TV Stuff: Product Placement

My last TV Stuff post was about things people who are no longer enjoying a show waste their time bitching about online.
This post is about the main thing people who are still enjoying a show seem to waste their time bitching about online. Product Placement.

We've all seen it. You watch The Big Bang Theory, one of the boys opens up his laptop, and you clearly see the alien head on the cover. An Alienware computer made by Dell. Product Placement.

On Chuck, everyone had an iPhone and they frequently ate Subway sandwiches, which, when one was in a scene, they would often say what they had on their sub, or what they liked eat from Subway. Product Placement.

On Fringe, Walter eats Red Vines red liqourice, mostly from clearly marked Red Vines packets (on a couple of occasions he's had them in a glass jar, but one of those times he'd put a 'Red Vines' label on the jar.) They also show shots of the Nissan cars they drive, pulling away from curbs, at a camera angle that displays the car logo. We get inside of the car shots with the fancy dashboard showing. Product Placement.

On Warehouse 13, Myka eats Twizzlers red liquorice, from clearly marked Twizzlers packets. Claudia talks to Steve about his hybrid car, running through the car specs. We see shots of the cars as they drive down roads, car logos again on display. Product Placement.

You may not watch any of these shows. You may watch but not really notice the Product Placement. You may not notice it in the shows you do watch. It's there. And if you're not bitching about it in a forum somewhere, you probably, sensibly don't really care.

Here's the thing. I knew Product Placement existed, but until I started noticing people complaining about it so much, I didn't really pay attention to it, except in the way it was intended by the advertising companies (ohh nice Alienware computer, hey I do like Subway, I really want an iPhone, that kind of thing.)

Now that I do notice it more, I still don't get the endless complaining. As for the way it's used in the show, well, long before product placement was a thing, we would see shots of cars pulling away from curbs and driving down roads. We'd even see characters discussing their cars. It's just that now it's specific cars added for advertising purposes, instead of just to pad out scenes. Characters have always eaten food, snacks, and talked about what they're eating. Again, now it's just specific foods and snacks.

The problem so many viewers seem to have is "I don't watch a show to see ads. That's what ad breaks are for." But...how many people are using the ad breaks to quickly flick over and see what's on another channel. How many people are using the ad breaks to go to the toilet or get a snack. How many people are recording their show, and fast-forwarding through the ads. And how many of them are downloading their shows, and not seeing any ads at all.

All the people doing all this complaining seem to conveniently forget that it's the ad money that is keeping their show on the air, and the companies paying for this want to make sure their product is seen.

I don't work in television, or in advertising, but I do like my shows. This year Fringe is on the bubble for renewel. It may not get a season 5, because it costs so much to make. So if they want to have an episode where every scene has either a Nissan car, or a pack of Red Vines, or the Fringe team in a Nissan eating Red Vines, as long as it keeps the show on the air I won't complain.

Product Placement works like any other advertising, with the bonus that you get to see people you like interacting with the product in question rather than annoying overly load music, or overly enthusiastic announcers.

And just like any other advertising sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes it will make you buy something else entirely.

My product placement story (which I know you've all been waiting for): I don't drive or care about cars, so this will be about liquorice.

Right now, my two favourite shows are Fringe and Warehouse 13. They both product place red liquorice. Red Vines & Twizzlers. I'm a Red Vines girl, when I can get them. When I can't I don't have any at all. I never go for the Twizzlers. So sometimes when I'm watching Fringe, I'll see Walter eating a Red Vine, and think 'I kinda feel like Red Vines'. And then maybe the next day, I'll go buy some.
But when I'm watching Warehouse 13, and I see Myka eating Twizzlers, I usually think, 'ew Twizzlers. Red Vines are better. I kinda feel like Red Vines. I love Myka.' And the next day I'll go buy some Red Vines. So the Warehouse 13 Product Placement actually inspires me to buy a different brand.

****This post is not sponsered by Red Vines, although if they would like to give me some money, I would happily start Product Placing it into all my other posts.****

TV Tips

We all know I watch a lot of TV. A lot.
And because I'm a total spoiler-whore I spend a fair amount of time hanging around internet forums so I know what to expect from my shows.

