Television in 2010 - A Social Event + Hopes for the Future of TV in 2011 by A.D.Harris

(This is a long post on 2010, Television and everything I could think of. Hopefully you all enjoy it.)

It's been a big year for me in terms of television. In two days, specifically the 23rd and 24th of May I lost the two shows that had me hooked for five years each. It's slightly bizarre that I came to 'LOST' and '24' at the same time, with 'LOST' entering its second season and '24' its fifth and then they ended together.

Before then I was not a TV person, I watched 'ER' occasionally because my mum watched it, but that was all really. Then Jack Bauer had some bad days and Flight 815 crashed and I became hooked into the world of television, and it's something I have never looked back on. Then to see my two founders on an area of the entertainment business I want to now work in for the rest of my life end within forty eight hours was surprisingly traumatising. Being the people here that you are, 'TV Fanatics' I'm sure you understand what it was like when 'Jack Shephard headed back into the Bamboo forest', and 'Chloe O'Brien turned off the satellite feed' from whatever show it is that you devoted hours and hours to and then saw come to an end.

And we do devote many, many hours watching characters that often (if a show is around long enough) start off a little annoying and then develop to creatures we feel like we know and have lived with for years. It's a different animal to movies, where we get a snapshot of someone's life for a quick two hours. That, to me is what makes television so much better than a movie. I love writing, I recently finished a screen-writing course in New York and I have a completed movie script, and the characters I created in that story I love, but that's because I sat for hours and hours, weeks and weeks writing them and making them. I feel to get that kind of 'capture' for an audience member, it has to be through TV. We grow up with these characters, our lives change as they live their lives.

And TV is a big form of escapism, but it is also a life, and it felt appropriate that when my mum got 'Breast Cancer' at the end of 2009, that I try to make a difference with the help of a certain Jack Bauer. I created a website, a facebook group, a justgiving page and I went out and managed to raise £3000 pounds for Breast Cancer Care! All that money for watching the first seven seasons of '24' in seven days, pledging myself to no more than an hours sleep a day. It was tough stuff, and the amazing thing is that I barely got bored. I set up a webcam, and a live chat and I watched Television for a week, and raised money and made a mother proud. It was without doubt one of the best things I have ever done. That's why I hope that one day I'll be able to dish out some scoop exclusively to my friends here at SpoilerTV on my own TV show. Because to some people Television really is important, and as I proved, it can make a difference. I didn't need to run a race, I needed to sit on a sofa. The best part of it was that my friends came and visited me, and chatted to me 24/7 on webcam when they could. And they all got involved in the show. And it really made me realise that Television is made to be a social event. One friend stayed a full day and watched the third season with me. We had a right laugh, laughing at the stupid parts, engrossed in the awesome parts and shouted at the screen the rest of the time, beers and pizza. (redbull also for me) It was a great experience, a similar thing is happening soon with '24' in a mass event somewhere in America, a 'LOST' version was done before the finale. (Secretly I like to think people saw what I did :P) If you get the chance to experience Television in such a social environment, I would say go for it.

One thing you may not realise but why a site like SpoilerTV is so good is because there's always a bunch of people around who share the same love of the world that television makes, it's something everyone should join in with. Both here and in the real world. I'm up for this year doing a similar thing, but with people here, all raising money for charity by watching a TV show and talking about it. Maybe I can set it up if possible. That's one aim for 2011.
Another aim for 2011 is to push this site, to make it bigger because places like this make television more of an experience, more of a life. If I was the creator of '24' or 'LOST' I would be proud that my characters had created a community of people.
In the five years since I first saw a plane crash on an island, I've seen a lot of Prison Breaking, some Heroes, a man called House, most recently some Winchester brothers doing some Supernatural stuff, and much, much more. And looking back, I kind of wish I joined in more on this website earlier. Because it's the experience that makes the show. Watching 'LOST' with friends was more fun than on my own. And as the final season of 'LOST' aired, I came to realise that to me, the end didn't matter, I could have hated it and 'LOST' would always be huge to me, '24' would always have a small place in my memories, as both shows gave me a lot of fun, theorising with friends on who said 'Help Me' in Jacob's Cabin, why the writers always resorted to kidnapping Kim. I enjoyed seeing why people hated Kate, and why Heroes and Flashforward were failing.
Sometimes when I see Fringe's ratings so low it saddens me, and I feel for people who get some character's story cut short. That would suck. People should get more into television, but we can make it even more social, even more fun. A site like this is the place to do so.
So my message for 2011 in terms of television is that whether online or with friends, heck even both, join in with television, get into the world! Make it social. Do things with television beyond watching it on your own. Come to SpoilerTV and comment, vote, or get friends round, get your pub to air 'The Event', maybe here together we can do a TV watchathon and raise lots of money. The options are endless, but let's make sure that it gets better.
TV has so much to offer us...

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http://twitter.com/#!/AdDHarris

Adam