I've never seen Dresden Files. Is it worth watching?
The first season is on Netflix streaming. My boyfriend made me watch an episode and got me into the series. I love how his wand is a drumstick and/or hockey stick.
I think I might check out the book series.
I love the series. Pete hates it. I guess it's a matter of taste. I was very disappointed when they canceled it. Jim Butcher is a fun writer; I haven't read his Dresden books, but I've read some of his other stuff. As a bonus, the audiobooks are narrated by James Marsters.
I love the series. Pete hates it. I guess it's a matter of taste. I was very disappointed when they canceled it. Jim Butcher is a fun writer; I haven't read his Dresden books, but I've read some of his other stuff. As a bonus, the audiobooks are narrated by James Marsters.
Awwe, it's cancelled? I didn't really look more into it, but as a SyFy show it doesn't surprise me too much seeing it get cancelled. I am disappoint.
At least it gives me more of a good reason to check out the books/graphic novels.
DId you notice during the opening credits how Nicolas Cage is a producer? It amused me when I saw his name.
Awwe, it's cancelled? I didn't really look more into it, but as a SyFy show it doesn't surprise me too much seeing it get cancelled. I am disappoint.
Yeah, the first season is all there is. It's several years old; it was on back when I was in college. The Sunday night lineup of Battlestar + Dresden actually induced me to watch live TV weekly. (This was before I had DVR.)
I'm not sure why they canceled. I know there was a huge campaign where people mailed them drumsticks to protest the canceling, but you know how that goes. It never actually works.
Warehouse 13 is fun, but it wasn't interesting enough to keep me hooked. It's pretty much what would happen if X-Files and The 4400 had a love child. You have your sciency-logical-methodical chick and your instinct-hunchy-woowoo guy, and every week there is some kind of woowoo that happens and they have to go solve it. Fun for awhile, but gets old fast. Even the underlying plot they tried to introduce was kinda meh.
It probably didn't generate the demographics that the advertisers wanted. Remember, you the viewer are the product, not the customer. Your eyeballs are being sold to advertisers, and they get your eyeballs in the first place with the show. If the eyeballs they attract aren't what the customer wants, then the show gets canceled.
Awwe, it's cancelled? I didn't really look more into it, but as a SyFy show it doesn't surprise me too much seeing it get cancelled. I am disappoint.
Yeah, they ran it one season and then, in typical SciFi Channel fashion, canned it. If want to try the Dresden books, start with the first one (Storm Front) and then backtrack to the prequel graphic novel before heading on to the next. Also be aware that while the books generally tell their own episode in the overall story, they're greatly enhanced by being read in order. Butcher has planned this to be a 23-book series, and only publishes one volume a year (or so), so if you get hooked then be prepared to be in it for the long haul *grin* Also, if you think you're going to be really into the books, I suggest signing up for the Sci-Fi Book Club (www.sfbc.com) and buying the omnibus editions - they're hardback and cheaper than buying the individual tomes if you snag most of them in your initial membership sign-up.
If the eyeballs they attract aren't what the customer wants, then the show gets canceled.
True, but in the case of The Dresden Files it didn't help that SciFi sliced & diced the pilot rather than wait for it to be completed and then buried it as a mid-season replacement on Sunday nights with minimal advertising. Sure, one could make the argument that the demographic will follow the show no matter when it's on, but the reality is if it's not on the air at a convenient time for people to catch an episode or it's not advertised during the proper time slots where the demographic would normally be viewing then people won't notice it, aren't going to bother to watch, or take the time to set their Tivo.
True, but in the case of The Dresden Files it didn't help that SciFi sliced & diced the pilot rather than wait for it to be completed and then buried it as a mid-season replacement on Sunday nights with minimal advertising.
Mid-season replacement means advertisers didn't want the show in the first place, so they used it as filler. The slice and dice was likely just to attempt a salvage.
one could make the argument that the demographic will follow the show no matter when it's on
Ratings are calculated by means that probably completely exclude people like us, so watching or not watching has no effect.
the reality is if it's not on the air at a convenient time for people to catch an episode
That's only applicable to older generations and the technology-unconnected. Time-shifting is a matter of course for many people, and the idea that the time a non-live event is on matters will exist solely in the minds of advertisers in the near future. Timeslots are used primarily to attempt to shape the demographic (show things when kids get home from school) or to trick people into watching (happens to be on before or after a more popular show).
it's not advertised during the proper time slots where the demographic would normally be viewing then people won't notice it,
When that happens, it means that the show draws an undesirable demographic. No point in advertising the show if the show itself won't get you the demographic you want to sell products to.
I don't hate it, but it didn't grab me at all. FWIW, though, I also hate 95% of fantasy anything. The fact that this engendered "meh" as opposed to "OMG THIS IS GARBAGE" means that it's probably decent.
Ratings are calculated by means that probably completely exclude people like us, so watching or not watching has no effect
Not really. I've been selected as part of the Nielsen Ratings surveys twice in the last five years, so you can't tell me that people like us watching or not watching has no effect. What ratings don't take into account is the time-shifting of programming; neither time I was selected was there anything in the reporting book about what to do if you're watching a show you recorded during the week, which I'm sure skews the data against a show worse than people not watching at all because something else may be entered into the logbook during the time the other show was running. I can't speak for the current situation in Nielsen ratings, though - they may have rectified this oversight by now.
