This week saw the series finale of Breaking Bad. I have nothing to say other than it was PERFECT. I couldn’t imagine it ending any other way, and it may be the most satisfying series finale I’ve ever seen. That’s all I’ll say on it.
I caught the series finale of The IT Crowd, as well. It was a great episode, but not really a “finale”. It was really just a double-length episode that provided a slight bit of closure, but also left the door open for more in the future. Since the show introduced me to Richard Ayoade, I wanted to see more from him. I found a show online that he hosts called Gadget Man. Originally hosted by Stephen Fry, Ayoade took over for the second season and it features him as he tests out various gadgets for different scenarios. You can find most of the season on YouTube, so I recommend you check it out.
This week saw the second episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., also known as the first episode I decided to skip. That wasn’t the smartest idea as (SPOILER ALERT) Nick Fury showed up after the credits. So, I guess I was wrong about him never showing up. I can admit when I’m wrong. I still don’t know if I’m wrong about the entire show, however. As I was telling someone on Twitter, we watch the Marvel movies for the unexpected. At the end of the day, does the general public want a Marvel procedural drama? We want thrills, not NCIS: Marvel. Right now, the show is too dependent on movie plots and movie gimmicks, like the post credit cameos. How long can it get by on these tropes before it comes into its own? I mean, is this it? Last week, I said that I don’t think the Marvel cinematic experience should be boiled down to a weekly show, and I stand by that. Ratings dropped 35% from the pilot; we knew they would decrease, but did we know by that much? By the time ratings level out, it could be out of tricks. I guess time will tell.
Want some more TV thoughts? The Michael J. Fox Show is simply painful to watch. It’s natural they had to write in his Parkinson’s, but it’s hard to look at him. Plus, it was kinda of “pandery” the way NBC trotted out all their on air talent, like the Today Show crew, for the pilot. At the end of the day, it’s one giant commercial for WNBC4 – NBC’s NYC affiliate.
CBS’s We Are Men will probably be the first canceled show of the TV season. First off, it did nothing with its How I Met Your Mother lead-in, losing a chunk of the audience. Next, its numbers were worse than those of Partners, the CBS sitcom that was canceled early on last season in the same timeslot. It’s not very compelling, and none of the characters are very likeable. CBS Monday night has a decidedly female focus, so that show doesn’t fit the demographic. If the ratings stay on the same track, it’ll be done by Halloween. That’s if ABC’s Lucky 7 doesn’t beat it to Cancelville. I haven’t watched that show yet, but no one has, which is the big problem.
I’m a champion of the syndicated drama, but I don’t know if I can get behind SAF3. If you don’t know, SAF3 is from the Baywatch creators, and it shows. It’s essentially a Baywatch reboot, only the acting’s worse and the Hasselhoff role is now played by Dolph Lundgren. Instead of focusing only on lifeguards, the main cast is comprised of a group of firefighters and rescue workers. Dancing with the Stars champ JR Martinez is one of the costars, and his burns have been written into the show. I’ll keep watching it because I hate myself, but it’s SO BAD.
Narcissistic PSA Alert: I’ve been thinking a lot about this post that I wrote on Tumblr last year. As I said in that post, I wrote it over there because I was kinda too ashamed to write it over here. Still, a year later, the sentiment still stands: why am I not a bigger deal than I am? I know that’s a dick thing to say out loud, but it’s the last thought I have many nights before going to sleep. I need a champion: someone with a sizable fanbase who’s like “Hey, check this guy out.” I totally appreciate all of you who read and retweet. I just want MORE of you! This seems to be happening with bigger, more successful bloggers, as Dinosaur Dracula (one of my inspirations) has written similar posts. The same people who tell me they love Thrift Justice are some of the ones who never share it. Why? Are you ashamed of me? For some, I think that’s true. You’re family men, with responsibilities, and your association with my “blue” writing might not be in your best interest. It still kinda hurts, though.
I’ve tried to go out and “make friends”. I read and comment on other sites. I even joined up with “The League of Extraordinary Bloggers”. The latter did next to nothing for me, as it felt cliquish, and folks just didn’t seem to have the time for me. It was never worth it to me to have a big “I quit!” gesture, but I pretty much left them alone because I wasn’t in the reindeer games. A lot of this is me thinking out loud, and I realize how petty some of it sounds. I just felt like the point of The League was to expand readership and foster a sense of community. I didn’t get that out of it, and it clearly wasn’t getting anything out of me, so I just went on my way.