Lately I notice more and more people seem to be coming to these forums for no other reason than to bitch about the show. How they hate it now, how all of the characters are horrible, how the writing isn't as good as it was in the early seasons/episodes. Complaining that the characters they ship* aren't hooking up, because both characters are involved with someone else, etc.

Here's how to deal with this:

1: Understand that the show is not being written specifically for your enjoyment. There are millions of other people watching, and while the show also isn't being written specifically for them, they may be enjoying what happens. And of course the writers are also, at least somewhat, writing to please themselves. I watch Vampire Diaries. I would love to see Caroline and Katherine become best friends and go off on some awesome vampire road trip. I'd also happily see Stefan fall into an active volcano. I know these things are not likely to happen, because it's not all about me.

2: Understand that the couple you ship may not be the couple the show ships. Or other viewers. I will admit here I don't understand the Pete & Myka shippers over on some of the Warehouse 13 forums. Everyone involved with the show has spent the last three seasons telling us they have a brother-sister relationship, so I find the idea of them together kinda gross, but I respect that other viewers have a right to want that, even if it squicks me entirely. Personally, I ship Myka & HG, and I know there are plently of people who don't like the idea of them together. I watch Criminal Minds. I know a lot of viewers want to see Hotch and Prentiss hook up. I don't. They are my anti-ship. I would happily see either of them with any of the other characters, but not together. However, I don't go online and bash all the H&P shippers. If you really want two characters together, go read some fanfic specific to your ship, but know that it may not happen on the show, because it's not all about you.

3. This is the most important tip: If you are not enjoying the show anymore, if you hate all the characters, and find yourself incandescent with rage by the end of the episodes, STOP WATCHING!
Find a new show, buy the seasons that you did enjoy and watch those, write some fanfic or start a Tumblr made up of stuff from when you did like it, but don't waste an hour of your time with something you hate and then even more time bitching about it later. Just stop.

TV is supposed to be an escape. A way to relax, and disconnect. Like in so many situations, if you're not enjoying it, you need to stop, and find something that pleases you more.  

*for anyone unfamiliar with term: 'ship' is short for relationship. You want to see two characters together? You ship them. You're a shipper.
And while most contractions have an apostrophe to demonstrate that it is a shortened form of something, in my experience ship usually doesn't.

TV Stuff: Fringe

Warning! This post will contain spoilers up to the last few episodes of Season 3.

   I love Fringe. It's a Sci-Fi show currently nearing the end of it's 3rd season, and right now I'm finding it as enjoyable to watch as I did The X-Files back in its early seasons.
  I decided to give Fringe a go when it first came out because of the people who created it: J.J. Abrams, the man behind Alias (and also Lost, which I could never get into), and Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci, who wrote/produced for Alias and, more importantly, Hercules and Xena.  The also wrote the screenplay for Transformers, which I mostly enjoyed.

  The imdb blurb for Fringe:
 A television drama centered around a female FBI agent who is forced to work with an institutionalized scientist in order to rationalize a brewing storm of unexplained phenomena. (end of imdb stuff, everything else is mine)


In the 2nd season of Fringe we discovered there was an alternate universe which was falling apart due to massive rifts. They have a Fringe team of their own (some of them doubles of the Fringe people from our universe), and now, well into the 3rd season it looks like only one universe can survive - theirs or ours.


*Right after I'd decided to do this post I discovered on youtube an interview with all the main actors, that included the name of both the actor, and the character they play. So I screencapped the pictures, which technically belong to Fox, but I did the hard work. Really. It's hard to screencap someone who's talking without them looking really weird.*


 Fringe cast, and the characters they play.