That's only applicable to older generations and the technology-unconnected. Time-shifting is a matter of course for many people...
I think your take here is skewed by your own level of technology. Time-shifting of programming still requires planning and forethought for a lot of people because PVRs are far from ubiquitous. Granted, the gap between the haves and the have-nots in that case is quickly shrinking, but there are still plenty of people that plan their TV viewing around the block of programming that's on in a specific time slot.
No point in advertising the show if the show itself won't get you the demographic you want to sell products to.
Self-fulfilling prophecy, eh? We can't draw in the people we're advertising to so we shouldn't advertise the show at all. Oh, look, we didn't draw in the people we're wanting to advertise to, guess we should cancel the show. That's not a failure of the show, that's a failure of the marketing department and the network as a whole in not understanding who the intended audience is. SciFi is known for not having a clue as to what will sell and what won't.
My point wasn't to argue that the show did pull in the intended demographic - it obviously didn't, otherwise it would still be on the air. My point was that the network didn't do it any favors in helping it reach its intended audience by burying it at the ass-end of the viewing week. If the time slot a show airs in didn't matter then shows like Firefly would still be on the air and going strong. But they're not. Network TV can't get their heads out of their collective asses and are still hanging on to an outmoded model of funding and distribution whereby the success or failure of a show hinges on an amount of factors that are out of the show's control. I personally am looking forward to more experiments like Pioneer One in the future, where the show's producers and actors take the show directly to the web and skip the standard distribution channel entirely. Maybe then we'll see decent shows have a chance to live instead of languishing in a slot where they don't work and being put to an untimely death.
The Dresden files was a great series of pulp fantasy books (I've read 4 or 5) and the TV show was ok (actors were pretty good but the stories tended to try and fit a box worth of plot in a single ep.)
It probably didn't generate the demographics that the advertisers wanted. Remember, you the viewer are the product, not the customer. Your eyeballs are being sold to advertisers, and they get your eyeballs in the first place with the show. If the eyeballs they attract aren't what the customer wants, then the show gets canceled.
Durrr. I said I'm not SURE. Not that I don't have any idea. I am sure it was because they didn't get the ratings they wanted, but that is not a sufficiently detailed answer for any kind of use whatsoever. "Probably" is speculation, which I am quite capable of doing. However, it is only speculation, and doesn't have any weight of authority or fact behind it. What demographic were they looking for? Who were the displeased advertisers? These things would have meaning. Your statement is blatantly unhelpful and generic, and actually a little condescending, as I am (and most others who watch it are) well aware that TV programs are primarily funded through advertising. So there.
What ratings don't take into account is the time-shifting of programming; neither time I was selected was there anything in the reporting book about what to do if you're watching a show you recorded during the week, which I'm sure skews the data against a show worse than people not watching at all because something else may be entered into the logbook during the time the other show was running. I can't speak for the current situation in Nielsen ratings, though - they may have rectified this oversight by now.
Your suspicions are correct. There are now Neilsen-equipped DVRs that report time-shifted ratings. The interesting part is that they don't count towards the shows standard rating, but are published alongside. As you could expect, shows appealing to the technologically savvy have significant spikes in their time shift ratings.
So, if it's inscrutable, why not just torrent the shows and ignore the reasons behind their failure? ;^)
Uhh... because they don't make new shows to torrent after the series is canceled. I cannot torrent that which does not exist. The first season is readily available online without torrenting. I'm pretty sure that you missed the whole point, or that you don't have one... I'm not sure what it is if you do.
My point is that clearly the show was economically nonviable in the current entertainment ecosystem. Were this not the case, it is highly likely that a revenue stream would have been found.
My point is that clearly the show was economically nonviable in the current entertainment ecosystem. Were this not the case, it is highly likely that a revenue stream would have been found.
That's fine and all, but that's kind of like replying to a post about the mechanics of hot air balloons by saying they run on air. It may be true, but we already knew it.
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At least it gives me more of a good reason to check out the books/graphic novels.
DId you notice during the opening credits how Nicolas Cage is a producer? It amused me when I saw his name.
I'm not sure why they canceled. I know there was a huge campaign where people mailed them drumsticks to protest the canceling, but you know how that goes. It never actually works.
Warehouse 13 is fun, but it wasn't interesting enough to keep me hooked. It's pretty much what would happen if X-Files and The 4400 had a love child. You have your sciency-logical-methodical chick and your instinct-hunchy-woowoo guy, and every week there is some kind of woowoo that happens and they have to go solve it. Fun for awhile, but gets old fast. Even the underlying plot they tried to introduce was kinda meh.
My point wasn't to argue that the show did pull in the intended demographic - it obviously didn't, otherwise it would still be on the air. My point was that the network didn't do it any favors in helping it reach its intended audience by burying it at the ass-end of the viewing week. If the time slot a show airs in didn't matter then shows like Firefly would still be on the air and going strong. But they're not. Network TV can't get their heads out of their collective asses and are still hanging on to an outmoded model of funding and distribution whereby the success or failure of a show hinges on an amount of factors that are out of the show's control. I personally am looking forward to more experiments like Pioneer One in the future, where the show's producers and actors take the show directly to the web and skip the standard distribution channel entirely. Maybe then we'll see decent shows have a chance to live instead of languishing in a slot where they don't work and being put to an untimely death.