Cock-Up

Misfits, as a series, has never shied away from vulgarity. And why would it when it centres around five young offenders working off their crimes. These are not people that are typically well mannered and polite. In addition, it is the characters who aren’t apart of the scheme or who committed rather minor crimes who are the least crude; characters such as Alex or Seth or Curtis and Simon. All of those characters have their moments and none of them are poets with words but they do fulfil a much needed balance to the other characters. The use of bawdiness was best employed when it fitted with the story, such as the season one finale.

Howard Overman recently admitted that season four was a failure. While the fourth run wasn’t as enjoyable as the previous three, I don’t think that it was the stories that ultimately let the show down but the characters. In the first three seasons, the characters didn’t have especially epic back stories and their powers were all born out of rather mundane feelings like loneliness and narcissism. When new characters Alex, Finn and Jess were introduced, they were all given dramatic stories. Alex remained mysterious for seven episodes to the point where the eventual reveal about his penis felt lame and confusing. Finn had to deal with appearing creepy, receiving two episodes. One revolved around an existing relationship where he was forced to be the perfect boyfriend and the other about his previously unknown half sister and his dying dad.

Jess, arguably, has gotten the shortest straw. She hasn’t been given an overarching back story like Alex or Finn so instead she got lumped with the love story. Season one set up the initial relationships with Alisha and Curtis and Nathan and Kelly but these relationships are cleverly turned on their heads in the following seasons as the social awkward Simon comes out of his shell and begins a relationship with the promiscuous Alisha. Meanwhile, Nathan and Kelly, for all their flirting, are actually sexually incompatible and wind up with other matches. Jess on the other hand, attracts the attention of Finn and Alex but prefers Alex. Why is never really established, other than his handsomeness, especially because he spends two thirds of the season actively trying to avoid her.

 

Not quite Marvel’s Avengers.

So the character’s backgrounds and stories really fail to live up to the same standard that was expected from the first three seasons. But they had really rad powers like telekinesis and x-ray vision. Those are definitely from the top shelf. Well, sure, though that has never been the point of Misfits. These weren’t meant to troubled kids who turn out to be superheroes. Their powers derived from their insecurities and personalities. I guess someone who was particularly perceptive or paranoid might inherit the power of x-ray vision but Jess isn’t either. The official reason is down to her ability to see through people but that has never really been shown to be true. Otherwise she would have seen Alex to be a cheating jerk and stayed well away. Some kind of built in lie detector would have been more fitting. Finn, on the other hand, isn’t even given a reason for his telekinesis.

The bigger issue that I have with these powers is that, much like Alex’s recently acquired power, they have limited uses in the large scheme of things. Much of the action in Misfits tends to happen in the wide open, so X-ray vision is rarely needed. Finn is so inept with his telekinesis that it only gets used during intense situations and usually fails, effectively softening the dramatic tension. Now Alex has the power to remove other’s powers through sex. The irony is apparent. Despite trying to be faithful in order to use his power he has to cheat on his girlfriend. And Alex screwing the devil out of Finn was good for a one time laugh. Unfortunately, it’s a bit like Curtis’ time travel power. If used too much, it will seem like a get out free card from any conflict but if it isn’t used enough then ability will seem redundant and ineffective.

Despite that, I do actually think Alex’s power will be useful in a way that most of the powers weren’t; to create character drama. Think about this, unless Jess wants to lose her power she can never have sex with Alex. It is a pity that none of the older team members are there to tell her about that one Christmas they all sold their powers and got held up by a disciple of fake Jesus. Her power has utilised so little that it is doubtful she would miss it much but I expect an upcoming episode to highlight how useful it can be, giving her a conflict over whether have sex with Alex and lose her power or keep her power and attempt a chaste relationship with a known philanderer.

 

Bound, bloodied and in the middle of a pentagram is never a good place to me.

Then again, where do you go after zombies, Nazis and ghosts? Season four was a struggle from the start to introduce new characters and new stories. As I mentioned at the start, the episodes weren’t bad but the plots either felt unnecessarily contrived or overloaded with ideas. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse especially suffered. We got four guys on bicycles and not a whiff of pestilence or conquest. But that was season four. By now, all the creases have been smoothed out for season five, right?

