Wow. A cult of five. We won't need much Kool Aid.

Ha! Not too late, after all.

Is it silly of me to think that - skipper as I am in this thread, because I do not want to read any spoilers - I'm glad I didn't read that article before I could read Tim's reponses to it?

But as far as "The Inside," I do know that after the non-launch we not only held the modest numbers the network brought to the show, but built on them slightly week to week.

I liked the way you once described it, that the network's job is to bring the audience at first, and your job is to keep them. And you keep doing your side.

Cereal (hey, it's morning here):

What's a vocal cult, anyway? Do you all talk like me?

Only if it's in Hebrew.

They sometimes don't seem to see the thing that actually IS there.

It seems like this is what's happening with "The Inside", on several levels, doesn't it? It's not the same "solve the crime" show as others who are centered around such a concept, so instead of checking whether it does what it set out to do, people seem to be saying that it doesn't do well what those other shows set out to do. And now, with the blond-who-isn't-SMG.

Yes, Nilly. That is what I think.

Wow. A cult of five. We won't need much Kool Aid.

The five is just the upper echelon. Like, OT level 8s. Except without the dead aliens living in your head. Because, ewwww.

Hmm, so how is it possible to get out of this vicious circle? Marketing in advance (what a silly notion!)? I love the "take the familiar idea and put it on its head" or "investigate all new things with familiar settings" ways of looking at things.

Thanks to you and Allyson, I got to read the script of the broadcasted pilot. To me, the heart of it wasn't the serial killer, hunting him or out-smarting him. It was Rebecca's trying to find herself, about a young person growing up, or beginning to, taking a first step along that way. The people around her affecting her, or starting to, or trying to, in all sorts of new ways, and her attempt to stand on her own. It was about identity and what shapes you, from the inside - your actions and dreams and pains and attempts - and from the outside - the way people see you, your name (the whole "name" thing was played all along the first episode, IIRC). I loved that. This is where a show about FBI agents and murders in a completely different place becomes about, well, me. So, yeah, it does it by putting people in much more extreme situations than actual everyday life stuff, but that's just as using a space-ship with a broken engine to tell something about people trying to make it in the world, and it also, in a sense, felt to me to be about me.

And I'm babbling. Shutting up now.

People also seem to imagine shoutouts where there are none, Nilly. Like they're searching for a connection to something they miss terribly.

What really bothers me is not the comparison to SMG, although, except for the minor detail of blond hair, I really don't see it. No, what really bothers me is comparing The Inside to Point Pleasant. While I have some minor issues with The Inside, it is clearly well written and acted. I hope that I'm not offending a bunch of Point Pleasant lovers, but that show was just awful. I gave it a shot, but...ewwww. It's hard for me to see The Inside compared to it at all.

Like they're searching for a connection to something they miss terribly.

I'm not sure I understand - people miss other shows so much that they're finding shoutouts where there are none? And then, that makes the new show even more like those old shows, or following in their footsteps but not-them, so they're even more disppointed in the new thing, not being the old thing they love? And that's not even the new show's fault, because those shoutouts were not even there in the first place?

I managed to make my own head spin now. Allyson, I don't have your way with describing shomething shortly. Sorry.

I think that's a great explanation, Nilly. People are strange.