Jimmie Higgins
2nd February 2008, 21:23
C.R.E.A.M.: Capitalism Ruins Everything Around Me - Lost edition
Ok, it's TV, but it's pretty good. I only started watching this show since the Summer because I forgot there was such a thing as network TV (and I thought it was supposed to be like "Survivor" or "Castaway" or "Gilligan's Island").
But since my girlfriend and I received the first disk, we've been totally HOOKED. We watched all 3 seasons in about a month and lived like drug addicts during that time. I'd come home and my girlfriend would run up to me, wild-eyed: "did you get it? Do you have the next disc?".
I love that the romantic-heroic character is Iraqi and that entire episodes are subtitled in Korean and that it's sci-fi but it works because it's character based. I generally hate metaphysics and philosophical themes in pop-culture, but they do it really well and it comes out of the character rather than through awkward attempts to inject it into the plot.
The writing is good and the show demonstrates why reality TV can never replace written-fiction on TV and how important television writers are.
That being said, I was unimpressed by the first episode of the first season. I hated the first 15 minutes, but then got more involved and at the end I did want to know what was going to happen. Was it a bad idea for the writers to have some of them get rescued? Well I will have "faith" in the writers of the show for now and trust that they will take the show in an interesting direction.
Anyway, I also think that watching the show on TV was a different and worse experience than DVD. First, the network advertised the show as beginning at 8 PM, but then had an hour recap of the entire series - I mean are the networks finding it that hard to fill in time without writers? If so - good. Then they had promotions throughout the real episode and the commercial breaks really destroy the mood of the show. How am I supposed to keep the illusion that these characters are far away from our society when I have people shouting at me about buying their truck or songs praising a certain brand of toothpaste every 15 minutes in the show.
Now I remember why I had stopped watching network TV.
Ok, it's TV, but it's pretty good. I only started watching this show since the Summer because I forgot there was such a thing as network TV (and I thought it was supposed to be like "Survivor" or "Castaway" or "Gilligan's Island").
But since my girlfriend and I received the first disk, we've been totally HOOKED. We watched all 3 seasons in about a month and lived like drug addicts during that time. I'd come home and my girlfriend would run up to me, wild-eyed: "did you get it? Do you have the next disc?".
I love that the romantic-heroic character is Iraqi and that entire episodes are subtitled in Korean and that it's sci-fi but it works because it's character based. I generally hate metaphysics and philosophical themes in pop-culture, but they do it really well and it comes out of the character rather than through awkward attempts to inject it into the plot.
The writing is good and the show demonstrates why reality TV can never replace written-fiction on TV and how important television writers are.
That being said, I was unimpressed by the first episode of the first season. I hated the first 15 minutes, but then got more involved and at the end I did want to know what was going to happen. Was it a bad idea for the writers to have some of them get rescued? Well I will have "faith" in the writers of the show for now and trust that they will take the show in an interesting direction.
Anyway, I also think that watching the show on TV was a different and worse experience than DVD. First, the network advertised the show as beginning at 8 PM, but then had an hour recap of the entire series - I mean are the networks finding it that hard to fill in time without writers? If so - good. Then they had promotions throughout the real episode and the commercial breaks really destroy the mood of the show. How am I supposed to keep the illusion that these characters are far away from our society when I have people shouting at me about buying their truck or songs praising a certain brand of toothpaste every 15 minutes in the show.
Now I remember why I had stopped watching network TV.