Sort of is the answer. If the first episode is any indication, season five has a narrower focus, which is good but the plot was still rather silly. Everyone gets possessed by the devil, which is controlling the boy scouts (though they now take girls, much to Ruby’s chagrin). The possession doesn’t really change them though which raises the issue that if an action won’t significantly change the characters, what are the stakes and why bother with it at all? The episode didn’t aptly address those overhanging questions, instead preferring to linger on the Alex/Jess/Finn love triangle. I did like the support group for the super powered and I’m interested to see where Rudy’s involvement with them leads. The episode did warrant a few laughs too, so it wasn’t all bad.

Overman is a great writer and I get the feeling that somewhere in season three he got thrown off the path he was on. From then on, no longer being able to write the story he wanted, the show has been scrambling to pick up the pieces. Watchable as it is, it doesn’t compare to the greatness that came before. This opener to the programme’s fifth season shows some glimmer of the old gold. Maybe, just maybe, Misfits can at least go out strong.

Game-Changing

When the game is good, it’s good. Sometimes, however, the season can be stagnant or just needs a big moment to turn the tide in your favour. This is what’s known as game-changing; introducing an element or factor that requires a new approach to be taken. Bringing on a new, fresh substitute in Football is often an indicator that a manger is attempting this, or when a tennis player strains a muscle trying to reach a difficult ball. Both can cause a shift in the game. It’s not always a physical change either. Even just a change in morale can make a difference even if on the outside nothing has really altered.

This is just as true in television and film as it is in sport. When watching a show that has been running for a long time, the audience can sometimes get the sense that it’s just going through the motion. Episode to episode, you’re engaged and you’re watching but five minutes after it’s over you can’t remember a single detail of what just happened. You can blame it on the fast food, digital download culture of today’s audiences but often there’s just as much blame to be shared by directors and producers whose shows just don’t seem to be as good as they once were.

One of the most common game-changing techniques was employed twice in the past week as far as television shows are concerned. Just as an injury can create an opening for victory in sports, the death of a character can create an opening for new and enthralling storylines. Take, for instance, Boardwalk Empire. As a HBO series, it is regarded as above the average quality for a television show but this third season has felt rather empty. Oh, it’s been interesting to see Nucky succeed at trapping a political opponent, and make some new contacts in the bootlegging business, whist he’s being out gangstered by Gyp Rosetti and Joe Masseria. Unfortunately, that has only accounted for the previous couple of episodes, with much of what came before being dominated by Nucky’s affair and attempts to be the ruthless gangster that he thinks he needs to be and Margret’s continued affair with Owen Slater.

This is one delivery you don’t want to sign for.

Looking back, I can help but imagine that someone in that boardroom looked at the outline of the season and thought it seemed slow and without many major events. I understand why it had to be so; without sufficient build up the war with Masseria would have come out of nowhere and might have seemed cheap. Knowing that doesn’t make the show easier to focus on and it appears that someone behind the scenes knew that and wrote this episode to be a game-changer. And then they killed Owen Slater.

He’s been a character in the show since the second season. He’s grown close to Nucky and become intimate with Margret. He was Nucky’s main body of protection, a man he could trust and would willingly risk his life and get his hands dirty. Nucky actually has no one else in his life that can really fill that role. Not even his brother is trustworthy enough to fill that position. Some might say that we can’t really know if it’s a game-changer until we watch the next episode but given Owen’s significance in the show, it’s pretty obvious that this will be instigate a big change in Nucky’s operations. Even if he has to find a new man to get his hands dirty (cough Richard Harrrow cough), will Nucky have the same level of faith in that man as he had for Owen Slater? This wasn’t just some two-bit defender that went over on his ankle; this is like a star striker getting a red card. He’s out of the game and won’t play for the rest of the season. That kind of player is hard to replace.

