Twitter and the impact on TV

I have been on Twitter for under a year now, getting to it a bit late after I stubbornly thought it was a giant waste of my time. It took me a while to warm to it, at first deciding that I was not going to bother posting but would instead just follow a handful of people, this has since led to tweeting over 400 times and now following over 200 people, not what I intended but I am glad that I have embraced this social network site.
The majority of people that I follow (that I don't actually know) seem to be people in the TV and film industry including actors, writers, critics, reporters and show runners so wherever a big TV news story occurs I get a feed full of comments on this one topic, for example yesterday the big topic that Conan was going to be on cable rather than network TV featured heavily on my feed for a few hours. This factor and an article in Variety about TV show runners becoming Hollywood stars in their own right has led me to explore the notion that Twitter has enhanced the relationship between the fans and those involved in their favourite TV shows which can have both positive and negative results.
First up the negative; a comment about an episode that has just aired in the US may spoil it for a fan in another country, or for simply some one who has yet to catch up with their DVR. This happened today on my feed; Mary Lynn Rajskub who plays Chloe on 24 retweeted another comment that mentioned a major characters death in the most recent episode. This has annoyed some who live in countries where it hasn't aired prompting Rajskub to ask "I guess I have to be careful commenting on others tweets that could be spoilers... Or is it fair game tue am". I am of the opinion that if you don't want to be spoiled then avoid such places as Twitter until you have seen the episode in question as once it has aired then it is fair game to be spoken about the next day. I will say that with last seasons Dexter finale I was glad that regarding the shocking ending that most people just wrote that it was a shock, and not what the actual shock was, but I normally take my own advice and stay clear of Twitter until I am caught up on shows that can be spoiled such as Lost.
There are many positive attributes that have come from Twitter in regards to the relationships between the fans and those involved with these shows and even with the people who write about these shows. A connection that previously was not this instant now exists (this too can be bad I imagine, as it now means that a fan can vent with a lot more ease at these people as well, requiring a thick skin to handle potential abuse). This can mean that satisfaction (and the ugly side which is dissatisfaction) can be shared immediately when an episode airs. It can also mean that sneak peaks can be given, whether it is a song shared by Josh Schwartz that will feature in a new episode of Chuck or whether it is a behind the scenes picture from shows like The Vampire Diaries (look to actor Ernesto Riley who plays Alaric) or Bones (creator Hart Hanson and executive produce Stephen Nathan are regular posters).
The promotional impact of Twitter for TV shows means that the ones that might be struggling with the ratings such as Chuck can have a further voice to show that there are many that do watch and will talk about these shows, thus endorsing them on another platform. As Julie Plec executive producer on Vampire Diaries stated in the article for Variety "In my opinion, watching a Twitter feed during an episode of our show is a built-in focus group. They react to everything -- and it's fascinating because (over time) you get to witness your fan community as it builds and grows." This community consists of both regular TV watchers and those reporters and critics that get paid to write about these shows, in the Twitter world each now has a voice when it comes to opinions on these shows that can now be seen as more than just a figure for Nielsen ratings. Though the Nielsen ratings are still important in keeping shows on the air, the phrase 'Hack Nielsen' entered the Chuck fan community vocabulary a few weeks back and was seen on Twitter a lot before the last episode aired.
The impact of Twitter on TV as a whole is hard to see at this point but it must be said that for something that I thought would be inconsequential a year ago is something I now use daily. It is also something that I might have written about in my academic career as when I wrote my Masters dissertation on authorship in TV and whether it is possible in this post network era Twitter had not really exploded at this point. If it was where it is now I wonder if some of my conclusions would have been different as Twitter really has further given an identity to some of those people who are behind the shows that are big on TV now and the factor of fandom was one that was important in the construction of ideas of authorship. I look forward to seeing where this is all going and whether I will be able to get another study out regarding the state of authorship in TV in a few years time when the impact of social networking sites such as Twitter becomes more obvious.

