All but a VERY few series experience a downgrade as the network demands more and more as the creators/cast become less and less interested. The phrase ‘jump the shark’ exists for a reason. Aka “Cousin Oliver”.
But Murphy’s series seem to have a very SPECIFIC sort of decline, that seems to be more or less on purpose. The first few seasons take at least a reasonable amount of time establishing the world, characters, etc. and then start massively accelerating in terms of outlandishness. Scenes start burning whole episodes worth of plot. Episodes will burn through a conflict that might otherwise have been a season long arc. And Murphy seems to delight it pushing the most bizarre, edgey, extreme scenarios, daring his audience to go along with it. And while I appreciate someone with a distinct vision and sensibility, when that seems to consist entirely of “Well this should scare the normals!”, it’s a vision that becomes a lot less compelling when endlessly repeated.
I must be unfamiliar with the show ‘Olivia’ comes from, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if a modern sitcom, forced by network pressure to ‘freshen things up’ with as wisecracking new youngster, decided to name her ‘Olivia’ as wink to other writers/knowledgable audience members.
Oh my goodness you’re right. That might have been about the year I started to tune out from Cosby, college and girls and drugs being much more important at the time.
And, obviously, that PARTICULAR series is much less in the public mind these days, compared to its contemporary series like Cheers and such
And I would TOTALLY believe that Olivia was named after Cousin Oliver, though I never made that connection til you pointed it out.
Sometimes on the last day of my TV writing class, I show the Cheers pilot. Partly because I think it’s hilarious (despite some of it not aging all that well), and partly because it breaks all the rules of sitcom structure and still sticks the landing.
I just watched a new documentary on Prime called Carol Doda Topless at the Condor. How you react to that title probably depends on how old you are. Me, at 64.5, I’m definitely old enough to remember Carol and her massive gazongas quite fondly and well.
The documentary is about 100 and drags in spots, but there is a ton of footage of Carol dancing and more interestingly, of Carol speaking. She was clearly a lovely, intelligent lady. Also getting a good bit of screen time (both past and present) are several of Carol’s fellow dancers, who also have a lot to say about Carol and other subjects. They all liked and admired her, of that there is no doubt. Also of interest are interviews with various other members of the 1964 North Beach scene, including club owners and bartenders. And some amusing “man on the street” interviews from the era.
Some solid focus on the issues surrounding the silicone injections that Carol used to create her famous Twin Peaks.
Plenty of footage of Broadway in the 1960s for those who dig the cars, clothes, neon, etc.
I mentioned the podcast Evolution of Horror before. On our way to Hershey yesterday, we listened to an episode about the X-files. Naturally, the hosts didn’t discuss all 218 episodes, nor did they waste a lot of time on the increasingly convoluted and silly uberplot, but they singled out a few favorites. This prompted us to rewatch Small Potatoes and The Post-Modern Prometheus. The first is one of the funnier episodes, while the second one — all done in b&w — is a fab treatment of Frankenstein’s monster, basically.
I’d forgotten how sexy both agents are , and could see watching a few other favorites in the cold winter nights ahead…
We also watched Out Come the Wolves, a meditation on friendship, masculinity, couple’s dynamics, and the fact that nature is deadly.
The rather heartbreaking BBC 4-part series Until I Kill You, based on a true story. Anna Maxwell Martin is absolutely mesmerizing in her performance as the somewhat aloof victim of a serial killer, who refuses to play nice and collaborate with the cops to make up for the police’s decade-long failure to nail this POS down, a failure not insignificantly rooted in the male officers’ inherent misogyny.
Tough to watch, but worth it for Martin’s performance alone.
, and could see watching a few other favorites in the cold winter nights ahead…