Similarly, last Sunday’s episode of Misfits had a game-changing episode and changed the whole game with the unexpected death of Curtis Donovan. I’ll admit to have never been the biggest fan of his character but that was a damn good way to send the character packing. To me, Curtis has always come across as arrogant and unlikable, even when he was trying to do the right thing. He’s always been the straight man to either Nathan or Rudy and it has felt odd for him to still be in probation after all this time. He even managed to get a job. As a character, he just never seemed to fit with the rest of the group.

Clearly, his was a character for which they had run out of ideas. I mean, he still had the zombification power, for goodness sake. It came in useful for post-mortem interrogation but why exactly did Seth let him keep the power? Seth can hold an unlimited amount of powers but can’t use them himself, presumably can’t be forced to part with a power and when he dies, it would seem likely that all the powers would die with him. Since a power like zombification seems like a legitimate threat to humanity, why wouldn’t he hold on to it himself? It’s a moot point now that Curtis is dead and the power is gone but it’s a point that bugs me all the same.

Is it just me or did he die in a running position?

Yet, although it seems that the writer’s had no clue what to do with Curtis in season four other than kill him, his death will ripple throughout the show can cause changes. Perhaps it is his death that motivates Seth to hang around for the rest of the fourth season. The loss of a friend is also bound to impact Rudy, the most sensitive and insecure of the group. Other than the promised second storm, I suspect this will be one of the biggest game-changers of the fourth season.

On the flip side, a game-changing move doesn’t always have the desired result. Sometimes a substituted player can just fail to make the right impact or the team misses vital opportunities to capitalise on the morale drop. Similarly, some directors and writers don’t follow up on game-changing moves. I can’t possibly think of a better example than Twilight: Breaking Dawn part 2 in which there is a battle between an elite group of vampires and a rag-tag band of vampires and werewolves. This is certainly a game-changing moment as it deviates from the novel and kills off some main characters. But it turns out to be a dream one character has that they avert. Dreams are very sloppy writing, especially when it takes something game-changing and relegates to a ‘what if’ scenario. There are plenty of films of novels which have deviated from the source material and ended up being all the better for it. This was the final movie in the franchise. This was their chance to make those tweaks without deterring the existing fanbase from watching the next instalment and they failed.

Whether the effects of the impact are good or bad, game-changing is often a good sign. It shows that the manger or the director is still trying to perfect their craft. The tactics might not always work but the audience get to enjoy the ride at least. It’s when they seem to be going down with the ship and not making any effort to change or better the show that viewers should be worried. Twilight, at least for now, is over, so no worries there and I don’t think there’s anything to be worried about in regards to Boardwalk Empire and Misfits. So my suggestion is to sit back and enjoy the game, and all the changes that come with it.

Stormy

Misfits has gone through a lot of changes since its conception. As we enter into season four we’ve already lost all but one of the original cast members. Dare I say it but we’re left with the least interesting member of the original group. Nathan was funny and mysterious, Simon was creepy but heroic, Kelly was mouthy but endearing and Alisha was provocative but incredibly insecure. Curtis on the other hand simply seemed whiny and arrogant given the fact that he felt superior to the rest of the cast. Over three seasons he’s mostly grown out of this but still feels largely out of place. For instance, in the season two Christmas special, after they’ve completed their community service, Curtis is the only one who has a respectable means of employment in the bar.

By this point in the series, it could be argued that he’s too far down the rabbit hole to return to a respectful role in society. This series will certainly be interesting as most of Curtis’ storyline have revolved around his sense of superiority, his relationship with women or trouble with his power. Hopefully season four will introduce some new conflicts for the character to keep him from seeming like a remnant of seasons past. Especially in regards to his power. He traded his time travel power for money, bought a gender swapping gift, and switched that for the power to raise the dead. Now? I can’t imagine he kept the power of zombification so I’ll be interested to see what the new storm does for him and his reactions, even if I haven’t been that invested in the character in the past.

