Sunday Clip Show: On Shyamalan and Television

A few clips from the past week.

On the film front, a film clip (with introduction!) from M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening has been making the rounds. This features, hands down, some of the worst "sizzle" editing I have ever seen. This is the kind of piece we do at work a lot, hyping the movie using film clips and trailer bits, combined with interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. The studios want these to be slick and cool, like trailers, and editing pieces like that is a lot of fun, and can be good.

But this is plain embarrassing.

Shyamalan is a pretentious hack (at least these days), and laying abrupt cuts to random film clips, flash frames, and repetitive ominous sound effects don't class him up, even as he tries to invoke Friedkin, Coppola, and Hitchcock. Plus, I usually enjoy Mark Wahlberg, but he's trying too hard or getting bad direction, because he is terrible here.

Lame.

Moving on to more interesting things, all of the major networks have released their TV schedules for next season (How I Met Your Mother was renewed, so rejoice, and watch that show). Here're the schedules for Fox, CBS, ABC, and NBC. With these announcements come two previews for new shows, each made by a big name in TV entertainment.

Fringe comes from J.J. Abrams, creator/co-creator of Felicity, Alias, and Lost, as well as director of Mission: Impossible III and next summer's Star Trek reboot. His TV shows (for the most part) have been met with a lot of favor, but MI3 got banged around pretty hard. I for one enjoyed it and felt that, with the exception of the slide down the Shanghai rooftop, it was a well made spy flick. Sure, it was a carbon-copy of the Alias pilot, but that some damn fine storytelling the first time, and transitioned well. And, as you all know, I am looking forward to Star Trek…


Which makes the Fringe trailer all the more depressing. I loved The X-Files and enjoyed a lot of Alias, but this looks derivative and unoriginal. As far as this preview shows, I can see no "hook" or idea that grabs me and sets this apart from the myriad sci-fi shows that have been released in the 15 years since Fox debuted The X-Files. Government conspiracies and hot female FBI agents are old hat, and no, casting Pacey from Dawson's Creek doesn't count as interesting.
This show could still be good and surprise me, but as of now, I'm not holding my breath. Unless John Noble (Denthor from Return of the King) sets his son on fire for real this time…

It's interesting that the spin this show is gong for is that science and technology have advanced to the point where we can't control them; I guess all of the "fringe" events are a result of science, then. The X-Files was a lot more flexible in this regard… for every genetic hybrid, there was a body-skipping spirit, or something that science couldn't begin to explain. That was, essentially, the whole point of Scully – she stood in for scientific understanding, and couldn't comprehend so much of what happened, as Mulder was able to with his more visceral beliefs. Of course, Scully was the religious character, too, so…

There's a lot more to be said about the philosophy and character relationships of The X-Files, and this isn't the time or the place. Maybe later, but for now, I digress.

Next up, fan favorite Joss Whedon has a new show coming out, too, called Dollhouse. Oddly enough, it looks a bit like Alias, yet manages to seem pretty fresh and interesting. I dig the concept, and like that the central premise and conflict are laid out for us; we get good guys and bad guys from the start, most played by known (and charismatic) actors. This and Caprica are probably the two new shows I am most excited about; the fact that Dollhouse is a mid-season replacement debuting in January is a bummer, but c'est la vie.

And, of course, both of these shows are on Fox, so, if they're good, we can look forward to having them cancelled after about 12 episodes (see Firefly, Wonderfalls, Futurama, Arrested Development, Drive, and this page). I try to tell myself that at least Fox airs these shows in the first place, but the sting of Firefly is hard to ignore.