Here’s full disclosure: there’s not much difference in hits whether I post something new or just let the backlist sit there. I’m so tired of hustling. I’m tired of constantly retweeting of my own stuff, and I’m sure you’re all tired of seeing it. I just feel like it’s something I have to do, ’cause I never know if anyone else is gonna do it for me. I’m tired of poring over Alexa rankings trying to figure out the secret to traffic. They say you have to practice something for 10 years in order to be good at it. I hear standups talk about how they’ve been on the road for 10-15 years, and I wonder “How did they do it?” Then, I realize that I’ve been blogging for 10 years. All of that was practice, putting in time. It’s supposed to be fun, and I have a lot of fun writing. It just kills me when nobody cares to read it. Now I think I’m ready for something bigger. I’m not the best, but I think I’m good – good enough to be a destination site. I want you to turn on your computer in the morning and think “Let’s see what Will has to say today.” That’s the goal, at least. So, the question stands: what do you want from me? What do I need to do? If the answer is “nothing”, then please tell a friend. For those who already do, I appreciate you more than you know.
Anyway, back to the show…
Links I Loved
The Dark Side of Star Wars – The Nerds of Color
So Bryan Cranston And Dean Norris Were Both In The Pilot Of Pamela Anderson’s Bodyguard Show, ‘V.I.P.’ – Warming Glow
Podcast Alert
My Twitter sister @ItsTheBrandi has a hilarious new podcast called “Brandi and Bill Talk About Blaxploitation”. They’ve already covered Blackenstein and Foxy Brown. You can check out the episodes here.
Meanwhile, CT from the Nerd Lunch Podcast has a new James Bond-centric podcast called “Pod, James Pod”. If you’re a Bond fan, you should definitely check it out here.
Finally, the guys behind the No Topic Required Podcast have decided to start a new show, focusing on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. You can listen to the first episode of the Reveal the S.H.I.E.L.D. Podcast here.
This Week’s Post
The Con-Clusion: Monster-Mania 26
One turned it off and on again for the last time, while one reached the end of its Albuquerque road. One gave us a post credit surprise while the other isn’t worth watching past the credits. Only one, however, had the West Week Ever.
This is unprecedented, but Breaking Bad is the first repeat West Week Ever winner. That finale was simply that damn good. As I said on Twitter, the ball’s in your court, Don Draper.
Good post Will. I don’t think there is a secret formula for getting “big” in the blogging world and frankly at times I think it makes the product worse when someone does. I do my thing for fun, I get some traffic and comments but at the end of the day I like knowing there a just a few dozen people who really enjoy the stuff I put out.
I think the more forced it gets the less authentic it becomes. Do your thing and write about what you care about and if it stops being fun then try something else. I have to say your movie/TV posts are an absolute blast. I could give a damn what 99% of people write about the subject but I always tune in for your commentary!
Thanks, Cody! I certainly don’t want to lose authenticity. I have a lot of fun writing the stuff, and I just want to know people are enjoying it. I really need to work on being thankful for what I do have, like folks like you! And I’m glad to know I’m not just writing the TV commentary for myself 🙂
2 reasons why you aren’t a super huge deal:
1 you don’t blog enough. You need lots of content. LOTS more.
2. While this blog looks nice, I think it needs more polish.
I say this as someone with an ugly blog, I realize. And my stats are terrible even though I post a lot. So… basically feel free to throw my observations in the garbage pile.
Anyway, I haven’t seen any Agents of Shield, but I think one thing I worried that would happen is already happening: Watching for the promise of cameos. The biggest problem with these types of shows is “well, X showed up, so maybe we’ll get Wolverine!” That’s an obviously out of proportion wish, but you get what I’m saying. I don’t want to watch a show HOPING a character I care about will show up. I want to watch for the characters that are already there.
Thanks for the feedback, Vincent! About the amount of content, I was under the impression that more would actually cannibalize my stats. I was trying to give each post time to “breathe”, and times when I have daily posts, it seems like the traffic eroded over that week.
As for the look, this is the finest paid theme I could find on WordPress :p No, I get that it could look a lot better, but I haven’t the skills to pretty it up. That’s just an excuse, though. I’ll look into freshening it up. Your site’s not ugly at all. It gets the job done, and I’ve tried to emulate it in places.