SAG Awards 2010

No major surprises at the SAG awards this year with the TV categories mirrored the Golden Globes; Michael C. Hall, Julianna Margulies, Drew Barrymore, Kevin Bacon, Alec Baldwin, Glee and Mad Men all walking away with the awards, the only difference was Tina Fey winning for 30 Rock instead of Toni Collette for the United States of Tara. The red carpet was less daring than that of last weeks Golden Globes, and it seemed that there were hardly any major missteps (Julie Bowen I'm looking at you), so instead of analysing the awards as I previously did last week I will be looking at my favourite dresses of the evening, which included:

Christina Hendricks who always looks brilliant in red and the rest of the Mad Men cast looking pretty dapper:

  

Tina Fey made up for her dress that got slammed last week in simple purple, though I loved that she got in a dig about 'Fashion Police' to E! televisions Giuliana Rancic when she asked her if she had taken a steamer on her dress the previous week, it was a suitably awkward moment of TV, though not as awkward as last weeks Anna Kendrick interview when Rancic kept yelling at George Clooney who appeared to be ignoring her. Here is Fey with Alec Baldwin who knows how to wear a suit:

Michael C. Hall made reference to wife Jennifer Carpenter's dress in his speech and she did indeed look amazing in this short white dress and I liked that her accessories were black creating the monochrome look :

Other highlights include my favourite Diane Kruger, her dress was reminiscent of Michelle Williams at the 2006 Oscars which is one of my favourite all time red carpet dresses:

The Glee cast were all decked out well, with special mentions to Lea Michele who looked less swamped than she did at the Globes in her beautiful Catherine Malandrino dress:

All photos courtesy of Just Jared and Socialite Life

Golden Globes

The 2010 Golden Globes had a few surprise wins and a few that were not so surprising, I'm going to concentrate on the TV winners as this is a TV blog and the debate about whether Avatar deserved to take home best director and film is one that has raged amongst many of my friends. Even though I would've much rather seen 'The Hurt Locker' take the big prize it is the TV winners that I am much more interested in.
It was another good year for Mad Men which won best drama for the third year in a row, this was much deserved as this third season has been excellent. I also enjoyed this award all the more as it was presented by Zachary Levi and Amy Poehler. It was a shame that Jon Hamm and January Jones didn't take home the acting gongs but they were both beaten by formidable talent of Michael C. Hall and Julianna Margulies. Dexter this season was a return to form and it was brilliant to see Hall awarded for his performance and after last weeks announcement that he was recovering from Hodgkin's lymphoma it was a welcome sight to see that he is on the road to recovery. Fellow cast member John Lithgow won best supporting actor for his role as the Trinity killer, another well deserving winner as even though I would've loved to see Michael Emerson win for Lost, Lithgow really was a tour de force in this creepy serial killer role.

                                               

The award for best Comedy/Musical went to Glee which from what I have seen (I am late to this party) also deserved this prize, the comedy was on display when the creator dedicated the award to everyone that had received a wedgie in high school. It was a shame that Jane Lynch was left empty handed in the best supporting category as she is brilliant (I particularly love her in The 40 Year Old Virgin)

The other major TV category for best TV movie/mini series is one where I have more often than not seen most of the nominees, this year was not much different for me, however I did finally get round to watching Grey Gardens last week which I thought was spectacular so I was very pleased to see it pick up the top award as well as Drew Barrymore winning for her portrayal of little Eddie. It really was fascinating and has made me really want to see the original Grey Gardens documentary. Both Barrymore and Lange were excellent so I really didn't mind who won, though I'm thinking that Lange would not have fallen apart with her acceptance speech.

One other award that though it wasn't TV has close TV connections was that of best original score, won by Michael Giacchino for Up. Giacchino is the composer for all things J.J. Abrams, and his Lost scores week in week out are by far the best orchestral TV music that there is so it was wonderful to see him honoured for his Pixar work as well. Another TV face I appreciated seeing being part of a film cast that won was Ed Helms who was in The Hangover, Helms has fast become my favourite cast member in The Office. With him was Bradley Cooper who is another favourite from his TV days in Alias as Will Tippin, who I am glad to see is finally getting recognition.

