Under the Dome

I’ve been watching Under the Dome for a few weeks now, and it’s a good show – entertaining, creepy, good character development. But my problem is – why would you go to work? I mean, a giant dome drops over your entire town, and waitresses show up to work? Yeah right. You know there’s no way they’re getting paid, and for that matter, there’s no way people are paying for their food that day, because nobody really carries cash anymore, and when they do, it’s ones and fives, not fifties. Especially not in a small town. I could maybe understand doctors or nurses or police going to work, but anything  in the menial labor category? No way. And if nothing electronic works in the town, how are people doing much of anything? I would think that means gas pumps don’t work anymore, but you still see people driving around, even though they can’t get anywhere.

I know that it’s a television show, and that’s usually the response I get from people when I make comments like that one. “It’s a TV show, you have to suspend disbelief.” And normally, I agree with that. However, you have to make it at least a little believable for me to suspend disbelief. For example, I watch True Blood. Mostly, it’s stupid and obnoxious and has inappropriate sex all over the place, but I watch it. And I am on board with vampire and fairies (kind of) and even werepanthers, because they set it up right and it’s relatively reasonable. I can buy that there are panthers that are also people and they are addicted to meth and vampire blood, because they make me believe it. And that’s all I’m really asking for. Television is entertainment, and I want to be entertained. Believably entertained. And it is not believable to think that a waitress making less than minimum wage would come into work the day after an indestructible (and probably alien) dome drops on your town.

This is why Siberia is such a good show. Granted, there have only been a few episodes and I might end up hating it, but so far I don’t. And that’s because it really seems like a reality show. I’ve watched Survivor and Big Brother for years, so I know how a reality show is supposed to go and what the personalities are supposed to be like. They used the right cameras and got the right actors that were obnoxious and type-A and all of that, including the stupid girl who wears a skirt to be on a show like Survivor. The best part is that stuff actually happens to these people – it’s usually bad stuff, but at least something happens. Siberia is what reality shows should be. At this point, we all know they are fake – nobody tries to pretend anymore that they don’t get medical care and get to shave their legs and we all know that the producers tell them what to say and how to act. So you might as well stop pretending that the contestants are “real” people. Which is to say, not actors… or at least not good actors. But there is no pretense. I know it’s a fictional show – it’s a drama that looks and feels like a reality show where I am connected to the characters somehow even though I know they’re fake. Seriously, they did that good of a job on this show. I imagine it won’t go past one season, and maybe it shouldn’t. I don’t know where we all got the idea that shows should be on forever anyway. Frasier ran for eleven seasons and Friends ran for ten – those should be the exceptions, not the rules. I watch Grey’s Anatomy and that show just finished its ninth season or something. And I tell you what, I am tired of it. I want it to end– it’s time. The problem is that I’m committed now. I’ve watched it for nine freaking seasons and I think my reward should be that I get to know how it all ends. I kind of hope Meredith dies. My point is, that I have to believe it. I have to want to watch the next episode, not count the minutes until the episode is over. I still kind of want to know what happens on Grey’s Anatomy, but mostly, there are only two or three character arcs that I care about anymore and if I had a DVR box, I would fast forward through those parts. I think it has something to do with introducing new characters to the show. After ten years, you get sick of people and their storylines get played out. So it’s nice to have new people, I guess, but I wish that instead of bringing in another new set of interns that they would just end the show already. I feel like I’ve been through residency, and I know nothing about medicine. Maybe this is why Doctor Who is still on the air after fifty years. Not fifty years solid, but fifty years. I think it’s because every few years, they change it up. The Doctor is still the Doctor, but it’s a different actor putting a different spin on the role and they change companions out even more frequently (in the case of Martha Jones, however, not frequently enough) – maybe that’s the key. Not to expect the same actors and characters to keep you interested, but by always keeping you interested with new and different takes on the same guy – like when they replaced Darrin on Bewitched – same guy, totally different.

I don’t watch nearly as much TV anymore because I got rid of cable. I have an antenna and I have my computer and I have Netflix and Hulu. It’s sort of nice because now if I want to watch something that isn’t on network, I have to really want it. I have to make an effort to watch The Newsroom or Switched at Birth. Getting rid of cable was not motivated by me, but I’m happy with the choice. This way I can devote more time to the shows I love and spend the rest of the time doing something other than watching Wipeout. Unfortunately, there aren’t many shows that I care about anymore because there have been a few seasons in a row of just crap shows and awful attempts at recreating LOST. And I end up watching old seasons of Grey’s Anatomy when it was still fun to watch and didn’t make me cry EVERY EPISODE or Star Trek: The Next Generation – which will always be good no matter what. I am discovering new shows like Enterprise and Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond which I never watched when they were on, but as far as new shows are concerned, it’s slim pickins. So when Under the Dome started, I felt good about it. Mostly because I know that the book is really long but not long enough to last more than maybe a season or two, and that is appealing to me. Also, it’s based on a book by Stephen King, and he is a good storyteller. I think he could be better at writing endings – it’s always a cursed car or aliens – but the character development is always good. So I am hopeful that they will do a one or two season show and I’m sure it ends with aliens, and then that will be it. No third or fourth seasons like Prison Break, which should have ended after season one when he broke out of prison. And no taking eight years to tell a story like How I Met Your Mother – I like that show, but it’s enough already.