Phillly the Kid says Goodbye

I thought PtK was rather sanctimonious with his posting, this one in particular, but as I read over it lately, I find myself agreeing with him more and more.

Written by: Phillly the Kid
Subject: The Sad Reality of H:LOTS

I haven't posted for quite a while but I have been reading up on some recent threads and thought I'd offer a few comments about the whole trejectory of this TV show:

For those of you that are hard core fans of the show who have been watching since it aired and "got it" right away -- we have to remember an important fact:

This show was cancelled. Twice.

It was an inevitable fact that things would change in ways not preferred from the day they gave it a third go round.

I for one hated losing Crosetti, I still marvel at those first 9 or 13 episodes and how they vollyed back and forth off of each other. It felt to me that the partenrships were carefully crafted to achieve a certain resonance.

Once Crosetti and then Beatty and then Baldwin...

An episode like Stakeout I thought recaptured some of that. But essentially since this series got the thumbs up from the TV power brokers at NBC, it was a forgone conclusion that their would be inconsistency and compromise and finally sell out.

Its been argued to death about Russert, Gaffney, Barnfather, Brodie and Cox.

I thought the Russert demotion made no sense. Gaffney promotion also made no sense to me and Cox I liked at first and have come to dislike and Brodie I enjoyed a lot.

But in losing the 3 original cast members it destroyed a lot for the partner. Meldrick that first year and then Leo and Belzer - basically been sitting around with no context. Meldrick made some head room with Mikey and issues...

So much of Homicide in the beginning was about being a cop show that often wasn't about cops or crime.

Luther Mahoney as an ongoing story arc and the hostage fiasco and several others have really detracted and made the show act more like "other cop shows", which I find as a weakness. We did need a villain. We didn't need melodrama.

Kay was at first a very interesting character and they just dropped the ball. Now she's gone.

Seda, Reed, Forbes as one poster put it the youthification. I would put it as simply par for the TV course.

H:LOTS started as something different. A chance to experience art on television. It was a filmic experience and had the potential to cater to a very literate audience.

The implicit contradiction in terms with our culture/society and the realities of a capitalist enterprise like Television mitigate against all that H:LOTS gave promise to...

So in the end, I will resent the changes, I will be glad when I see a better than others episode and when I am reminded why NYPD has and L&O have never been in the same conversation or at least werent' initially...and be glad the thing survived at all.

There are agendas at play that effect the results for us on a Friday at 10 and most of us will never even know them.

I have been phasing TV out of my life and H:LOTS' demise only highlights for me the necessity.

I can't believe we will get 22 episodes next year - though - and not get at least some very rich moments or even a stellar episode here or there.

Most on this Newsgroup are avid fans and we all have our reasons and could take issue with certain storylines or decisions with casting or writing...but its out of our hands and like all the good shows that have come and gone - its hard to sustain the promise at the outset when you have to keep to a production schedule and deal with the suits and ad execs etc...

I hope they give us some choice moments with Frank and Tim, I hope they don't go on and on about Mikey and the Mahoney shooting though rumors I hear are that the chick cop dimes them out this season. I haven't really enjoyed her character at all. I found the Meldrick marriage much more interesting than the obvious flirting with Terry...another ball dropped...

G also seems to be losing focus and impact. Let's see Gaffney fall and Barnfather perhaps too...

But mostly - let's see writing we didn't expect and that isn't predictable and doesn't tie into long story arcs and that makes this just a front end for great shots, editing, dialog and creation. Not cops show as we have always known it...

I'd lay odds this is the last year for H:LOTS unless the ratings take a huge climb. They have obviously been robbed in the awards but its all about THAT world. Not mine the Hollywood thang...

I thought Twin Peaks was very compelling when it started and once and a while thereafter - but they got carried away with the mystical, couldn't sustain the build up and suffered from being a fad. Episodes are inconsistnet and it lost its force.

St Elsewhere still holds up for me and the - now hated - Fontana was involoved with that great show which never got the ratings and suffered from netwrok neglect...

H:LOTS can still be the best thing on TV and I hope to feel that at least several times this season.

Hill St Blues, Northern Exposure, St Else, LA Law all these shows had lifespans of about 6 years or so and H:LOTS isn't going to go on forever...the ironic thing is this...had they continued to approach it as they did at the outset, as almost an experimental televison venture, it could have lasted a long tiem because instead of tired storylines and cliche and nowhere to build it could have merely been a vehicle for interesting writing, acting and editing...new characters, hell they could have had an epsiode with no recognizable charcaters or only references to the ones familiar...a lot of potetntial was there but with the all mighty advertising dollar as the bottom line - your going to get the bare backsides and youthful hairdos...damn shame...

NEA and NEH are about finished. If Ken Burns who is hardly a radical can't even get a little budget to keep his PBS shit going how can we really expect H:LOTS to reign supreme with innovation and to be the standard bearer for great television.

I wouldn't presume to tell anyone not to call Fontana or anyone else associated with producing this show an asshole, or to tell anyone not to remorse over losing fine characters and actors or to not compolain about some of the shitty writing, but then spin your dial and see what the medium offers - so I will just take it as to be expected and hope the darn thing hangs on a little longer and that despite the negatives we can get a worthwhile hour or two from time to time until it fades off the airwaves finally...

What would have been best - to have 9 or 13 cherished eps and for it to be a lore passed on in the TV discussion groups for years to come - or to have taken some compromises and survived enough to give us a little more -- a few more classic moments...? I'll take the latter...

Have a nice summer to all my old friends (and enemies :-) on rec.hlots

Philly the Kid

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