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Joss Whedon vs. Fox: The Final Straw?

For any avid science fiction aficionado, Fox Television represents a bit of a dichotomy: on the one hand, they have brought to the table some truly memorable shows like Firefly, Dollhouse, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. On the other hand, they have established a track record for systematically canceling said shows just when the going gets good.

It’s happening again. According to some pretty convincing rumors, Dollhouse and T:TSCC are already over. While both shows had what could be considered a shaky start, they have over time grown to almost Battlestar-esque levels of entertainment. Sadly however, no amount of clever storytelling and intriguing character arcs can make up for poor scheduling, declining ratings, and ongoing competition from lowest-common-denominator programming.

Which brings us to the big question: why would a talented guy like Joss Whedon want to work with Fox again after the whipping they delivered Firefly a few years ago? If Dollhouse was partially the brainchild of protagonist Eliza Dushku, who is locked into a two year contract with Fox, should Whedon have waited for the opportunity to go with another studio?

Fox’s involvement with Dollhouse, beyond seemingly signing its death sentence, also changed its essence. At his recent lifetime award acceptance ceremony at MIT, Whedon described his vision for Dollhouse before Fox’s inevitable meddling: dolls of all ages, shapes and sizes, and story lines painted from a much darker, grittier palette. 

Alas, Fox only has room for the young and the beautiful, resulting in the audience being presented with a somewhat bland version of Whedon’s vision. Strike two for Fox, whose scheduling snafus and and demands for rewrites resulted in Whedon’s past masterpiece, FireFly, meeting its demise after only one series.

Is Dollhouse the final straw for Whedon? With his relationship with Fox described as ‘poisoned,’ the repercussions of a Dollhouse cancellation could go beyond his involvement with the studio. Whedon’s exellent Dr. Horrible was a demonstration that great things can be done without studio involvement, and may have represented a glimpse of Whedon’s future outlook beyond television.

Will a whedonesque web series be next? If Sanctuary is any indication, the potential for producing a high quality live action series exclusively on the web certainly exists. The online medium also seems like natural fit for someone like Whedon, whose humanist themes, morally ambiguous characters and unusual settings may find a more appreciative audience beyond the mainstream of television.

Whedon’s move to the web would also serve as a categorical statement of the medium’s maturity as an alternative to mainstream TV, lessening the studios’ grip on our entertainment. A nice prospect to be sure, but one whose outcome only time will tell.

While studios such as Fox would be unlikely to welcome a move to the web, talents like Whedon’s spearheading the transition may leave said studios without much of a choice. Like the music industry before them, the likes of Fox may once again be forced to make the ultimate choice: adapt, or die.

The Death of TV Storytelling

Last Friday’s TV ratings confirmed something I had been fearing for a long time: TV storytelling is dying an ugly, lonely death.

Over the last few years we have seen a veritable rebirth of television, with great series like 24, The West Wing, Lost and many others bringing a level of quality and depth to television that was previously deemed the sole province of the Big Screen. It’s not unusual these days to see big-screen superstars starring in well-written, engaging television productions, the budgets of which often rival last decade’s cinematic blockbusters.

And yet, this golden age of television may be succumbing to an insidious cancer: cheap, mass-produced reality shows and the idiots who watch them. Which brings me back to last Friday’s ratings. 

Last Friday saw the release of the pilot episode of Dollhouse, Joss Whedon’s (of Buffy and Firefly fame) sci-fi tale of brainwashing and human slavery. Sadly, the pilot screened in the 9pm slot against Supernanny on ABC, which beat it by a good 1.4 million viewers. And thus, almost before having a chance to begin, Dollhose has already been labelled a flop.

The return of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, suffered a similar fate at the hands of Ghost Whisperer, a series so irredeemably inane that its very presence on TV screens could be considered a testament to our cultural decline. Ghost Whisperer beat Sarah Connor’s ratings by a staggering 6.6 million viewers.

Now, I will be the first to admit, sci-fi is not for everyone. As a genre it’s long been considered niche, a stigma from which only a few shows have managed to break free. LOST and Battlestar Galactica made great strides in bringing the genre to a mass audience, but the struggle has been an uphill one.

So long as our culture bias leans towards the voyeuristic likes of the X factors, Supernannys and Extreme Makeovers, the incentive to invest money on big-budget, well cast and well written shows will just not be there. In a world where cheesy Knight Rider has more appeal than Heroes, where Pushing Daisies hovers on the brink, Firefly gets cancelled, and where America’s Next Top Model reigns supreme, what place is left for a challenging story line? 

I find it somewhat Ironic that, in a medium dedicated largely to fantasy and escapism, we seem to have settled en masse with simply watching other people’s mundane lives. At least some of us can take solace in the fact that there will always be a good book to escape to.