I’m almost ashamed to admit this, but I watched the Desperate Housewives pilot episode last night. Even worse, I enjoyed it. I don’t know if there’s anything more humiliating than admitting to watching and liking a souped up soap opera, but I have to let go of my pride for the sake of the show. The show must go on, and I must go on watching it.
What stinks is that I now have to throw out my idea for a television pilot, which I had begun writing. It was to be a soap opera parody, strewn with genre conventions like sensational and bizarre plot twists, sex encounters as common as houseflies, murder, coverups, breakups, hangups, and all the other great things that make soaps lather like they do; the catch? Satire would rule the roost. I’m not divulging plot details in the hope that I can resurrect this eight years down the road. After all, Hollywood needs good, recycled ideas.
Needless to say, DH is similar to what I had structured, though characters and plot are different. Still, I doubt my idea could be pitched now with DH ruling the ratings.
To balance things out, I also encountered the pilot episode of Lost, the $100 million brainchild of supergenius J.J. Abrams. It was like watching a newly minted X-Files set on a tropical island. I was amazed, and easily captivated. It’s pretty easy to see why it won a few Emmys. Few things are as scintillating as a good mystery, and it’s been a while since television had such enticing mysteries. Lost and Desperate Housewives seem to fill the void pretty well.
It’s worth noting that I had pretty much sworn off television, having endured the slow breakdown and dissolution of my beloved X-Files a few years ago. I prefer to watch television from the comfort of a DVD, which is sort of like expensive Tivo. I own the first three seasons of X-Files on DVD and it’s great to be able to pop one of the twenty-one discs in from time to time to enjoy a good episode. Or two or three. There were a lot of good ones those first few seasons. In my television celibacy, I have made a point not to indulge in fact-finding missions regarding the shows I knew I would want to watch eventually (like Lost). So it is with absolutely no clue that I embark on the journey. It’s great to be in this position. Many people who have watched Lost from its first episode on tv would like to be in my shoes.
I imagine I’ll buy Lost at some point. I’m not sure I can bring myself to buy DH; having that in my collection would be a bit much for me to bear.
It’s going to be a fairly busy weekend for me, as I am going to be finishing up the soundtrack to Red State and getting ready to finalize the film. I’ll be flying to the East Coast for the Richmond premiere. More on that trip next week. Until then, have a great weekend.