Yeah, I never wanted S.H.I.E.L.D. to do the Fury cameo because it opens a can of worms. That’s something that needs to be earned. Save it for the season finale, or a random episode in season 4. Don’t blow your wad on the second episode of season one. There’s nowhere else for it to grow, and now folks are just gonna come to expect these things to happen normally.
If you ever want a little graphics help just let me know Will. Would be happy to help.
Are you trying to bait me Will? 😉
I’m surprised to hear that you think the League felt “cliquish” — I think it is, and always has been, the total opposite of that. We get new bloggers hopping onboard every week–some stick around, some never appear again.
I read everything you write, even though many of the topics you cover lie FAR outside of my areas of interests, but I enjoy reading what you write.
Hey Brian! Totally not trying to bait you. 🙂 I was more thinking out loud. I know The League was your baby, but you can’t control what people do and don’t read. I just kinda saw little splinter groups forming (Dark Horde, Cult Film Club crew, etc), which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I could just never get feedback or any real interaction from it. To me, the kicker was the month where we initiated trades with each other. Eventually, Kevin Hellions was cool enough to do a great trade with me, but in the beginning, I felt like the last kid picked for sports. I opened up anything in the World of Wonder, and there were no takers. It could be paranoia, but sometimes I just don’t feel welcome on these internet streets. Again, though, that’s not against you. Just kinda what I’ve taken away from it all so far. Long story short, though, I really appreciate that you read my stuff, and don’t count me out of The League yet. I just need to “regroup”.
Hey Will,
So I know your “breathe” theory and it’s been the exact opposite in my experience. I think blogging has become highly dependent on social media integration, and each post is more stand-alone. I get more traffic through individual tweets and sharing vs. regular readers who come back time and again to check what new stuff I have. I definitely dont’ blog enough to support that kind of readership, but I also think people are less about subscribing to specific blogs and more about clicking things that they see on their FB/Twitter news feeds regardless of where those links are hosted.
Either way, I feel like I’ve said this to you before, but the secret has been (for me) to let go of the metrics. They be what they be, and if you write for metrics, you will drive yourself insane, since so much of the secret of metrics is outside of your control. What do you want to get out of your blog? Do you want to be rich and famous as a blogger? Do you want to be the biggest fish in a self-defined pond? That may be a quest for pure truth, because the nature of the Internet is that there are a ton of people who do what you do even in your sub-culture, and if you want to be “the best” (by what definition?) than you need to be distinctive. What do you, Will, offer to the blogosphere that’s distinctive? Why should people read you over someone else?
Personally, I think you are one of the most talented funny bloggers, and I think funny is one of the hardest styles to write (which is why I don’t do it). I think if you keep it, and stop freaking out so much about your metrics, you’ll get something else out of blogging that has less to do with the metrics. Write because it fulfills you. Write because it’s a chance to express yourself and to network and to participate in the community. Who cares who’s reading, and more importantly, who’s reading you more than someone else?
I’ve also tended to notice that, in myself, my writing suffers when I start to write for my metrics. The quality just degrades because I’m trying to cater to a magical made-up formula I don’t fully understand.
Anyways, that’s my two (okay, twenty) cents.
PS – I’ve read you for those ten years and RT’d you a bunch. Where’s my RT quid pro quo, Will West?!? <3 <3 <3
Hey Jenn! First off, it was great seeing you and James last weekend. I hope you got home in time for Heisenberg’s last stand.
Yeah, I really need to stop worrying about metrics. It’s almost an addiction for me now. Back in the day, I’d just rely on comments to see if I was gaining any traction. The influx of social media, however, means that people RT, but leave fewer comments. Before metrics, I could trick myself, though. I could write a post and think that it was read by the masses. Once metrics came into play, I’d find out a post got 37 views and then I’d question my self worth. I don’t expect to be rich and famous, but I put more of myself into this than most things in my life. I know that’s sad, but it’s true. You’re right, though – I need to stop blogging for metrics. And I DO RT you; I just never know when you’re coming off a self-imposed hiatus 😛
Yeah, and Google loves new content. SEO and all that. The more the better. Always more!
Also guest blogging is good to bring in some traffic. I should do more of it. I got on Retroist and it was like an injection of fresh energy. I actually got comments!
I know you work with Under Scoop Fire, maybe try elsewhere once in awhile. Poe Ghostal is great to write for to. And then there’s Robot’s Pajamas. haha all of that gets you link juice to your own thing.