Looks like an exciting episode…

Speaking of new powers, along with two new characters come two new powers. The only woman of the group, Jess, has x-ray vision. Part of me feels like they missed a step by giving the x-ray vision to the woman of the group. It’s probably a bit cliché to give the power to a male but it might have fascinating if the power didn’t work on demand or only worked when the character was already aroused. Of course you could still do that with the character of Jess but from the trailer, she really seems like more of a straight character while Finn is the comedy side of the pair. That means that the X-ray vision will probably only be used responsibly. On the whole, Misfits has probably had a lot of opportunity to do more with the powers the characters had but has relied on gimmicky plots such as a humanoid gorilla or modern day Nazi’s. Those ideas are great but often pale in comparison to the episodes which are more character centred.

No character was more a victim of underused powers than Kelly. She could hear other people’s thoughts and then she had the power of a rocket science and neither one was really utilised to its fullest potential. Rocket science was a bit lame anyway and it only really seemed to get used once or twice outside of an introductory joke where no one believed a chav could be a rocket scientist. And perhaps that’s the biggest problem I have with what Misfits has become. In the beginning, it was fun to watch a bunch of downtrodden youths struggling in their lives being given awesome powers and completely misusing them. Their powers were a reflection of who they were and their deepest flaws. Since then however the powers have become a means for a joke or a punchline, or a brief one episode challenge. I think this change really happened around the time they introduced a character who could teleport about a foot in front of himself.

Perhaps this is a just a side effect of the very short seasons that Misfits has. That isn’t really a flaw with the show but rather how British television sets out its seasons. And yet, American shows such as Breaking Bad can tell effective arcs in eight episodes, so there’s no reason why Misfits can’t build up to something over eight episodes too. One area I think that this would have been effective is raising Seth’s girlfriend from the dead. Although I do enjoy that episode, I also feel that it escalated rather quickly. I think that his girlfriend’s insatiable lust for blood and his two-timing Kelly could have been drawn out over a couple episodes and been equally effective.

No word on what power the non probational newcomer, Alex, will have yet.

Case in point, the second new character, Finn, was described as having telekinesis, but not in an A-list kind of way. What exactly is wrong with the A-list kind of way? Nathan was given immortality in an A-list kind of way and it still made for interesting stories. This power doesn’t really reflect anything of his character, at least not as far as I can see from trailers, but it feels like the power is just meant as a joke. Like ‘haha, he’s got a crap version of a good power.’ Although the producers adamantly state that they aren’t trying to bring in another character like Nathan, it does feel like they’re trying to replicate the success that character had. However, Nathan as a person was funny, which had little to do with his power. Even Rudy’s split personality power is used for gags. Often his jokes come from literally arguing with himself. That said, I do like Rudy because his power is intricately tied to his insecurities. Perhaps Jess and Finn will surprise me in the show but my first impressions from the trailer aren’t exactly positive.

There is one cast member that hasn’t been addressed, although he isn’t really a new character. He isn’t a series regular either though. Seth has been around since the season 2 Christmas special, although it was only in the most recent season that the show really delved into the character and his backstory. It was actually built up quite well by introducing a character who traded powers and not instantly explaining why. So the audience were left wonder why this man was trading powers. Throughout season three we saw him talking to associates in person and on the phone. It was just disappointing that the climax of that story was resolved so quickly in one episode. I’m glad Seth is back and I’m intrigued to find out what Howard Overman has planned for the character next.

On the whole, I don’t feel quite as hyped up for the fourth season of Misfits as I hoped I would be. I was really looking forward to the previous season and it just ended up being a bit of let down with dissatisfying powers and inconsequential episodes. This time around, my expectations have been adjusted. I really hope this season will be better than expected. Yet, the team are reduced to fighting a six foot killer rabbit and the horsemen of the apocalypse it seems more likely season four will be a sign of the end.

Ghosts

And we’re back.

We’ve got a lot to go through too because when the seasonal period rolls around it brings along with it a lot of one off specials and shows doing Christmas episodes, and on top of that, I’ve got the end of Misfits to talk about. I think I’ll start with the Misfits finale and work forward. By the time I’m finished I should be able to talk about the second season of Sherlock which is currently airing.

Anyway, concerning the Misfits finale, I feel like I should preface this review with an overall look at the season. It was the first season without Nathan as a character and in a way I think that the show really felt it. I’m not saying that Rudy didn’t match up but he’s a different sort of character with a different humour, and while that’s certainly not a bad thing, it is strange because he does seem like a new character rather than filling a hole left by Nathan. Maybe I was just so complacent with Nathan that his absence is glaring with or without an additional character there in his stead. But I’m still not sure that it was all down to Nathan’s exit anyway.

