When Trust is Betrayed: Genre TV's Big Mistakes
The new fall season is upon us and for those us unashamed TV-aficionados, it's time to review new offerings to consider what we want to make space for in our precious free time. (Not to mention our DVR hard disk or TiVo box.)
This year I am cynical and find myself resisting the allure of new shows. I can't help but look at each prospect and think, "Yeah, sure, you look good. But are you going to hook me in for three seasons of rampant loyalty and then turn on my ass with embarrassing plots that make me want to disown you, only to con me into watching a finale that betrays everything I ever loved and believed?"
It has happened before...too many times. I'm not ready to forgive. But I am ready to accuse. And so, without further ado, I give you:
Alix's Top TV Betrayals
Alias - A great show out of the gate, Alias offered interesting characters, fabulous disguises, and some top-notch acting. We were loyal to the dysfunctional spy family of SpyMommy, SpyDaddy, and Sydney. Who could resist the glamour, the humor, and the heartbreak of each new mission and family misunderstanding?
But then, season three arrived. JJ Abrams, feeling compelled to "shake things up", jumped us ahead two years into a mess of stupid storylines. We stayed loyal, hoping things would turn around. By season 5, however, key actors were phoning in their scenes and character assassinations had begun. Characters became thinner, stiffer, and lost all dimension. Jennifer Garner appeared to be thinking of other things as she delivered the most unconvincing accents ever. SpyMommy lost her maternal instinct and was revealed as total evil. Arvin Sloane decided he loved no one and lost his last shreds of humanity as he killed his own daughter. And in the awful grand finale, SpyDaddy died in a senseless scene, betraying every fan. All of this made me question, "Now, WHY did I ever watch the show?"
Xena - through six seasons of the adventures of Xena and Grabrielle, the series took us through many ups and downs. Despite occasional poor choices on the part of the writers (such as trapping Xena and Gabrielle in an ice cave for 25 years-what's with the time jumps?!?) the series found a touching honesty in season six, finally acknowledging that the love between Xena and Gabrielle was more than friendship.
It was all flowers and chirping birds until the two-hour series finale where Xena and Gabrielle travel to Japan so Xena can settle yet another mysterious debt. Only this time, she is decapitated and dismembered without hope of resurrection. Gabrielle is left heartbroken, to continue her journey alone, grieving for her beloved.
WTF? What is this, a 60s pulp novel where the lesbians get punished at the end? The creator said that this finale showed that the series was really all about Gabrielle. Oh, really? And so why wasn't it called...let me think...Gabrielle?
Enterprise - The fifth series in the Star Trek franchise, Enterprise took viewers back to the awkward, rocky start of Federation. Episodes were nothing earth-shattering, but they had the charm of the original Star Trek series and, after a while, could grow on you.
Then they started "Temporal Cold War" crap about the Xindi decimating the Earth and the Enterprise crew trying to...oh, hell, I don't even care to explain it. To me, it was thinly veiled propaganda for the Iraqi War, all about how terrorism forces us to do unethical things because we have to. This, of course, betrays everything Gene Roddenberry intended when he started Star Trek, but no one at Paramount seemed to care.
At last, they dropped that storyline and seemed to get back to the type of episodes that the fans wanted, only by now they had lost most their viewers. So, they cancelled the series with a truly awful finale (featuring, inexplicably, characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation) where they kill off a main character in a senseless death and leave everything looking pointless. Even the actress who played T'Pol said this was appalling. Given what a big money-making franchise Star Trek is, this showed a surprising lack of foresight on the part of the studio.
Millenium - Millenium, a three-season show created by Chris Carter of The X-Files, presented an ominous view of what some might think the new millennium would foretell. The story centered around Frank Black, a former FBI profiler with the debatable 'gift' of being able to see inside a criminals mind. Retired from the FBI, he is hired as a consultant to the Millenium Group, a secret organization that believes new era will herald cataclysmic change.
The show was dark. Viewers expected dark. In a festival of horror and sorrow, the second season ended with a plague being released that killed huge numbers of people. Frank has a single vaccine to give to either his wife or his daughter and they must make a choice. His beloved wife dies and Frank is left, shell-shocked, at the end of the episode.
That's not the bad part - that was interesting and gripping! But then, season two opens and there is no plague or scores of dead bodies. Frank moves to Washington to go back to the FBI and gets a partner, Emma. We're supposed to forget the end of the last season. The show loses viewers and peters out, with no resolution to the millennium build up. Chris Carter does a cross-over episode on The X-Files for the year 2000 that makes most of us wondering, what the heck? That was it? Betrayal.
So, yeah, I'm not keen to trust again just yet. I've been burned one too many times. I'm going to stick with The Office, Battlestar Galactica, and Lost (though we all have to know Lost is poised to betray us, too). Maybe someday, the healing will begin, and I can devote myself to another hour of genre television again.
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