Anyone remember the week they tuned in for a new episode of their favorite show and all they had to offer was a repeat? Or reading on the official WGA blog to see so many projected dates for when new TV shows would be back on the air? I sure do.
I speak of the famous 2007 strike of writers. The days where writers decided that they deserved more money for their work that was streamed on the internet and posted on iTunes. They decided that they had been oppressed long enough and decided to do a little oppressing of their own.
Well, the writer's strike oppressed me because it destroyed 3 seasons of my favorite shows. Too dramatic? Naw. Not only did the quality in writing seem to disappear, but plotlines were terribly rushed because the writers knew that they only had a matter of time before production would cease.
Was any show victorious in managing to create a great season during this time? I can't think of one, aside from Tim & Eric Awesome Show... but that doesn't count. Scrubs suffered quite a bit in this season: rushed plot points, cheap gags, and pointless episodes. Yes, pointless. In what was intended to be its final season, the show was going to have an episode where JD tries to memorize everyone in the hospital's name or where JD and Turk wrestle for the remote (My Manhood may have been the show's most cartoonish episode yet, but God was it hilarious).
Sure, Scrubs may have turned out 6 pretty great episodes, but the 5 that aren't in that list are probably the worst the show has ever been. Yes, even worse than season 6. Thankfully, Bill Lawrence has silenced all my fears for season 8 by going over what the show did wrong in these past two years and what it will be doing to be more like season 1 - 3.
Even with its problems, I still liked, sometimes loved watching season 7 of Scrubs. It was a very enjoyable show. The Office became so terrible I got very frustrated. Jim and Pam became incredibly boring and concieted, Michael became someone who I actually could logically assume was mentally retarded, and THE HOUR LONG EPISODES. HOLY CRAP. Not only were they hour longs, they were boring as fuck! They chose plotlines that were actually made worse by the episode being an hour. Horrible, horrible. Even "Goodbye Toby" and "Did I Stutter" weren't enough to save this season for me.
It's Always Sunny in- what? You don't think Sunny was affected by the strike because they went into production after the strike? You'd be wrong there, my friend. The 3 creators write the season THEN film it. It's very different than any other TV show out there. Anyways, it's a lot of work so they need a lot of time. The writer's strike ate months of their writing period up, so this season had a lot more of their hired writers' help and much less episodes written by them. It showed. Though the show was still funny, a lot of it was very forced and the characters became even greater charicatures than before. While this show has never been about the rich character development shit, at a certain point if we can't see these characters as real people, it becomes way less funny. Just my two wooden teeth on the matter.
Thankfully, The Office is back on form this season (the last episode they aired was the best since season 3), only good things have been said about Scrubs season 8 (which should premiere in January, God willing) and the Always Sunny guys have plenty of time to craft another season of masterpieces. Let's never let this happen again, okay writers?
i think it's good cos the writers are important and they proved it. too bad things are different with the movie industry. you should do a blog about that - it seems like there's only about 1 or 2 of the 18 theaters in EP's AMC at any given time that's showing anything worth watching.
I would love to do that but given that I see no films at all anymore, I don't think I have any right to call the films bad if I haven't seen them.