Well this time I sure changed level faster :D Now I'm a caveman lawyer. I love that title and the pic is hilarious. I wouldn't mind staying there a little longer :lol:

I finally decided to make some submissions. For most series I watch and love, there is little to add because so many people are really busy with submitting things. My currently favorite series CSI NY had some room for me :D so I jumped in and could even add some of my favorites quotes and that really made my day. I'll see if maybe I can make myself useful for other shows (maybe Medium and Cold Case). It's actually fun submitting, I might get addicted :lol: Okay that's t not too hard...

I also changed the list of my favorite shows. I had forgotten Babylon 5 and Star Trek The Original Series... I can only shake my head at myself. I was so sure I had them, that it struck me like lightening when I saw I didn't... The worse: I had put series there I only occasionaly watch (Conviction for example...). Sad, sad, sad...  well not really :lol: and now it's corrected :D

Okay now I'm puzzled... I haven't been here for ages and in the meantime I jumped from 87% level 3 to 9% level 4. I guess I'll never understand it, not that I really try!

Now I'm thighmaster? Cool! That's exactly what I need after a 10-day visit from my parents. I have been eating and drinking so much in those past days, that I could definitely need a little exercise to get back in shape :lol:

I can't believe how much has changed since I last visited tv.com. Everything looks so different now. I guess every change is good but it's a little overwhelming.

I always liked to write. I started with poetry as a 8 year-old, then went on with fantasy ans scifi stories as a teenager. Of course I didn't publish anything, it was just for the fun of it. My teachers seemed to like what I wrote and very often my essay was read to my schoolmates (talk about embarrassing, thank God I was a popular geek!). I have always been a Drama queen. One of my teachers said that if there was one person who could successfully and convincingly demonstrate all the negative aspects of a particular situation, it was me :) For me the glass was always half empty and my stories usually ended in tears and death (I know I'm twisted :twisted: ). About 5-6 years ago, I finally had the courage to show my first creation to fellow The Pretender fans (it was called A Time To Meet, don't look for it, it has completely disappeared from the net). My loss of interest in the show and a major computer crash prevented me from ever publishing the second installment of this series (4 stories were planned). After that real life made it impossible to find time to go on writing. My fantasies stayed in my head and it was okay like that. Recently I gave in and started writing again. As I was back at being completely addicted to ER, I thought why not give it a chance. This time I decided to go for comedy. That was a first for me. My first fic was a short piece of fluff. The second was pointless and soon forgotten. The third is currently driving me nuts. Don't get me wrong! I love to write it and I'm happy about the feedback I'm getting (if that doesn't kick my ego, nothing will). But I didn't realize how time consuming it would become :lol: Some of my readers said they were obsessed by the story and I must sadly say, I was not much better. I started thinking about the next chapter at any time of the day or night. That little thing wouldn't let me rest!!! Last weekend I decided that drastic measures were called for. I needed to calm down and forced a break on me: 2 days with no update or writing what so ever! I'm happy to say I'm back to normal (what aver that means and I am not sure I actually qualify for 'normal' :lol: ). I hope that will last for at least for a month :) One can always dream :lol:

This might sound as a strange blog entry. But having been around on the net and checked several ER boards, I started wondering about those people. They rant, bash, put to pieces a TV show, blaming the actors for the poor storylines... Sure everybody is entitled to its opinion, but what is the point? I mean when I don't like a series anymore, I usually stop watching it and move on to other series. Why would I waste my time watching something that I find offending or uninteresting and then spend time on several boards on the net explaining how pityful this show has become? Some people are just weird. I honestly pity them and wonder how empty their life must be.

Not sure I like this level... Soup Nazi? :lol: What a strange name for a level!!! But I guess it's nice to have finally reached it. Wonder how long it will take for the next one? Probably an eternity *sigh*

