Let us temporarily get back to AFO. For a change, we
will talk about the ‘Anaconda vs. jaguar’ episode.
Firstly, spoilers: the anaconda won. Second: what
about it?
Now, there was some
outrage about the reptile winning, in part because in real life it is usually
the other way around, jaguars kill and eat anacondas instead, and-
Okay, again – the show was called ‘Animal Face-Off’, where the better fighter won,
rather than the best killer. Fine. Let us assume that that was the anaconda,
rather than the jaguar, and move on. What was next?
Nothing, actually. Yes, the jaguar’s defeat was
discussed, yes, the anaconda’s victory was condemned, but that was it. People
tend to get quite passionate over the fights of tigers and lions, for example,
but over fights of jaguars and anacondas? Not so much. AFO intended to
entertain, not just to educate, but in the end, it failed to do so. JFC, (to
say nothing of ‘Monster Bug Wars’), had its’ own flaws, but it also had some variety, making it into a
relatively exciting TV series to follow and to watch.
AFO, on the other hand, was also an exciting TV show
to watch, but it followed a single scenario – a one-on-one face-off between two
various animals. This sort of thing can work, (especially if CGI is good
enough, and in the recent past, when AFO was aired, people were not as fussy
when it came to computer graphics on screen), and it did work – for 12 episodes
of AFO, after which the show ended.
…The same thing can be said of JFC – it also lasted
for 12 episodes/1 season despite its’ greater variety and the more exciting
subject – dinosaurs! JFC, however, lacked the professionalism of AFO, and it
was not as educational as the older show, as I probably have mentioned before.
Since the History Channel were JFC was aired tends not to show such
entertainment in the first place, and because Mr. Blasing, who got the JFC to
run, had his own issues, (but not all of the right credentials), JFC was
cancelled, and by now – buried.
AFO didn’t appear to have a credential problem, but by
the time that the ‘Anaconda vs. Jaguar’ episode was aired, it probably had
trouble holding/recapturing the attention of its’ fans. This particular episode
was different from, say, the ‘Lion vs. Crocodile’ episode, but only in details,
so while some viewers were angry that the anaconda won (and/or the jaguar lost)
the others were just uninterested (rather than unimpressed) and bored!
This is not restricted to documentary TV programs;
just look at such pieces of fiction as AoS or ‘Killjoys’! However, I have
talked about AoS a lot, including its’ latest attempts to be ‘mysterious’ while
being ‘cute’ about it, (ever since the last episodes of S3), whereas
‘Killjoys’…
‘Killjoys’ aren’t bad, though compared to Michelle
Lovretta’s previous TV show – ‘Lost Girl’ – they are much more tame and
straightforward. On the plus side, they seem to have fewer problems with their
backstory…probably because it is straightforward, again – the Killjoys are
trying to stop the Company (yes, it is really called thus) from domineering Westerly
with an all-around wall, (complete with a roof), while trying to figure out
where Dutch’s ex-mentor Kline is planning to do regarding alien centipedes and
their plasma that makes humans almost immortal. Overall, it may be a somewhat
simple plot, (the Company of no name is bordering on a bad joke), but with just
10 episodes per season there is no time to be complex, and there is plenty of
character development too, alongside plot development.
‘Lost Girl’ was a more complex, more tangled, and
(currently) more rounded TV show out of the two, but it suffered from a major
background instability. AoS had to change itself when it decided to integrate
Hunter and Morse – and then it (possibly) went off tangent, and outright failed
– to launch ‘Marvel’s Most Wanted’ TV series, to keep Mitchell as part of the
cast, with that stupid shoehorn S3 premiere episode – the list goes on, but
most importantly? AoS sort jammed S2 and S3 together and there were unnecessary
character deaths’ all around, especially at the end of S2.
And ‘Lost Girl’? It did something similar – it
constantly changed its’ back-story around, from Celtic to Norse to Greek
without going anywhere in particular, especially after S1. The Garuda in S2 was
a decent villain, but after this? It all went downhill; the quasi-Greek gods in
S5 just do not deserve a mention and the fact that Bo’s father was Hades, (not
that Aoife was anything like Persephone) is just sad.
In the long run, ‘Lost Girl’ didn’t know where it was
going, and how it was going to get there, and the fact that it lumped any
folklore character as a ‘Fae’ – it all contributed to the show going downhill
and ending with a whimper, however it would rather pretend to be a bang.
Michelle Lovretta just wasn’t very discreet or discerning when it came to her
sources, and it case of ‘Killjoys’ the sources are largely MCU – the
aforementioned AoS, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ as well…
Back to AoS? There are rumors of an Avenger coming to
AoS – AoS is taking its’ cues from the rest of Marvel Cinematic Universe; MCU
is dipping into the occult via ‘Dr. Strange’ movie? AoS is doing the same with
the Ghost Rider; only there were Ghost Rider films in the past, (but not part of MCU, apparently), so now it’s
a different Ghost Rider than the traditional Johnny Blaze…
That said, the variety that I have been talking about?
AoS is trying to develop it, somewhat, now that Hydra is gone…supposedly, but
right now it is gone…and AoS in particular has no major villain to fight
against. (This lack of a major villain caused problems for ‘Lost Girl’ too,
BTW, and as for ‘Primeval’…) There are rumors of Cal/Mr. Hyde/Daisy’s father
returning to the show in S4, but we will have to wait to see if that is true,
and besides, in S2, Cal was more of a morally ambiguous, even sympathetic
character than an evil one…
Moreover, AFO? AoS is trying to have some variety – it
has to, now that Hydra is gone (supposedly, but for the moment? It is gone). AFO
did not, as it was written before. Hence, why it is gone, while in the long
run, it had been a good show. The special ‘sperm whale vs. giant squid’ episode
came too late and could not fix anything.
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