Overall it was an enjoyable show, not much to say about Ricky Gervais hosting as he was mainly absent and it seems a little odd that they asked him to host any way, I would say that he works much better with presenting one award like he has previously done for the Golden Globes and the Emmys rather that over seeing the whole proceedings, Neil Patrick Harris is definitely my preferred pick for this job.

Golden Globe nominations

For a full list of the TV nominations head to:

http://news-briefs.ew.com/2009/12/15/golden-globes-nominations/

For a full list of the film nominations head to:

http://oscar-watch.ew.com/2009/12/15/golden-globe-nominations-announced/



Updated to include the nominations announcements:

What no Lost?! After such a good season it is surprising to see it absent from the Best Drama category, though I'm glad to see Michael Emerson nominated in the Best Supporting category as he really does deserve the many plaudits he has received for his work on this show. This best supporting actor category is a tough one, pitting drama against comedy with other favourites like John Lithgow and William Hurt also vying for this award. I'm also glad to see Neil Patrick Harris in this company as he really is terrific in How I Met Your Mother(and everything else).

I am glad to see Mad Men and Dexter in the best drama category and that Jon Hamm, January Jones and Michael C. Hall are also all nominated.  Other nominees that I'm happy with are both Glenn Close and Rose Byrne for Damages, even if the second season was not as great as the first both performed superbly and I'm looking forward to the third season next month.

Comedy wise it is good (and obvious) that 30 Rock and The Office have been shown some love, but other than these two shows I don't really watch any of the other nominees (though I plan on starting to watch Glee whilst it is on hiatus as I have many good things said about this).

The film nominations also include some favourites of mine, including:

-Joseph Gordon-Levitt for best actor in a comedy/musical for (500) Days of Summer

-(500) Days of Summer and The Hangover in the comedy/musical category

-Meryl Streep getting her annual nomination (twice this year for It's Complicated and Julie and Julia

-The movie I am most looking forward to getting many nominations (Up in the Air)

-Another female director getting nominated for an excellent film (Kathryn Bigelow: The Hurt Locker)

-Where the Wild Things Are being up for best score

-Matt Damon with double nominations for Invictus and The Informant! 

-Emily Blunt getting nominated for The Young Victoria and for Justin Timberlake who announced this inappropriately suggesting that John Krasinski (also presenting) would be getting lucky tonight

One reason why I like to watch the Golden Globes is for both TV/film getting honoured as even though my passion lies in television, I do also love the counter part of film. This award show is also helped by the free flowing booze at the tables which could lead to some funny speeches. It will interesting to see how host Ricky Gervais will do this year as he is often the highlight of most award shows, how will he go down when he is hosting the whole schebang and not just one award?

Dexter- The Getaway and the season finale shocker

Major spoilers for Dexter 'The Getaway' season 4 episode 12

Holy wow, I did not see that ending of this season coming, it was one that I really didn't expect and is a ballsy move that will definitely change the show.

First off though a quick round up of the first 45 minutes of the episode. So as expected Dexter finally got to the Trinity killer and did what he has been wanting to all season, kill him and then let the ocean take care of the rest. However as this season has shown us the path to this was filled with many obstacles and this time it was a little time in jail that got in his way from doing the deed when he wanted to. The consequences of this were much graver than Dexter expected them to be but more on that in a bit. Trinity is then identified by the four walls symbol on his van that Scott (the boy he kidnapped- the homicide team link missing 10 year old boys before a bath tub kill and therefore to Trinity) draws and the police storm Arthur Mitchell's house with Dexter (as Kyle ) inside. Through some quick thinking he hides in the coffin in the garage, though due to his lack of police flak jacket Debs is confused as to why he was in the house so quick and without the correct protection on. Lucky for Dexter though her mind is far too occupied with the information that she has on Dexter's biological mother, this has led her in identifying the 'Ice Truck' killer as his brother, though he pulls off a convincing performance to suggest he didn't know any of this already.