Sorry that my blogs are only about Trek, but my withdrawal symptoms are just getting worse. After watching some of the last episodes of Enterprise yesterday, I was ready to throw a chair in my TV. What did they do with that show? I mean when I heard they planned to do a prequel to the original series, I shook my head and didn't think anything good could come out of that. It took a lot of convincing from my other Trek friends to have me watch it. This show had one of the best Trek casts ever. After Voyager, it was a blessing to see good actors and I really enjoyed watching their interactions. My only reserve was on Scott Bakula (I really love this actor) after watching several episodes. He wasn't really to blame. Archer was not very well written and Bakula had one huge competition, Connor Trinneer. From one season to the other you always had this feeling that they didn't know what to do with this show. A vision was missing, a direction to lead us where we hadn't been before. Season 2 was extremely weak, season 3 had its good times, season 4 was better but it was already too late. The final insult to this show came the final episodes. I mean Riker and Troi? What the hell were they doing there? They didn't even give the show a closure of its own. They had to drag overused characters who were completely pointless. TPTB showed once more how little respect they had for the amazing cast they had. And killing Tucker? What was the point? You don't kill your most popular character! Did it bring anything? No!!! For me it was just exacting revenge on a character who went beyond what they wanted him to be. Or maybe I just didn't get the point! Please anyone out there to enlighten me?

I mean it hasn't even been a year and my withdrawal symptoms are getting worse. We were treated year after year since TNG started with continuous Trek episodes. Some were good, some were okay, some were pretty bad but at least we had something. When they pulled the plug at Enterprise, it was one of the biggest shock I had. Discussing at that time on different boards about it probably being the best for now, I even agreed that maybe, maybe Trek needed a break to reinvent itself. Yeah well I changed my mind, I want Trek back! Go to hell with your break and give my universe back!!!

I must admit this whole level thing is at the same time really annoying but also kind of fun. I understand that you have to be active on the site to see it rise, but it's still confusing. Sometimes you skyrocket in no time, in others you painfully gain percent by percent... Nah well... Just some stupid ramble. I'm known for that :lol:

How long can a series still keep its fans? Is there a general rule to that? Do they know when to stop? I have thought long about that. One of my favorite show ER is currently showing its 12th season. If someone had told me at its beginning that I would still be watching 12 years later, I probably would have laughed and doubted that any show could be so long on air. You have to admit that usually medical shows never lasted that long. I'm less surprised by the everlasting and always great Law and Order. It survived the constant change of main characters pretty well and watching it now is still a pleasure. Crime series have this capacity to easily find new stories to tell. Just open a newspaper in any country you probably have at least one or two stories that be easily told. Most of the time the personal life of the main characters are little addressed (probably with the exception of NYPD Blue) and start to wonder if this is not the way to success and longevity. The less you know, the more you can decide for yourself what their private lifes look like. Many people tend to be shippers, seeing chemistry between two actors and wanting a certain amount of sexual tension even if there is nothing there and TPTB don't want to go this way. So not addressing is maybe giving to everyone what they want. Most of the time I used to like series that were not front-runners (ER and L&O being the exception). The Pretender didn't last beyond its 4th year, same thing for Farscape and many others (I will not even start with the ones, which didn't even make their first year! How could people not like Profit, this series was simply great and so very different?!?). Then started the reign of CSI and suddenly I discovered that I was not alone out there with a morbid taste for criminal series. You get here an interesting mix of easy-to-understand criminal science and an appealing cast. Will it last? I sure hope so. But can the show survive the departure of leading actors? Well I would say, it depends. I'm honestly not sure that CSI Miami would last long without D. Caruso, he is the leading force and the others are definitely in the background. As far as the original CSI is concerned I'm more optimistic. William Petersen is great, but the show is better balanced and even Grissom-light episodes were hits. But let's wait, it's still early. Losing leading actors is probably one of the main reasons why series stop. Would you want to see Buffy without Buffy? Well clearly not... Being a TV addict, one thing always stroke me as vital in a series survival : how did the writers deal with the 3rd season? It seems to have been most of the time the critical one. If the show didn't perform well that year, it was usually given an additional year to make it interesting for syndication (you usually to have at least 90 episodes) but that was it. I saw it with The Pretender, ST Enterprise and many others. So what is so dangerous about the 3rd year? Well the first season is usually used to introduce the characters and set your story. If the concept is interesting and the series well cast, it shouldn't be an issue to get a second year (sure there are exception, sometimes the public is simply not ready for some stories). Season 2 is when you need to develop your concept and get in rhythm. It's still new and appealing. With season 3, problems start. Say good-bye to novelty and hallo to the fierce competition of newly started shows! This is when TPTB have to keep their public interested. It is usually when most writers and producers make majors mistakes to attract more viewers. They have become greedy and seem unable to prevent unwanted story twists which don't attract a new audience and tire or disgust the faithful fans. There is also another phenomenon : fans expecting too much from a show. How can that happen? Some series are rich with mysteries (excellent example being Lost) and fans spend many time trying to figure out what is going to happen next. I have hit the net and I must admit some theories are really very interesting. I just hope that the actual story will be as good. Let's sit back and wait and see. Another risk comes from complicated story-lines. Don't lose your audience on the way! That's what Babylon 5 did wrong. It was one great series, but hell if you missed one episode you were almost doomed! I must admit that a mix of this and of too high expectations is what drove me away from Alias. I used to love the show, but the constant twists in this series made me nauseous. It was worse than being in a roller-coaster. There is only so much one can take. Season 3 did it to me. I gave up... Ratings are the almighty hand that finally nails the coffin. Even with decreasing numbers ER is still present on air. The audience is still good and there is another factor: foreign networks which are very eager to air the show in their countries! Can then a show with limited ratings but high commercial value abroad survive longer? Well only on a limited basis. Babylon 5 was supposed to be axed in its 3rd season. German and Dutch producing companies came to its rescue and made it possible for it to go to the fifth year. But I'm afraid you won't find many other examples of something like that.

