Posted by The Captain on May 28, 2000 at 11:37:48:
In Reply to: MONKEY CRITIQUE, AND FAN TYPES posted by Terry on May 26, 2000 at 23:30:19:
Terry
I like the Indiana Jones, '30's serials overtunes. It was a highly romantic period and the meaning of the word "Adventure" had not been lost.
The concept had a great deal of potential, the problem is one hour shows don't leave much time for development of a sense of mood and place, and family hour TV doesn't not allow cultivation of a sense of dread...(snakes...snakes...torture...by a Gestapo member with a lisp) when it is broken up by commercials for shampoo and household cleaners.
The old adventure serials did a good job of swinging back and forth between ironic humor and edge of your seat fear? How many adventure shows are there on TV now? Zero. Well, perhaps Bellasario gets close. Violence is verboten and heroism in our culture is analyzed into the ground. Anyone who does something heroic is probably compensating...
What show is shot at an exotic local? That costs money. About the only show I now of shot beyond Hollywood or Vancouver was the Highlander.
Then there is the matter of campiness. I simply could not see Roddy McDowell as a Frenchman. Bellasario likes a certain circle of actors and uses them. Spielberg does a far better job of casting and puts you in the era puts you into the era. The girl and the Egyptian in Raiders were perfect. Roddy McDowell as a frog? Of course, he has a better budget.
I like adventure, but I don't believe the post-Vietnam American viewing public finds it PC. Why take risks? Why go to exotic places and catch diseases? Why have difficulty getting a good hamburger? Why have difficulty making change?
Out.
THE CAPTAIN