Friday 24 July 2009

State of the Blog: falling on deaf ears, screeners and fonts

Friday 24 July 2009
My review of Psychoville's penultimate episode will be up tomorrow, as I wasn't able to see it last night. Thanks for all the comments on previous reviews, although I once again want to assure people that I DO like the show, I just refuse to believe every single episode is five-star genius. It's just very good with flashes of brilliance.

The Twin Peaks reviews continue apace, although I'm a little disappointed by the lack of reader comments -- particularly considering the encouraging response when my plan to review this classic series was first brought up. I guess it's always a risk doing retrospective reviews of niche television shows, but I'll persevere -- although I may need to take a breather in a few weeks. Too much weirdness in my head! Kinda glad I curtailed my own plan to review BOTH seasons now. Is there NO love for Twin Peaks out there?

My Chuck reviews are likewise being dished out to zero response, which I guess is because the type of people who frequent showbiz-related blogs have seen all the episodes already. Even all the British fans who shouldn't really have been able to see them. So, again, I can understand it's not going to be a massively popular thread, but... I hope people are at least reading, even if they're not commenting. I got occasional e-mails from people wondering where my Chuck reviews were a few months back, so I assume there are people for whom these reviews are filling a hunger spot. Anyway, I'm now up to where I left the US airings, so following along with Virgin1 in real-time.

Finally, even the True Blood reviews aren't provoking much response now, after a decent few weeks to begin with. And I can see no reason for that. These are brand new episodes, usually online days after HBO air them, and it's a very popular show. Maybe there are just too many True Blood reviews out there, so mine's getting lost in the mix? Oh well, at least the page-hits are encouraging, so I know it's not a wasted effort to be writing them.

So yeah, bit of a downer in some ways. I often equate comments to currency, as they're the only tangible way a blogger can get satisfaction from the effort they put in. Statcounter telling me "X" number of people have visited page "Y" is just faceless numbers to me; I'd rather KNOW that just ten people cared enough about what I wrote to post intelligent, opinionated comments. Each one is like a pound coin to me, see. I made a fortune with those Robin Hood squabbles!

Of course, I know summer's not really the season when people want to sit at a computer to read and type. I hear ya. I'm a bad commenter at the best of times, so I'm in danger of being labeled a hypocrite! And thanks to "the core" of readers who regularly chip in with stuff -- you guys are like an oasis in a desert some weeks!

Incidentally, my effort to get into Nurse Jackie and Hung have hit a dead-end, as I have other things on my plate and want to take my feet off the pedal for awhile. Nothing about those shows screamed at me to review them every week, have to say. I certainly don't envisage them being THAT popular around here, anyway. Oh, and I have a review of Eastbound & Down's pilot saved up for when FX show it in the UK, btw. And I finally had time to review Caprica's pilot, so expect that very soon.

It was also great fun getting to interview Russell T. Davies last week, so I hope you enjoyed the fruits of that labour. It was an out-of-the-blue opportunity I had to embrace, and it went very well. I'm hopeful that this could lead to other interviews of BBC-affiliated writers, directors and actors in the near-future. Actually, if anyone's reading this and would like to get in touch about setting up a Q&A for marketing reasons, just e-mail.

I'm also in the process of getting some "screeners" sent my way, so there's a chance of reviews for things ahead of their broadcast here in the UK, which should be good. That'll give things a different dynamic, as such reviews will suddenly count as "pre-publicity" and not just one of many opinions after the fact.

Anyway, that's where my head's at this week. Oh, apologies for how the fonts seem to change every week, too. I'm forever trying to find a font and size combo that I really like! It's infuriating! Verdana, Tahoma MS, Arial and Georgia all look great on other blogs and websites, but somehow end up looking crappy on mine. I'm back to Arial right now: the world's most boring font, yes, but also the easiest to read.

And that's it! Status officially updated. I may update with some choice picks of what's been going on at San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend, btw -- so stick around for that. And don't be a stranger to the comments area, guys! ;-)