Now to the real crux of the episode, the conversation between Trinity and Dexter before he kills him revolves around fate and free will, Arthur stating that it is all God's will and that it is all over now any way. Dexter does not agree with Arthur and this fate positioning and we see him muse that he will get rid of his dark passenger for the sake of his family he really does love, he looks at the moon as he is disposing of the body and thinks of Rita. When he arrives home to pick up his holiday stuff he has a voice mail from Rita saying that she has heard that the moon will be beautiful tonight and that she has to pop home to pick up her ID as she forgot it, it is at this point that I realised something bad might have happened. Dexter rings her phone which he hears inside the house, and then hears Harrison crying. The discovery is one that mirrors his early life, Harrison is sitting in a pool of  his mothers blood who is lying dead in the bath tub and it is at this point that Dexter thinks that Arthur was right about fate, it is also at this point that I have my hand over my mouth in shock as I can't believe they are ending the season this way.

I for one am sad to see Rita go, though as a story function this is an exciting one and will lead to many possibilities like how will Dexter cope as a single Dad? The dark passenger will I imagine be coming out of early retirement in full force and will this bring Dexter's secret to the surface. How will he explain the Trinity killer picking him and his family as a target?

Over at Entertainment Weekly they have an interview with executive producer Clive Phillips who clears up any confusion regarding this season ender.

It's been a long time

The new TV season is upon us and despite my lack of blogging over the month of August I am excited about several old shows returning and a few of the new starters as well. I will be writing with more consistency (I hope) over the following weeks and months about these shows. The old returners I am looking forward to are; Bones (thought the bones promo below is pretty cool), Fringe, Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Office (once I have seen season 5- the DVD is on the way as I speak).

I will also be looking at the new season of Mad Men, that has been on for the past few weeks, so far I am enjoying this season and will be writing further on this in the coming week. Oh and I am really looking forward to the return of The Daily Show after the three week hiatus that it has been on, I've been missing my Jon Stewart fix, I'm so glad that the web site has all the old episodes on there to watch.

New starters that have produced an interest include Community (I'm a big fan of Joel McHale, as previous mentions of The Soup will testify), Flash Forward and the new HBO show Bored to Death. Other shows that I am currently catching up on (and need to catch up on) include Damages season 2, 90210 (got to love the trash TV), Dexter, 30 Rock and Harper's Island (I saw the first two episodes the other day and thought it was ok, like watching a long TV horror movie really). Oh and I will finally be catching up with The Sopranos soon as well having only ever seen bits and bobs from each season- though I am totally spoiled for the final episode, which sucks.

So there is plenty for me to be writing about, and I will be tackling many of the above shows in one way or another. See you all soon.

Graduation and what is to come

So, I finally had my graduation ceremony for my Masters in Film and Television which turned out to be a fun afternoon, not only because I got to catch up with some old faces but also because the person who was awarded an honorary degree was the BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner. Gardner was reporting in Saudi Arabia in 2004 when he and his cameraman Simon Cumbers were fired upon by al-Qaeda sympathisers, Cumbers was killed and Gardner who was shot six times was left paralysed. He gave a speech that gave hope to the many graduates in the room and showed that you can achieve your dreams as well as overcome obstacles that are presented to us, no matter how big or small. Here is a picture of me (and my Dad) from the day

It is also odd to think that this time last year I was hard at work with my dissertation which the topic of my study was whether authorship in television is viable and if it is then by what means. My case study was JJ Abrams and I was looking at his body of work in television with the cut off for all Fringe related research being Comic Con. The fact that it is Comic Con this weekend and that it was my graduation last week brings my Masters to a close. On that note I have several things that I would like to write about in the next week or so and I aim to be more productive with this blog throughout the summer as I have been a little absent recently.

