Simply Everything

By Peter K. Lam

Eliza Dushku as Echo

Last night was the season two premiere of Joss Whedon’s “Dollhouse” which was titled “Vows.” The season premiere had a good story and picked up on the mysteries and discoveries from last season. It was a good premiere to help get viewers back on track after summer hiatus. Even though the storyline continued with the momentum from the last half of season one, the ratings for the show remain low.

As happy as I am that “Dollhouse” is back for a second season, the low ratings is pretty worrisome. “Dollhouse” season one was plagued with rating woes and the possibility of cancellation. The season two premiere pulled low ratings again but from what I remember, the number is pretty consistent with what “Dollhouse” have pulled in the past.

FOX has stated that this time around it will stay out of the creative process for the show and let Joss Whedon work his magic. I can only hope that the “Dollhouse” will be able to at least maintain the audience it has and push for another season.

It’s a great show but this year “Dollhouse” has tougher competition. The other problem is that people are out doing other things on Friday nights. The ratings for shows for all the networks are less than stellar hence Fridays nicknamed as “the Friday wasteland.” The season premiere also was not geared to obtain new viewers. It didn’t have too much backstory and picked up where the season one finale left off. If they had designed the season two premiere to snatch up a few new viewers, maybe the ratings would’ve been a little higher.

I hope that “Dollhouse” continues to develop and find its identity so that more viewers will watch and hopefully create a stable fanbase. It’s just one episode in right now so there’s still a lot of time to change the ratings.

By Peter K. Lam

The cast of "The Beautiful Life"

The CW’s “The Beautiful Life” is the first casualty of the new fall season being cancelled after airing two episodes. This really shouldn’t come as a surprise though. The promos and ads for this show were not interesting and The CW did not do much to help create buzz for the show. Most of the marketing effort was geared toward promising new shows like “Melrose Place” and “The Vampire Diaries” both of which had good ratings.

When I heard that there’s going to be a new show created about models and the drama of their lives, I knew that it was not going to get renewed. I thought they’d at least air maybe eight or ten episodes before being cancelled but The CW did not waste any time getting rid of this show. I guess it’s better to cut off the malignant tumor earlier than later.

I didn’t watch the show but the premise was boring. The CW already has “America’s Next Top Model” which is kind of similar to “The Beautiful Life.” Also, there was a show called “Models, Inc.” which spun off from “Melrose Place” years ago that had the exact same premise. That show also got canceled promptly. I think people are just not that interested in watching a serialized drama about models.

The good news is that there’s an open spot on the schedule now. The CW will be able to fill this spot with a midseason replacement when the time comes. Hopefully they’ll have a better show to put in that time slot.

By Peter K. Lam

Kanye West Disses Taylor Swift

If  you’ve been reading or watching some news the last few days, I’m sure you are well aware of the tasteless actions Kanye West did on stage while Taylor Swift was giving her acceptance speech. It was rude and disrespectful. Many have criticized West for what he did, even President Obama. President Obama was preparing to do an interview when the subject of West’s actions came up. President Obama referred to West as a “jackass” without really knowing what possible ramification that comment would have. Terry Moran, a former White House correspondent overheard what was said and promptly released a tweet which said, “Pres. Obama just called Kanye West a ‘jackass’ for his outburst at VMAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT’S presidential.” With tweets about President Obama’s comments running wild, they were deleted but it calls into question journalistic integrity and responsible use of Twitter.

A lot of people that use Twitter are the type of people who want instant gratification. This applies to those who tweet as well as their followers. Celebrities and regular users are pretty much able to say just about anything and not worry too much about backlash. Some celebrities have more impact on public opinion than others so when they say inappropriate things, the fallout not that bad. Journalists and politicians, on the other hand, must be very careful about what they say. The people who started tweeting about President Obama’s comment really should have thought things through before release the information to the masses.

With technology like Twitter, information spreads even faster than ever before. It only takes mere seconds after a tweet is released for followers to start commenting. That’s exactly what happened with the tweet about President Obama’s comment. Twitter is a powerful force in cyberland that isn’t showing any signs of fading popularity. As the user base grows and more professionals adopt the tool, guidelines should be in place to help prevent this kind of thing from happening again.