I've got a grand total of four shows I bother to watch: 1) Enterprise, 2) Stargate, 3) MythBusters, and 4) BattleStar Galactica
Ulch. You're worried about status-quo apologism, and you hail modern Star Trek? I mean, I'm a softy for Star Trek too because I grew up with it, but to put those two concepts in the same post, suggesting that they are not so mutually exclusive as to be dangerous together is rather striking.