Perhaps the most interesting power leaves for Vegas

Many of the episodes this season didn’t quite capture my imagination how I wanted them. Episodes about zombies and Nazi’s could have been amazing but they never quite managed to achieve the potential that I wanted from them. The best part of the Nazi episode was when Kelly head butted Adolf Hitler and that was at the very end. The zombie episode probably would have been a lot better if they hadn’t all been mindless drones that kill and eat. I think it’d have been an interesting concept to introduce a character who was supernatural but didn’t have a superpower in the same way that the other characters do. It’d have been humorous for the group to have to keep her supplied with iguanas and animals to devour and keep her hunger at bay. Sort of how vampires seem to be depicted at times. She’d still be the living dead but it’d have been a nice twist to the usual end of zombie movies where you either kill them all or they devour the earth in an undead plague. But that’s what I mean. These episodes had potential which they didn’t really realise.

My favourite episode of the season, looking back, was probably the episode with the artist who was able to affect life through his drawings. Now though that episode seems as though it was mostly set up for the finale. Spoiler warning. Alisha dies and Simon travels back in time to become the hoodie. Except that makes no sense. The super hoodie kept saying that he had to die and she had to stay alive and it all had to happen a certain way. But why did she have to die then? It didn’t seem like her dying at the point mattered any more than it had before. Simon and Alisha were always doomed to be in this time loop but I though perhaps that Alisha’s death might have been a sacrifice to protect something or someone. Instead it just seemed like it was the best moment because they’d reconciled, had sex and he had no means of fixing what had already happened.

Don't you just hate it when you bite your tongue?

It doesn’t really make any sense why ghost Rachel would have to kill Alisha for revenge when it was Nathan who killed her. Not in the most direct sense of the words but his actions did lead her on to the roof from which she fell in season one. Alisha was one of the first of the group that she converted and had very little to do with why she’s dead. Death also seems to be a rather individual experience in this universe because Sally was completely unaware that Tony was back as a ghost too. You’d have thought the least that they’d have done is hook up in the afterlife and figure all this out.

Admittedly the episode suffers from more than just strange plot choices. It was unfortunate that this episode followed an episode with zombies. That’s too much dead returning, really, and kind of ruined the effect of Sally, Tony and Rachel returning, regardless of what it was for. I think the episode also falters under the pressure of being a finale episode. After the zombie episode, which admittedly was at least action packed even if I think it went the wrong way with the ending, this episode slowed down to explore more of Alisha and Simon’s relationship and draw them closer together before it ripped them apart. I would suggest switching the two around and ending with the zombie episode. Have Alisha die, and Simon would go to Seth looking for a power to help. Seth would reveal he got a power to help, and he can’t use it himself, so Simon has to use it for him. Honestly, it seemed like Curtis betrayed Kelly a little quickly just to get out of being pregnant, but I think if Alisha was dead it would be a lot easier to imagine Simon being able to betray Kellie for the possibility of bringing her back. When all it did was unleash the zombie apocalypse, Simon would be forced to kill her himself. He’d realise it couldn’t be fixed but instead exchange his power for one to go back in time.

We now know that neither Antonia Thomas or Iwan Rheon will be returning in the fourth season. So the cast for next season is, as of now, Rudy, Seth, Curtis and Kellie. That’s extremely male dominated, so I imagine that next season will introduce some new girls, though I still maintain that Zombie Shannon would have been an interesting inclusion to the group and that it’d have made for an intriguing love triangle between her, Seth and Kellie. Anyway, this will allow Howard Overman to introduce some new powers to have fun with along with the new characters, so at least we have that to look forward to.

Misfits

Would you like to be my best friend?