Areas that I would like to cover include:

-Reviewing the short lived sitcom Kitchen Confidential which I have just finished watching on DVD.

-The news and highlights from Comic Con, I wish I was there but unfortunately I will be scanning Entertainment Weekly and fan sites such as obsessedwithbones.com and chucktv.net for all the weekends’ gossip

-I just read a review in the New York Times for the Nathan Rabin book ‘The Big Rewind: A Memoir Bought to you by Pop Culture’. Rabin who is now a writer for the Onion writes about his turbulent growing up through pop culture references and from what I have heard this book sounds super and I definitely want to read it (right after I finish with the Dead Zone).

-I’m also currently re-watching season 2 of Mad Men which I got on DVD last week, in preparation for the new season and also because it is truly wonderful TV. The new promo poster for season 3 has been released and makes me so excited for this new season:

-I would like to look at this years Emmy nominations and watch some more of the drama nominees as I currently only watch Mad Men, Dexter and Lost out of the list, really want to check out Breaking Bad and Damages (which my Mum loves and the first season is super cheap to buy at the moment). But also a big grr to Friday Night Lights getting snubbed again in the major categories, what has this show got to do to get some Emmy love?

So, I will be writing a lot more soon, also I have had a guest review of the season 1 Bones episode ‘The man in the fallout shelter’ posted on www.obsessedwithbones.com and will have another one coming soon as I also wrote about ‘The man with the bone’.

Summer watching and reading

So with the summer officially here the amount of TV shows that I watch has dwindled, it is lucky then that I have several shows that I would like to catch up on and that I also have a stack of books to get through, so here is my must list of shows/books that I would like to get through this summer:

• Friday Night Lights season 3: this arrived on DVD a few days ago and I only have three episodes left, it sucks that it is such a short season but I have thoroughly enjoyed what I have seen so far and will blog more on this when I have finished it (which will probably be by tomorrow).
• The Office seasons 4 and 5: so as I wrote about previously I finally got round to watching this show and have fallen in love with it. I’ve heard that these two seasons are not as good as the second and third but I am looking forward to seeing how the coupling of Pam and Jim will affect the shows dynamic.
• I need to catch up on Dexter season 3 and so will get it on DVD when it comes out in August, also in August the return of Mad Men to the small screen which I am also super excited about.
• I am weirdly tempted to get the new 90210 on DVD when it comes out this summer, good or bad decision? I do like teen shows such as The OC and Gossip Girl, but not ones like One Tree Hill and from what I have seen it does seem to fall in to the first category, and it has a Bluth in it.
• Speaking of teen drama, yesterday I started reading a Gossip Girl book, the prequel to be exact just to see how the TV show has evolved and deviated from the original source material. So far it is ok, not great, although I was surprised by the extreme attention to detail, but I guess it is this attention to materialistic items that the TV show can do in one shot that a book unfortunately needs sometimes excessive words to describe.
• On the book issue, I’m also considering reading a Kathy Reichs Bones book to see how different this is from the show. I also got extremely cheaply a Bones adapted novel not by Kathy Reichs but in the style of the show, so that will be intriguing (and potentially bad). I will write more on these when I get round to reading them.
• I also have the second volume of the Heroes graphic novel to read, I enjoyed the first volume so hopefully this second one will be just as good and perhaps fare better than the show has done of late.
• Also, thanks to Doc Jensen’s suggestion over at Entertainment Weekly for Lost inspired summer reading I am also tempted to read ‘Replay’ by Ken Grimwood.
• Other TV ideas that have been suggested include; over on Alan Sepinwall’s blog to rewatch Band Of Brothers which is by far one of my favourite programmes ever to appear on TV and over on Chucktv.net to watch Chuck from the start to keep focus on the show whilst it is on a long hiatus. I’m also going to start watching Lost from the beginning so to fill the Lost void that it the next eight or so months.

 

So this is my summer viewing/reading plan so far which I’m sure will adapt and have things added to it.