Television. I have a love/hate relationship with the tube. I hate probably 98% of the television I have been exposed to. I could fill pages with the tripe I’ve had to watch, but who wants to read that? I don’t! I certainly don’t want to write it. So, instead I’d rather share some of my favorite TV series. I really think each of these series’ can’t be lumped into just one category or genre. Each series, in their own way, pushed television as a whole, to the next level.
Mystery Science Theater 3000
My obsession with Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) started young when my friend Matt and I would trade tapes of episodes at school and watch them over and over again. The first DVD I ever bought was a MST3K boxset. I spent a summer building quasi-replica Crow and Servo bots with my father. Everyone who has spent serious time with me has been forced to sit down and watch at least one episode.
For those unfamiliar with the show, the main character (Joel or Mike depending on which year the show was made) is trapped up in space and being forced to watch horrible movies by an evil scientist…or his mother. And Joel/Mike is accompanied by a few colorful & wise cracking robots. OK but none of that matters, because what’s important are parts where Joel/Mike watch the movie. The shows characters are silhouetted at the bottom of the TV screen while they, and the audience, watch the cheesy film. Pure magic happens when Joel/Mike & the bots start hurling comments at the movie, the comedy is just brilliant! So brilliant, in fact, that it ran for 10 seasons on 2 cable networks: Comedy Central & The Sci-Fi Channel (I refuse to accept the “Syfy” spelling).
Why it’s awesome: Everyone can enjoy Mystery Science Theater 3000! Children are fascinated by the bots and fart jokes, and parents will be delighted at the smart and witty comments made by the MST3K crew. Also, the show embodies the Midwest US. If you cut MST3K, it’d bleed Fargo.
How it changed Television: In the history of television there has never been, nor will there ever be, another show like Mystery Science Theater 3000. It proves all you need is a unique idea and some enthusiasm and a great television show can be made.
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks was a show my roommate John and I got into in the summer of 2008. At that time I hadn’t been exposed to much of David Lynch’s work, Just Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and Lost Highway. So I was ready for some weirdness, but I wasn’t ready for was an engaging “whodunnit” with supernatural, otherworldly elements. This show heavily influenced modern serial series’ like Lost and The X-Files.
The show takes place in a small Northwestern town called Twin Peaks, where a popular girl at the local high school was found dead, wrapped in plastic alongside the river. FBI Agent Dale Cooper, played by Kyle MacLaughlin, is called in to investigate the murder and instantly links Twin Peaks’ dead girl, Laura Palmer, to a murder that happened not far away where another young girl, Teresa Banks, was killed under similar circumstances. We learn early on that there seems to be some odd ritual surrounding the murder making the audience ask “Who…or what, killed Laura Palmer”?
Why it’s awesome: Twin Peaks is odd and impossibly quirky, but it also has these incredibly cheesy dramatic scenes that seem as if they were ripped straight from 90210 or Melrose Place, both contemporaries of Twin Peaks. While many viewers write this off to being a product of the times, I think that Twin Peaks has a more tongue-and-cheek approach to this aspect of the show.
How it changed television: Twin Peaks showed TV producers that a TV show can have quirky personality and be a huge hit. Television execs and programmers have been known to underestimate the intelligence of audiences. Most “mystery” shows at that point had plot arcs that resolved themselves in one, two or maybe three episodes. Twin Peaks’ main plot arc lasts for a season and a half, a characteristic that influenced specifically Lost‘s development.
Neon Genesis: Evangelion
Generally, I dislike Japanese anime. It’s one of those things I was really really into in high school, but as an adult I found most plots to be pandering, repetitive and redundant. The shock and awe of things like Akira had worn off and as I waded into anime I was consistently led astray to series like InuYasha, Gundam Wing and DragonBall Z which probably ruined my opinion of anime. But every once in a while someone would mention Evangelion and say “oh dude, before you write off anime altogether, watch Evangelion”. So, on a whim I decided to check it out. I’m so glad I did!
Neon Genesis: Evangelion is set in 2015, 14 years after a global cataclysm that wiped out half the human population. That incident is known as “Second Impact”, and in order to prevent a “Third Impact” a para-military/super science group is formed named Nerv. Nerv has developed mans most advanced weapon: the Evangelion, a giant humanoid “robot” that only 14 year olds can pilot. The Evangelion’s purpose? To fight giant monsters known as “Angels” that are attacking our protagonists’ home Tokyo 3. This series is short, only 26 episodes, and beautifully animated. The story utilizes plot elements like non-linear story telling and examining contextual clues to decipher plot points which I feel, as a viewer, is much more engaging. The later part of the series begins to examine the characters from a psychological perspectives which reveals a host of fascinating insights to the characters and those that relate to the characters.
Why it’s awesome: The series becomes very deep and very trippy. Most people describe Eva as a “mindfuck” but really, it’s no more a “mindfuck” then any of David Lynch’s work…which is to say you should lube your ear canal and brace your brain stem. Someone told me once “Eva is the kind of series you need to watch a few times to get”, to which I scoffed. But it’s true! The basic plot is pretty easy to grasp but the questions it leaves you with are actually answered but they aren’t spelled out. They are contextual and sometimes open to interpretation. The other accusation is that it’s just weird for the sake of being weird, which I contend is not true in the slightest. Everything in the series makes sense, it’s presentation is weird, but purposeful. Whether its to convey information or to make the audience react or feel an emotion, nothing is weird just for the sake of being weird.
How it changed TV: Hell, I don’t know. I don’t live in Japan and Eva only aired once on Adult Swim. But Eva has undeniably impacted the anime genre. Paranoia Agent, Serial Experiments Lain and Paprika all have similar themes to Evangelion. Hideaki Anno has decided to “rebuild” the Eva series into 4 movies. The first has already been released and the second comes out in May in Japan, but it’s pretty clear that the changes that have been made to Evangelion are huge. Fans of the series and those new to Eva can both enjoy this re-envisioning of the Eva series.
Well, that’s it for now. I have other shows that I’d like to talk about so maybe I’ll do another one of these. Lost will be wrapping up soon and I plan on writing a review of the series and reactions to the finale, so you can look forward to that.