It sounds like a line from social networking site but actually it’s from the third season of E4’s Misfits. Misfits has always been wonderful in supplying some very witty and humorous lines. These have usually come from Nathan, played by Robert Sheehan, but his absence this season has required other characters to step into the role. It’s a testament to the character that his character’s presence couldn’t be sufficiently fulfilled by new guy Rudy, played by Joseph Gilgun, but requires the additional humour of the recurring freaks of the week.

The first episode of the season was fairly mundane, run of the mill introductory episode for Rudy. Granted it wasn’t quite as good as some of the previous episodes in the series but I enjoyed that Howard Overman, the series creator, made the conscious effort to make Rudy different from Nathan. Obviously there’s always a conscious effort to make any character distinct but it’s nice that they didn’t simply try to replace Nathan with someone with a similar sense of humour or personality. While Nathan let things slip off his back and generally got away with things, Rudy doesn’t have that advantage. He’s a lot more sensitive and people’s comments affect him a lot more. Nathan wouldn’t get angry if the probation worker called him ugly. Nathan wouldn’t have pined after the same woman for years just because she took his virginity. Nathan wouldn’t have been bothered if he got caught with his power out in public. Rudy cares about these things and he’s affected by them so he’s a little more interesting to watch, though perhaps not as funny.

Nathan may have gotten the best new power...and then left.

Before the current season began, Howard Overman promised zombies and Nazis in the new season interspersed with character episodes. So far however it’s felt as though all of the episodes this season have been character episodes. First was Rudy (understandable given that he’s new), then Curtis (which possibly showed off the one and only use for his power) and tonight’s episode has been all about Simon. Next week is the Nazi episode but it feels as though there has been a lot of character development within a small amount of episodes. Rudy and Alisha have a past, Curtis likes being a woman, Simon and Alisha don’t seem like quite the perfect couple that Future Simon painted them as, Kelly has the hots for power dealer, Seth, who is also seen grieving over his dead girlfriend and looking for a specific power. If I were to guess, I’d imagine that the zombie episode will come along through Seth attempting to resurrect his dead girlfriend but inadvertently causing an undead uprising.

Returning to this week’s episode though, we got to see a very aware storyline. A show about a bunch of people with superpowers always runs the risk of seeming like a superhero knockoff that couldn’t get the rights to a big franchise like Marvel or DC. While Misfits has effectively evaded this through the use of powers, which are generally ones that no serious superhero would ever have, on more than one occasion they’ve teased the notion that the super powers don’t make a person a super hero. Possibly because most of the gang are dicks and are far from heroic as any character you’d ever see. Yet, they’ve alluded to the super hero aspect before in the second season, episode five with the costumed party, though tonight’s episode was a far more thought provoking allusion. Artistic comic book nerd, Peter is saved from a mugging by the guy in the mask, whom the audience knows to be Simon playing dress up and jumping from high buildings, but it doesn’t take Peter long to figure it out. He starts drawing, and well, but it turns out that he’s got his own superpower. Whatever he draws comes true. So he quickly sketches out a bromance with Simon, gives Alisha the boot and gives the rest a nice little beat down by the guy in the mask. Of course, this raises the question if he wanted to be a hero then why not just draw himself as a hero and draw himself with a girlfriend, along with some other nice things? Simon was clearly under the spell until people started tearing up the pictures. It seems like he was kinda missing the best possible use of his power. He did seem to have sort of warped sense of morality though so maybe he just thought a real hero wouldn’t stoop that low. I suppose the real question is whether the ending will stay in effect? Will he remain under the influence of the last comic book art in which he hides the spare suit and resolves to make the hard decision when the time comes? If so, it really changes how you look at Future Simon in season two. If he was doing all of that under the residual influence of the comic book telling him that this is what a superhero does then he never really falls in love with Alisha. He falls in love with the ideal; the noble act of saving her is what he loves, not her person, because he’s under the effect of the comic book power.

You can tell Simon is the most popular character now because he's standing in front.

