The Vagaries of Variety

Variety today "analyzes" the demise of ALIAS, putting the blame for the cancellation on "the vagaries of television." Well, duh. That’s what passes for probing analysis over at the trades these days.

ABC has announced the end of the line for "Alias," which will conclude its
five-season run in May. Skein,
which stars Jennifer
Garner
as CIA agent Bristow, earned critical raves through the
years but struggled this season on Thursday nights.

And that’s all they had to say about those pesky "vagaries" —  great buzz but low ratings. I don’t think I’ve ever read a more revealing, probing analysis of the demise of a show (except, maybe, from those stories about ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, which fell victim to those same pesky "vagaries," and they’ve got bunch of Emmys, too). 

Surely there’s a real story behind the cancellation of ALIAS, one that might actually be interesting and reveal something about how network televison works, but far be it from the so-called reporters  at Daily Variety to bother digging any deeper than the press release.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the trades experimented with some geniune reporting once in a while?

(This isn’t exactly a new rant for me. Check out The Journalistic Integrity of Variety Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3)

4 thoughts on “The Vagaries of Variety”

  1. Lee, The whole Alias demise isn’t hard to explain. Call it a fan revolt. The show jumped the shark (love that phrase!) after season two all the elements that made it a good show (great writing, acting, compelling storylines) were replaced with…. well, confusing muck. In season four, reportedly, ABC directed the producers to jetison alot of the ongoing plotlines and backstory in favor of stand-alone, non-serial adventures, and that’s when fans started fleeing (I was one of them – some would say they started leaving during season three). The attention of executive producer/creator JJ Abrams going into other areas away from Alias contributed to the story/writing atrophy, I believe. I grew to hate the show so much I sold off my DVD sets, wanted the videos out of my sight. I’m only sorry the show wasn’t cancelled mid-season, gone, just like that.

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  2. I did not see any of the episodes but I wonder if it’s possible that JG just got tired of a weekly TV show and wanted to do more movies.
    They could set up a movies series using this concept.
    I can see Lifetime running the running.

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  3. “The attention of executive producer/creator JJ Abrams going into other areas away from Alias contributed to the story/writing atrophy, I believe. I grew to hate the show so much I sold off my DVD sets, wanted the videos out of my sight. I’m only sorry the show wasn’t cancelled mid-season, gone, just like that.”
    I share the above opinion and sold my DVDs also after I bought season three. He is focusing on MI3 and Lost is falling apart (like comments that the creative time may never explain what the numbers mean because they don’t know).
    JDC

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