The Sci-Fi channel has changed their name to SyFy. The reason is to attract more women in the 18-49 year-old range by softening the name and the content. Their once much desired 18-25 year-old male demographic has fled for the greener pastures of Spike TV (boobs) and video games (killing without character development). This shift is evident in their new marketing campaign, a Skittles-on-LSD commercial which feature no robots, monsters or space ships, only paper unicorns, magic carousels and hip young people (I’m not making that up). The message is clear: leave your hardcore nerd at the door, we wanna go mainstream!
And you know what? I’m okay with that to a certain degree. The name is ridiculous to be certain and I will never, ever write the phrase SciFi (SyFy) channel without the appropriate parenthetical demarcation. SciFi stood for Science Fiction at one point in time and I’ll not bastardize it further so that that it one day becomes a question in some future etymological trivia game. But back to the point, SciFi (SyFy) needs to sell ads to make money and if they think that puppies wings and magic kittens lure in the ladies, who am I to argue?
But I am going to take issue with lazy storytelling and borrowed premises. I’m desperately trying to work my way through Warehouse 13, one of the new shows to debut on the network that’s now heavily relying upon the “And sometimes ‘y’ is a vowel” rule to rebrand itself. It’s a difficult prospect and like a hiker ascending Everest, I need to take slow steps and pause often lest I suffer from episodic hypoxia.
What’s this show about? No clue. That’s not to say that it’s so nuanced, subtle and mysterious that I can’t fathom it. Rather, I submit that Warehouse 13 has lifted from so many other sources that I can’t plumb the depths of plagiarism to find an original idea.
Let’s use the ol’ SciFi (Syfy) subterfuge and see if we can’t separate the parts into their individual stolen components…
* our leads are two attractive government agents. They crack wise with each other and feign indifference when in fact there’s a spark between them that may lead to something else. AS SEEN IN X-FILES and FRINGE.
* A strange warehouse in the middle of nowhere houses unusual artifacts. AS SEEN IN RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.
* A ‘Crazy’ lead scientist who oversees the project. He’s both brilliant and a little off, providing comic relief. AS SEEN IN FRINGE, EUREKA and BACK TO THE FUTURE.
* Mysterious benefactor/boss who speaks in cryptic sentences and hints of larger conspiracies (yet to be fleshed out by producers). AS SEEN IN X-FILES, LOST.
* Monster of the week AS SEEN IN…EVERYTHING.
I could go on and list the Men-in-black, Friday the 13th (the Series), even The Invisible Man connections (boo-yah!), but why bother? The creators obviously pitched this show to the network (whose name I shall not invoke!) using those very series as direct references. They promised a Frankenstein patch-work of a series and they don’t care if people recognize that they dug up their loved ones for spare parts. This is a shambling ‘mediocrity monster’, stunning everyone in it’s path with a ‘meh’ or a ‘it’s not so bad’. The only thing that can kill it is counter programming as it hypnotizes those that watch it with just enough promise to warrant another episode. That will never come, of course and once he show has run out of ideas to drain, it will flee from the schedule to haunt Hulu for the rest of its days.
Look, I get that all ideas are modifications with enhancements on the other ideas. But I gotta take a stand on this. If someone is gonna take the time to change their name and be all trendy (Of “Trendi”?), they can’t just be the same old person. SciFi ditched their name, created a pretty ad campaign and then serves up something that they claim to be indicative of their new direction. It’s only on inspection that inside the shiny box is the same old feldercarb.
Sorry SyFy, bring us compelling stories, interesting characters and bend our imagination or don’t show up at all. Your tagline is “Imagine Greater”, and you need to heed your own advice. Take a chance and greenlight a series that will truly let our imaginations soar to new places and times with magic and science that seems like magic. You take the leap and we’ll be there to catch you. You trot out derivative shows like Warehouse 13, and we’ll box them up an store them in our own warehouse of lesser Science Fiction/Fantasy works, never to be thought of again.
I see the premise of Warehouse 13 as a cross between X-Files and TNT’s The Librarian.
They’ve taken TNT’s idea, added an attractive female lead hoping to cash in on National Treasure/Librarian’s success and attract a female of shippers.
It may succeed a la Eureka, or may fail a la Painkiller Jane and Tremors.
PS: They could’ve renewed Stargate Atlantis, but instead we get re-canned spam.
So, they think that just because I’m a woman in the 18-49 year-old range, that I prefer unicorns and rainbows to robots and explosions and spaceships? Well, they are horribly wrong.
I’m gonna go watch Doctor Who and Top Gear on BBC America.
Just got that Warehouse 13 is the exact same animal as Bureau 13: the mythical government agency tasked with fighting ghosts and UFOs where the Men in Black originally came from.
YES! Exactly! I saw the ad mentioned in the above post air just before the premiere of Warehouse 13, and felt like someone on an acid trip had developed it. If I want hearts, flowers, unicorns and other silliness, I’ll go to the Lifetime network where girlie girls go to get their fix! I was also disappointed in Warehouse 13. The previews were a bit ambiguous, but I gave it a chance anyway. I just couldn’t get into it. I felt no excitement, my curiosity was barely awakened, and the “borrowing” from other shows and/or movies was just out of control. Before the premiere, I thought this show might have potential, but now I see it’s yet another let-down from the SciFi (SyFy) channel.
Did they actually *ask* women in that demographic what they wanted? I mean, it’s apparent they don’t want the true geeks; otherwise, they would have just overhauled programming and not gone for a total makeover.
As for me, I’ll be sitting on the couch with commenter Jen, watching Dr. Who. And then maybe I’ll watch a movie where things blow up.
As my wife and I were watching, all we could think of was Bones. Booth “light” – literally called that on Bones when he was dating Brennan – and the procedure, detail oriented female.
Especially when they were bantering as they drove along in their black SUV.
Doesn’t mean it will be a bad show.
I would like to see a newspaper headline on the show about a communications satellite that was mysteriously knocked out of orbit – as if there was a collision with a football sized object in space.