Peter’s character felt a bit lazy at times too. The nerdy comic book guy can’t get a girlfriend and gets completely obsessed by the first person who shows even the slightest interest in the same things that he enjoys. I’m surprised he didn’t have glasses, a retainer and giant pimples all over his face. Overweight too perhaps. It probably would have been just as simple to allow him to be able to pick up girls and get relationships but fail to maintain them due to his nobler impulses because, as he said, superheroes have great difficulty keeping up relationships. But this isn’t the only laziness of the current season. Curtis’s sexual ability being changed into an inadequacy is strange because Nikki in season 2 never complained. And he never failed to get her engines going because when she revved, her power usually kicked in. That’s not to say that the others seasons didn’t have their illogical plot holes (I’m looking at you Simon, turning into the Masked Guy after a reversed time line which erased the revelation where you found out you were the Masked Guy) but it’s only been three seasons and these have been glaring parts of the episodes.

There is more I would like to talk about regarding Misfits. Specifically, I’d like to address the new powers but I think I’ll wait until after the season ends to make a final judgement. At the moment I feel like their powers don’t really have a lot of general applications and the writers seem to be inventing reasons for them to be used, rather than letting them come out naturally in the story. So far, Kelly’s power has been used most consistently and most effectively, but there’s still another five episodes of the season to go. Until then, we have Nazis.

Internet

With the creation and development of the internet over the past few decades, the way that people interact with media has changed significantly. Much of this is to do with delivery, by which I don’t mean ordering your Tesco’s shopping online, but rather more specifically I refer to the fact that no longer must the family unit cram into a living area and watch whatever television executives decide you might like to watch. That still happens to an extent, but the choice of channels has broadened and most homes now have more than one television so that individual members can watch various shows, independent of the rest of the family.

So how has the internet affected this? Well, the internet has become such a persistent part of our lives that we no longer need to wait for a rerun of our favourite show; instead, we simply hop online and watch it, or in some cases, it’s even possible to watch shows from an entirely different country before they’ve been exported to our television networks. In other words, television as a medium for being educated, entertained and enamoured must compete with the internet. This type of competition extents to most forms of media including, literature and writing, films, journalism, comics and pictures. Why go out and buy Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone when it’s far cheaper to find it on the internet? Why go to the cinema and watch The King’s Speech when you could just watch it online for free? Why buy comic books, newspapers, and magazines or actually visit museums, when it is all accessible via a internet connection, a computer and a browser?

The answer to those questions is because it’s illegal, although it depends on your country and your government’s policies. Yet it still happens, and it can’t really just be policed or ignored. A shop might sell bread, but if a man is poor and hungry enough, he will still steal bread, even if he might be caught and punished. For most people with jobs, they probably have the expendable cash to afford to go see a movie and have a busy enough life to wait for that well hyped television show to finally come to a network near them. That doesn’t apply to everyone though, and especially with the recession tightening around the pockets of everyone in the world, now more than ever are people likely to use the internet to access what they want, rather than shelling out of pocket, even with criminal risk.

Some Internet Assistance required.

To counteract this, a lot of networks have begun working with the internet, rather than competing against it. For instance, the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 all offer online, on demand streaming of their shows and have made efforts to acquire strong U.S. shows faster (although RTE still airs them earlier)in order to keep people on the right side of the law. Some shows however, have also begun to use the internet to supplement the viewer’s experience, such as Lost. During the season breaks of Lost, certain websites were created and filled with special features, or games, that when found showed videos or teased forthcoming events and themes. In this way, the internet was used to maintain interest in the show until the next season. However, Lost already had a fairly divided fan base that either thought it was the best thing ever, or that the lack of answers or thorough explanations ruined the show, and this use of the internet probably only heightened that. Casual fans of the show probably didn’t use these features, or didn’t even know about them and so probably ended up feeling out the loop when time travel had already totally been teased by bunny displacement video.

Another show that recently employed this technique is Misfits, a Channel 4 show about a bunch of disreputable teens who acquire superpowers and proceed to do nothing productive with them, in much the same way they’d probably squander £10 if you gave it to them. Between seasons 2 and 3, Channel 4 have posted a short video on the Channel 4 website revealing Nathan’s new power (although quite frankly he was an idiot for giving up immortality) and the reason that he won’t return in season 3. It’s possible that season 3 will begin with a lot of people unaware that Nathan has left, and confused about why Woody from This is England is suddenly doing community service with them. Channel 4 are making the effort to extensively advertise the online extra though, both on the site and on television, so generally I think most people will find out about it and using the internet to explain the matter was probably a better idea than glossing over it with a line or two in the new season.

