Poll: "Desperate Housewives" is returning soon. Do you care?

I think that the mistake many show-runners and writers make is to assume that the audience wants something bigger and more shocking rather than focusing on a few umbrella story-lines that give liked faces a few good quips for stand-alone appeal, a nice surprise or two, and pacing the serialized portion in a way that lets you in and keeps you interested in getting another morsel depending on the formula.

I think that the show has been less than perfect, there are characters that I could do without, and has been at its weakest when lets the ladies drift apart or takes the easy route of trying to top itself rather than remembering what elements made it fun in the first place so that they can mine the past with enough changes for it to get a back to school feeling. It does not have to feel like Columbine.

Guillermo's Media Guillotine: Entertainment, journalism, politics, and popular culture.

http://springintoaction.typepad.com

It amuses me that when "Vanished" was shown in Australia (after it was already cancelled in the U.S.), the broadcasters had to hurriedly switch it from a prime spot to a later one early in its run. 

The show (with Harold) became so popular that they were worried about pissing off too large an audience when (a.) Graham Kelton died, and (b.) it left the air prematurely.  So they deliberately cut down their own audience for it. 

This sort of dismay was worldwide, of course.  I read a columnist in a Johannesburg paper wondering why the hell they killed off "the dishy detective." I personally didn't care much for "Vanished" but at least Gale as Graham Kelton had a past and some personal issues (he was haunted by the death of a kidnapped boy in an operation that was taken out of his hands and botched by his superiors). 

But Berman and his staff didn't know how to handle this.  They seem to have been committed to a fast pace, and they confused the audience by letting clues pile up while not revealing the meaning of clues they'd left before -- it was exasperating knowing nothing and then getting a lot more nothing to know.  Also, Berman kept falling back on his CSI experience, great global positioning graphics, CGI tracking shots along co-axial cables, all that.

"Lost" has gotten away for years with keeping the audience bewildered about some of the show's bedrock elements, but the biggest strength of "Lost" has always been its fascinating characters -- and they are all fascinating.  The show has energetically explored their pasts, cleared up mysteries and misconceptions about them.  "Vanished" was "Lost" without characters.  Kelton was, for seven episodes, the only real exception.

It's funny to criticize Gale for his acting when it quickly became obvious that acting was the least of the creator's concerns.  Gale certainly wasn't fired for not burning the boards up.  They'd have fired everybody, or given the actors something dimensional to say.  Or they'd have replaced him with an actor more impressive than Eddie Cibrian.

When they killed Gale's character off they made sure that Cibrian's new character had no real history, no issues, nothing much to act.  It was modeling with lines (just what he's doing on "Ugly Betty" right now).  Berman clearly thought his convoluted plot was enough all by itself, and that dimensional characters would be a distraction -- so he killed off his only three-dimensional character. 

By the same account that says Gale tested badly (with very young men, not with everybody) the focus group saw only the pilot.  The decision to replace the lead was made before the show even went on the air.  This is credible, because Cibrian was put under contract before the show aired (though not announced as Gale's replacement) and nothing was done to promote Gale personally. 

But Gale's failure to connect with the youngest men was probably script-related.  It would have been an easy fix, in my opinion.  We could have seen him slug somebody, or seen women respond sexually to him.  Young men saw a tortured man lashing out at his co-workers, and that's all.  Nobody seemed to notice how handsome he was, and he did nothing physically impressive.  The creators preferred to persuade themselves that the leading actor, not their misuse of him, was the problem.

Indeed, these fixes were put in place with Cibrian, but watching him slug people and watching Gayheart melt over him didn't help at that point.  It might have helped with Harold, if they'd simply reshot some of Berman's pilot.  Cibrian not only lost half the audience, he apparently did little for the young male demographic specifically.  They deserted the show in droves just like everybody else.

There were still a few angry people at the end of the run who really had been interested only in the mystery, but there weren't enough of them.  Half the show's audience was apparently involved to some extent with Kelton's anger, his failed marriage (failed due to the pressures of his guilt) and inner struggle, and walked.

I don't think anybody is surprised when somebody isn't attracted to Gale Harold.  We all know that tastes differ.  What surprises me and many others is when they declare him ugly, completely uncharismatic, utterly untalented. 

Some things aren't entirely subjective, you know.  Ugly men don't get the parts Gale gets, uncharismatic men don't have deeply devoted international fanbases, and untalented men don't get hired by people like Dick Wolf (Law & Order: SVU), Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives) or David Milch (Deadwood). 

It's not the negative reactions but their extreme nature that raises our eyebrows.  I do think a lot of it is jealousy, yes.  People who have such a personal, vitriolic, sweeping and unfair attitude towards him obviously have a very personal reason for it.

And it's not as if his public behavior justifies it.  He's very private.  He's not a Scientologist or a party guy, hasn't slugged a paparazzi or run over anybody with his car or been in and out of rehab.  He's a liberal Democrat, but that's nothing unusual in the entertainment business.  If you hate him, really hate him, it can only be that you're projecting something onto him.

Maybe they can't forgive him for playing Brian Kinney.  Some people hate Brian.  But for this attitude to pursue the actor whatever part he plays is extreme.  By all accounts he's just a serious actor with a Pentecostal background, a very accepting world view and a fondness for motorcycles.

Just be fair to him, that's all I expect.