Hanging off the cliff

I can't seem to recall TV shows being so addictive.  They used to be about whatever they were about, and then they'd finish telling their story by the end of their time limit--be it half an hour or a full hour--and you were good until next week.  Yet somewhere along the way, someone (brilliant) re-invented the cliffhanger.

Sure I was told to tune in next time at the same Bat-time, to the same Bat-channel, and sure I did, but it wasn't because I needed to know whether Batman survived or not (because I already knew by that age that he always did) but because there really wasn't anything else on.  Now when I watch any show that's not reality--not that I watch reality--at the end of the hour, it does its best to sink its hooks into me to leave me wanting for more...and more often than not, it's successful.  

Cases in point?

The Walking Dead

Irresistible to Malcolm (he loves his zombies), he began the download of this series after he discovered a synopsis of it online.  While the plotline isn't that complicated (world apocalypse due to zombie infestation, few survivors that have issues with each other, everyone stays together anyway trying to find some rumoured about safe haven), every episode leaves you with the knowledge that someone is about to let their guard down when a zombie is just around the corner.  

That or Carl is just never in the fucking house.  

Alcatraz

Already the mystery of the show intrigues me as I have never in my handful of times to San Francisco been able to get my ass over to Alcatraz to check it out.  This show claims that Alcatraz never really closed in 1963 as history officially says it did--everyone disappeared en masse instead and are now mysteriously reappearing one by one, guards and in-mates alike.  The job of Det. Rebecca Madsen and Hurley Hugo Dr. Diego Soto is to find them before they cause any trouble and try to figure out where they came from, though their boss, Agent Emerson Hauser doesn't exactly make it easy for them.

(At the end of every episode, I expect them to stamp the logo of "LOST" across the screen--don't ask me why...)

The Firm

Shot in Toronto, half the allure of this show is trying to figure out the locations of the shots, and whether or not I recognize any of the BG actors from the set of Still Seas.  Even Dad's been cast a few times to be BG for this show.  The gimmick of this series is to do the flashback/flash-forward a couple of times to show you what's up next without actually telling you how you got there.  Damn them.  And double damn them for getting cancelled...I really love watching Juliette Lewis in trashy kind of roles like this.  Even better was when she was a weed dealer in Due Date.  I digress.

It's unfortunate that The Firm is the one of the three that's slated to be axed because of the three, I enjoyed its mash-up of characters the most.  The Walking Dead, while it had its shockers of killed-off characters, has left too many characters with predictably annoying traits alive--enough that I spend more time guessing the moments one of them will do something predictable than paying attention to the plotline.  Oh, and ZERO chemistry between the Asian dude and the White chick--it was nice that they tried, but it was awful.  Alcatraz isn't that bad, but I just can't get over Hugo being Diego half the time.  But then, I love Hugo/Hurley, so it's not something that's completely a bad thing.

It could also be that now, instead of watching things one episode at a time on TV, since we don't have cable and download everything, we have the option of vegging out for days at a time on the couch, delving deep into a single season or an entire series.  It could be that rather than get up off the couch to rejoin reality, I'd much rather laze about and live in someone else's world a little longer.

Or, it's just damned good TV.