A perfect example is Castle. If I had the energy, I'd try to figure out how many times Castle has done an episode without a case of the week which gets solved by the end of the episode (or by the end of the 2-parter). It's extremely small, right? Out of six full seasons of the show, at 128 eps total? But haven't those very few episodes that have stepped at least a little bit outside of the typical formula been some of the best of the entire series? I'm thinking like, "Knockdown," "Knockout," and "Always," as the examples that come to mind. I'm sure there are a few others I'm forgetting.
So why the HELL don't they do this more often?? Why do they feel the need to do a new murder case every single episode and to always solve it by the end and to always structure it to follow the same Scooby Doo formula?? I don't understand. Now, to be fair, Castle is usually cranking out 23 or 24 eps per season, so they do have to put a lot of filler eps in there. But still, as the series goes on it feels like more and more filler/cookie-cutter formula and less substance eps.
In a sense, it's entirely unfair of me to lump Covert Affairs in with Castle on this topic, because Covert has actually done a FAR better job than most other shows at evolving and constantly striving to improve. Not only did it step outside its original mission-of-the-week formula starting in season 3, it completely re-invented itself as a serialized and much more serious show. It continued its evolution on that path in season 4, and while I don't think it has always been successful in its quest to give itself and its characters more depth, I still love the fact that it's at least making an honest effort to do so. I didn't even bother watching the show until season 3 for this exact reason, and then I finally watched because I had major respect for the writers/producers/etc. for having the balls to kinda turn the show on its head a bit, with good results.
So then, given all this, why the hell are the season posters still so damn lame and generic looking?? Here's the first two seasons, for reference:
I mean, could these things possibly be any more generic?? "Single woman. Double life." "Under Cover Girl." The only way they could be more bland is if they were literally just pictures of saltine crackers or like, Gap ads. It's no goddamn wonder I refused to watch this show in seasons 1 and 2. To be fair, the show itself was pretty generic too at this point, so at least the posters fit a theme there. Still, it did have a bit more substance than you'd think just from looking at these things.
And then there were seasons 3 and 4:
I'll say that season 3 was by far the most decent poster of all the seasons, but it still wasn't amazing. "Hide and chic"? How does that describe season 3 other than in the absolute most basic and primitive terms? She's a spy and she's totes fashionable. Yes, that was one underlying element of season 3, but was that ALL it was about?? I wouldn't have watched the damn show if that was the case. And season 4 - Why the hell are there SIX Annies for Christ's sake?? What on earth does that represent?? What is this, Orphan Black? Maybe if they did one blonde Annie and one brunette ... but this, this makes no sense.
And now, we have the season 5 poster, which was released yesterday.
I mean ... really, Covert Affairs?? Look, I'll give it this - at least the tagline for this one seems to be a little more descriptive of what is happening on the show. But the picture? What does this represent? "Hey everyone, this show is about a hot spy who looks smokin' in even the skimpiest of outfits!! But wait no, we do have actual substance going on here, I swear!!" Do you, Covert Affairs, are you sure?
The official CA twitter account has been tweeting stuff like these two pics in recent weeks:
Even something in a similar vein as these random Twitter/FB pics would have been far superior, IMO. They certainly come a hell of a lot closer to representing what's going on in the actual show, as opposed to whatever the hell is happening in that official poster. Then again, we haven't seen season 5 yet, so ... yikes?
All I'm saying is, the show doesn't fit this generic lame fluffy-looking poster formula anymore, so why not change it up, guys, to advertise yourselves a little better? TV critics lavish praise on shows like Homeland (in the first season-and-a-half before it got horribly shitty) and The Americans (which just came off a pretty fucking brilliant season 2), and the reason they ever paid attention in the first place is because those shows take themselves seriously and offer up a substantial product (again I hate Homeland now but I'm referring to the good old days before it sucked).
Critics have never taken Covert seriously because it never took itself seriously. In season 3 it started to, and a few of the critics actually started to notice, and to say good things. Which is awesome. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure season 4 lost some of that critical good will, but that's another story altogether. Regardless, continuing to advertise itself as a lightweight show about a hot blonde spy who just prances around in skimpy outfits is NOT helping its cause in this regard. Critical attention on a show can be hugely important for word-of-mouth to build audience, but it seems that USA is only interested in pursuing that avenue for Suits and occasionally Graceland. Covert gets the vapid sex kitten treatment instead.
Dear USA and Covert Affairs producers: Your work to improve the quality of your show as a whole covers 90-95% of the heavy lifting required to elevate it to the next level. Why go through all that effort only to then drop the ball right at the final lap by representing yourselves as generic bimbo-tastic fluff in your advertising materials? It defeats your purpose and it makes no logical sense to me.
Rant over.
No comments:
Post a Comment