Being an American series fan living in Europe (currently in France, but I also lived in Germany), you don't have many solutions to see your favorite shows. There aren't thousand ways to watch quench your thirst. Either you decide to go with local TV or you become an Internet junkie for series downloads. I went the first way many years. I was lazy, it was convenient and well internet was not at that time an easy provider for TV programs. Your best friend quickly became your VCR, because there were always thousands of reasons why you wouldn't be able to sit in front of your TV when your favorite program aired. And logistics used to be hell. When you had to be away for some time, you either needed to chose which program could be recorded or have good friends or family members who would tape for you. And of course there was always the faulty programing which drove you to madness. Who hasn't been surprised to find another program on the tape than the one expected? The change came for me, when I started to travel a lot to the US. My job was very demanding and I had to be at least one week per month in Phoenix. Who can then resist the temptation to watch its favorite show? Well I couldn't. It was not always easy. Sometimes there was over a year hiatus, depending on the series you were enjoying back at home, you were confronted to deaths you hadn't known about or new characters you knew nothing about. Going back to French TV became increasingly difficult. I felt cheated because I had to wait so long for a new season to air. I also discovered that the French dubbed episodes sometimes really sucked. I was lucky to have been in contact with an actor on The Pretender and I was having the script of every single episode. Seeing what French TV had done to my much beloved series brought it finally home that original version was definitely the way to go. After all this was already my way of consuming movies, so why wasn't it as logical to do the same for TV? I started with good and faithful American friends who taped some series for me and send them to France. That was a lot to ask. And I'm still thankful they did it. Of course that could only last a certain time. Then came the discovery of IRC, where many series were early on distributed. But it often meant having the computer on for hours with no certainty that you would get what you wanted. Digital TV brought also a change in the mix. Their networks were usually more up-to-date (only 4 to 5 months difference with the US) and they gave the possibility to chose the language you wanted. No more French dubbing! That was progress! But then my career took me to Germany and I discovered there another reality. If the shows were usually (well at least for the one I liked) more up-to-date, it was impossible to see them in another language than German. Okay their dubbing was often better than the French one, but still not the real thing. The net was again the chosen solution. It didn't matter if you chose IRC, Torrent or Usenet, the most important thing was to get your greedy little fingers on your shows. It's still the way I'm going. But is it still watching TV? Well to be honest, yes and no. Of course your series are very much a TV program, but the way you consume has very little to do with the way TV was first meant to be. First you get rid of one of the most annoying characteristics of TV: commercials. This is where networks damn you. Second you can then decide when you will watch what. But on the other hand is your viewing of this series still counted in its ratings? Well no. In France it's still done by phone most of the time. When the nice lady asks you if you watched TV, she is only interested in what the different networks had to offer that night. What you watched was definitely not there. So are you still watching TV? It's like being in a no-man's-land. You defined your rules, but at the same time, you excluded yourself from the rest of your TV watching world. Try discuss your favorite shows with colleagues or friends who simply watch TV. It's almost impossible. You have to be careful not to spoil anything for them. They look at you suspiciously always afraid you might tell too much and finally asking you not to say anything. Being back in France I can still honestly say that I'm watching some series on TV (yeah for digital TV and its great private networks). But those are only the ones I am either totally obsessed about or only partially interested. Well I'm on American time as far as my TV is concerned and I don't regret it. I have weighted the advantages of both ways and found that this was what I wanted. It's frustrating at times, but then there are great places like this one, where you can discuss your shows with people equally obsessed and isn't that swell?