With the six genre shows that ...
Question: With the six genre shows that premiered this past season and the tons of genre pilots in production, do you think that sci-fi and fantasy shows will ever become mainstream hits? Everyone counts
Lost as a revival in genre, but it's just a [great] character drama with a small tinge of science-fiction elements.
Medium is just a crime show in which the lead character has weird dreams, and
Ghost Whisperer is light fluff. But it seems that
The X-Files has been the only sci-fi show to be truly successful on the Big Four. I know that there are lots of bad genre shows, but there are just as many truly great ones. The networks seem to completely lack faith in promoting these shows and the audiences seem to steer clear from them, for the most part. Why do you think this is? Also, with the recent trends of tons of reality and crime dramas on the air, I was wondering if a day would come when most of the shows were in the sci-fi genre. Critics always seem to pay special notice when more than two genre shows are on the air, as if there's just not enough room — but why? Unlike a crime show, sci-fi/fantasy/horror has much bigger and broader canvases to work with: countless plots and myths and stories, potential twists, and, most importantly, characters. Do you think that I'm wrong in thinking this? Would a large number of sci-fi shows be worse than the large number of crime shows that are on now?
Answer: It wouldn't be worse, just less likely. Network TV is by and large a mainstream mass medium, and crime dramas have been a staple for decades (though not always as prevalent as they are now). And sci-fi/fantasy/horror, at least on TV, tends to exist outside the mainstream, with obvious exceptions (
Twilight Zone back in the day, and
X-Files more recently, although it took a long time for that to grow beyond a cult hit). It's true that
Lost opened the door for more imaginative high concepts to be developed, but given the lack of success of most of these shows this season (only WB's
Supernatural is likely to make it onto the new fringe CW network), I would bet you'll see fewer rather than more on the horizon. These are very tricky shows to execute well, and even the ones I champion (like
Invasion) face significant hurdles in attracting a big enough and loyal enough following for the networks to stick with them. Every network would love to have a show like
Lost break through, but that's a rare bird, presenting its more fantastic elements in an earthly (more or less) setting, grounded by strong characters and elaborate backstories. I don't have room here, or time, to delve more deeply into why genre programming rarely crosses over into the mainstream, but it's a fact. And, from the network's point of view, it has become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy when they fail to nurture and protect these shows and then give up on them for years on end.
