Wow, well that is a lot.

No offense but it is hard to take criticism seriously when it is given from that far up some one else’s, shall we say, pedestal.

I liked Arrested, really I did, but I did feel it started to repeat itself very early on. In many ways, I felt that the characters began to represent a collection of quirks as opposed to real people. Ironic, ehe? I guess originality is very much in the eye of the viewer.

One of the biggest problems I've found with such a character driven sitcom is that very quickly it becomes about the characters, and not about the people. Will and Grace is a perfect example of this. Look at the character of Karen Walker from the Pilot, a woman who had worked before she married Stan and who intended to continue to work despite being the trophy wife of a billionaire. She is completely unrecognizable from here current, wacky persona.

Likewise arrested fell down the same field, suddenly not being about a troubled family being held together by a "good son"(classic fodder for a story by the by) but became about the spiraling into madness of excess of the family. This isn't good story telling, this is good character work. Great for sketch, but a little hard to watch week after week.

By contrast you have a show like the Sopranos, which I had recently remarked would still be a great show if you removed the Mafia plot. If this was instead about a bunch of blue collar folks working at a Downriver stamping plant, it would be just as good because at its core is simple human drama.

Comedy has a harder time staying human of course; this is why all the best Comedies have strong dramatic elements, because it kept the characters human. That they have real hopes and fears and dreams diverted is the essence of being human. Where was the humanity in the last four episodes of Arrested? I watched and saw a bunch of characters running around having zany adventures. A great watch to be sure, I laughed, but I can't say as I felt anything at the end of it. Was I sorry the mother and her hippie brother in law were going to jail? Was I happy a son and a father finally connected? Not particularly.

As some one who fancies himself a television producer, I can only say that what makes a good show is a lot of things, good actors, good writers, and a good premise, but all these things without the synthesis of humanity are nothing. A truly good show does not get canceled, because a truly good show speaks to the human condition, attracts a human audience, and in the end is amazingly profitable. The one exception to this is of course shows that pack in an expensive cast or high end special effects before they build an audience. But most shows like that are usually covering for poorly thought out characters in the first place, and many critics do mistake production value for story.

In the end whether a show is good or not is up to the audience to decide. The audience decided the irreverence of Family Guy deserved another shot. The audience decided that nearly every show put on its place did not.

I thank you for your time and consideration of my humble thoughts.

Sincerely,

Charles William Esser

Naked Dancing Fat Guy Productions

http://www.ndfgp.com

Six Feet Under? They ALL die at the end.

Sorry for your loss...

Heather --

You think too much.

I read through Heather's list, with my eyes just about glazing over as she equated her new coinage "Giddily Dark" with "Good" and the old television warhorse of "Zany" with Bad." Trouble is, I like shows on both her lists, and dislike ones on both as well.

So after pursing my lips a bit, I decoded her terminology: "Giddily Dark" is actually just a new term for "Black Comedy," while "Zany" seems to equate with "Farce."

I can understand why advertisers and executives are happier with zany farce than giddily dark black comedy, but it doesn't make one genre bad or another good, nor are giddily dark black comedies such as Nip/Tuck suddenly transmuted to zany farce just because Heather doesn't like them. Similarly, while zany farces like South Park can be particularly wicked and run entire herds of sacred cattle through their meatgrinder, it doesn't make them giddily dark black comedy, if simply because we really don't mind if Kenny dies each episode.

I'm sorry that Arrested Development was canceled, but only because it was on at an hour when I'm seldom home and thus never bothered to watch it.

but it's the same in a lot of places. I was in South Africa in the mid-Seventies when they were just getting television. The first South African-produced series, as I recall, was a comedy in Afrikaans titled "Willem." The production values were not great but the show was very funny. "Willem" went away very quickly. The big hits of the those first few seasons were American imports, the hokey "Kung Fu" and another Western from the mid-Sixties called "The Iron Horse," which had tanked in America. I don't recall if "The Iron Horse" was any good, but it was terribly old-fashioned even when it was new. The American shows had less sophisticated writing, but they were a lot snazzier -- expensive props, shot with more cameras, and the people in them were all dressed up in costumes.

Like Heather Havrilesky, I think "Six Feet Under" is one of the most genius shows ever created. Because I was a relative latecomer, I've stuck to the DVD version of the show. As such, I've had March 28th - the day season five is released on DVD - on my calendar for months. I also assiduously avoided news of the show's conclusion.

Thanks, Heather, for letting me know that Nate DIES at the end. I realize there has to be some statute of limitations on spoilers, and I also blame myself for reading the column at all (I should have jumped ship the second I saw the show mentioned), however I'm no less bitter at what I felt was a rather thoughtless summation of the show. You easily could have made the same point - that the show's conclusion was both funny and tragic - without telling us exactly what happened.

I suggest saving major spoilers on premium channel programs until after the DVD is released.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go mourn for Nate.