So far though, I’ve probably painted the internet in a somewhat negative light; as a vehicle for criminals to steal from television networks, while the networks pander to an internet fan base by throwing them the occasional video supplement. Obviously this isn’t the case. The internet is a medium in its own right for original works such as writing, reviews and comics. This very blog is an example of that, but just a quick google search will bring up a large number of web comics, some of which are adaptations of existing works by fans, such as 8-Bit Theater as a re-imaging of the Final Fantasy plot, and others are original ideas, for example, John Allison’s Bad Machinery. The nature of the internet allows a lot of diverse ideas to find an accepting audience. Although not all of it is necessarily good, if constructive criticism is offered and the creator is willing to listen, anything can be improved. That said, sometimes it is simply a matter of taste.

Few forms of internet media really achieve the same acclaim or size of audience that one might find on the television or on the cinema screen. Perhaps, like games, the internet has yet to be really considered an art form, but a few shows are aiming to do just that. During the 2007-2008 Writers Strike, Joss Whedon took advantage of the internet to create Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. It isn’t massive by any means, but it has gain a cult following, and is set to be continued sometime in the near future. So already some big names are becoming involved in helping the internet to be viewed as a powerful medium in its own right, rather the back alley for all the people who couldn’t make it, or just aren’t talented enough. Yet, it’s probably the lesser known people that are actually making the biggest waves.

At least it can't get cancelled on the internet.

Wayside Creations have taken internet fan adaptation to another level with their new Fallout Nuka Break series, a continuation of their fan film, in much the same way This is England ’86 is a continuation of the 2006 film. Just by watching the short video, it becomes clear that this wasn’t shot in some guy’s backyard with a handheld camera and some badly made costumes. This is a very professional product with high production values, and you can access it completely for free, and legally, on Youtube. That by itself is pretty amazing, but other shows are demonstrating that even with a handheld camera, good storytelling is as much to do with atmosphere and setting as it is to do with actors and productive values. For example, the video horror blog: Marble Hornets. Unlike a lot of horror films that actually get made in the cinema and think that terror relies only on blood and gore being sprayed about because two young adults were stupid enough to have sex exactly where a serial killer is known to jump out of the bushes and say boo, Marble Hornets actually understands that fear isn’t generated by the presence of blood, screaming or a knife wielding maniac. I touched on this idea a while back, but to elaborate, Marble Hornets utilises the use of the hand-held camera, perhaps drawing from influences such as the Blair Witch Project, or REC, but also uses a lot of silent mundane sequences followed by video distortion and tricks to create an atmosphere of something otherworldly happening in a normal setting. The main antagonist too is much more effective than the usual slasher villain, partly due to the tall, disproportionate figure, and in part also because he waits, and you come to him. There are masked helpers, but I think it seems to be implied that they’re people he has already abducted or infected. Either way, it’s a very effective little web series.

In the future, perhaps all television shows will use internet based videos and blogs, or social networking sites to draw and maintain an audience, or perhaps it will break off completely. When television came along, film eventually had to counter by becoming bigger and creating a ‘cinema experience’ to avoid becoming obsolete to a box which could beam the stories you loved right into your living room. Now, many forms of media face a similar threat from the internet. Do they join together so that the experience of interacting with a certain medium to become a combination of old and new media, or do they crave their own niche? Film and reward people who come to the cinema instead of streaming a film online, or play up the ‘cinema experience’ further, while perhaps Television can focus on the fact that they can provide 45 minute shows, or their generally higher production values to woo an audience back to their TV set.

I don’t think this will be settled any time soon, and the internet, along with games, will take some time to develop. There’s still a lot of potential to be realised. As you read this, think about what is actually at your finger tips. It’s a computer connected to other computers across the world. You essentially have the world at your fingertips; the power to collaborate with anyone around the world and use that power to create something great. Some great things have already been done, but there’s a lot more to come. Personally, I’m looking forward to everything it brings.