Posted by
Catmman on Thursday, August 13, 2009 2:18:26 PM
What's with the Sci-Fi channel changing it's name to SyFy? "Imagine Greater" is the new tagline for the channel. After more than a month of watching the newly "revamped" channel, I'm not impressed with the name change. Ostensibly, those making the name change say they did so to appeal to a larger advertising market and to make them seem less "dorky". What? Since when has sci-fi (science fiction) ever been "dorky"?
Early science fiction writers (even before the advent of the term 'science fiction') like Jules Verne and H. G. Wells inspired and continue to inspire modern day scientists, physicists, theorists, futurists, etc to expand our knowledge of the universe. Verne's novel From the Earth to the Moon was directly referenced by NASA scientists and is still referenced by astronauts as immeasurably impacting the space race and our ultimately making it to the Moon in 1969. Wells (notwithstanding his socio-political bent) intrigued and terrified people with his visions of the future and technology. Dorky?
Have you read much 19th century literature? Have you read Jane Austen? Any of the Bronte's works? Booooring. Dickens, Stevenson and others like Dumas are pretty good (depending on the novel) but it's all about classism, sociology, politics (sometimes wrapped in satire, Twain for example). If you read any of this literature now, most all of it is dated and tired. Verne and Wells still seem somehow fresh, if the literary style is itself a bit dated. But I digress from my main musing...
SyFy, for all it's supposed revamping, is still the same stuff. Their "original" movies almost inclusively stink. There is the occasional OK movie but it's still the same fare the channel has pretty much always offered. Their one real saving grace is the series programming. Shows like Eureka and Warehouse 13 are decent, though definitely not top shelf programming. The channels one bright star was Battlestar Galatica. The show was ruined in season three though with metaphors to the supposed pointlessness of the Iraq war and occupation, amongst other things, not to mention the horrid ending to the series. Here's a personal hint to the SyFy channel: simply adding the word "dragon" to the title of a movie and recycling B and C grade actors from early and mid 1980's fantasy movies does not a decent program make.
Changing the name from Sci-Fi to SyFy shows how little you really understand about the entire premise of the channel to begin with.
Since we're talking about television, what's with the Weather Channel? It seems that anytime I turn on the weather channel to get the weather, I'm treated to some sort of weather "reality" show or docu-drama type program. "Full Force Nature"? "Storm Stories"? Really?
And forgive me for saying this, but Jim Cantore (who I like as a "weatherman") is not a superhero. Nor is he some valiant crusader against evil weather conditions or whatever. Have you seen the segments showing this guy and hailing him as a "Stormchaser"? Again, with all due respect to Mr. Cantore, he is a meteorologist, not a valiant hero for taking video of tornados. Let's tone the 'drama' down just a tad, please.
I watch the weather channel to get up-to-date, sometimes real-time weather information for where I live. "Local on the 8's" is what I tune into the weather channel for. Unfortunately, there have been several times when sever weather has occurred and I couldn't get a "Local on the 8's" update since the weather channel was showing me "Storm Stories" for the tenth time that day.
Weather Channel, please stick to the weather. Your meteorologists are not journalists, nor are they investigative reporters. Tell me what the weather will be today and for the next several days and let me know what's going on with hurricanes from time to time. Everything else is filler and we know it.
Side note: I don't watch Al Roker on NBC, I don't want to watch him on the Weather Channel. Plugging his new show every three minutes is getting really old. The plugs aren't funny, they are annoying. Stop it.
AMC is supposed to be "American Movie Classics". "Out for Justice", an early 1990's Steven Segal action vehicle, is not a classic of American film, yet is being featured on AMC later today. Stop it.
Side note: I am glad AMC will be adapting the comic The Walking Dead as a series. Hopefully they won't screw it up like they did The Andromeda Strain.
MTV is no longer "Music Television", I think we've known that for over a decade now. VH1 is also no longer a channel for watching music videos either. VH1 is supposed to stand for "Video Hits 1" and was launched to counter the fact that MTV was no longer showing music videos. If you want to watch music videos anymore, you have to turn to "VH1 Classics" or CMT, though CMT doesn't show many videos anymore either.
SCi-Fi is now SyFy - they changed their name but kept pretty much the same programming. MTV, VH1 and to a lesser extent CMT don't have the same programming anymore, yet haven't changed their names. Things that make you go....