  Joshua Jackson. Some of you may remember him from Dawson's Creek. I never actually watched Dawson's (not sure why, I love trashy teen dramas), but I still find myself referring to him as Pacey. 
 In Fringe he is Peter Bishop, son of Walter Bishop. When Walter is needed to help the FBI with "Fringe Events", Peter is bought in to help deal with him. 
 In season 2 we discover that Peter is actually from an alternate universe. The Peter in our universe died, so when Walter found a cure for his illness, he kidnapped the Peter who was sick in the other universe to save him, and then never returned him. This has caused some issues. Also until very recently it was suggested that the fate of the universe might be up to Peter, that whichever universe he chose, would be the one to survive. That may no longer be the case.

  Anna Torv, an Australian actress (go Australia!), playing Agent Olivia Dunham. Olivia is an FBI Agent who was assigned to the weirdness that makes up the Fringe investigations. We discover that she has the ability to cross between universes thanks to some experiments that were done on her as a child, by Walter. When she first met Walter she didn't remember having been experimented on (or meeting Peter once, Peter didn't remember either. It was sweet though, they were both little kids and they met in a field of flowers), but I can understand how someone would want to repress something like that.
It's very handy that Olivia was the one assigned to work with Walter. If it was someone that he hadn't experimented on the show would be very different. <--sarcasm, I know how TV works.
   There is also an Olivia in the other universe, working for their version of Fringe.

   The show has our universe Fringe team refer to her as Fauxlivia, which makes me laugh. She's a lot happier than our Olivia, smiles more, is all flirty and sassy. I know we're supposed to be wanting our Olivia to survive the impending apocalypse but I hope Fauxlivia lives too. I like her.
   In the first half of season 3, Fauxlivia was in our universe working undercover to gather intel, while Olivia was trapped in their universe being convinced she'd had a psychotic breakdown and that she belonged where she was. Fauxlivia clearly had it better since she knew exactly who she was the whole time. 

  John Noble as Walter Bishop. John Noble is another Australian actor. He was born in Port Pirie, where my mother grew up, so my brother and I have been amusing ourselves with the idea that our mother may have crossed paths with this awesome actor in their childhood days.
  Walter comes to help the FBI after something weird happens and it looks like it may be linked to one of his old experiments. Walter has been in a Mental Institution for 17 years and is a little bit crazy, obsessive and forgetful. But still brilliant. In season 2 we find out he is actually missing pieces of his brain, which is why he has a lot of his issues. And he can break your heart in the scenes where he's really sad about things that are happening with Peter, or when he knows that he used to know something, but he can't remember it anymore. I don't know how he hasn't won an Emmy for this role.
 There is also a Walter in the other universe.

  Walternate. (The shows name for him, not mine.) Peter's real dad, wears suits, isn't crazy - that we can see. He's a little bit evil. When our Walter crossed into his universe to take Peter it caused a rift that set off a lot of their Fringe events. Walternate has his Fringe team convinced that our universe is directly attacking theirs and the only way to stop it is to destroy us. Previously he though Peter was the key, but now he may have another way.

  Lance Reddick as Philip Broyles. Broyles is a great character. He's one of those no-nonsense guys who can give a perfect withering glare to anyone wasting his time, but is also a genuinely good guy, who believes in his team. I liked him in both universes and was a little bit sad when other universe Broyles died as an unfortunate side effect of Fauxlivia crossing back over.

 Jasika Nicole as Astrid Farnsworth (that's a very science-y last name she has there). Astrid is an FBI agent who is skilled in linguistics. In our universe she spends most of her time helping out Walter in his lab. He almost never gets her name right (names he's called her include Esther, Astro and Aspirin. When he's extra stressed he calls her Miss). Alternate universe Astrid appears to be a trusted member of the Fringe team, doing actual work, not just helping out and babysitting a mad scientist. Alternate universe Astrid also wears a stupid beret though, so maybe it's not the best place for her.

  Blair Brown as Nina Sharp. Nina runs Massive Dynamic, a company that seems to be behind most of the Fringe events that happen. The company was started by Walter's old lab partner William Bell (played by Leonard Nimoy in guest spots), Nina runs it in his absence. She seems to be slightly evil.

  The alternate universe Fringe team. Seth Gabel as Lincoln Lee, Anna Torv as Olivia (Fauxlivia) and Kirk Acevedo as Charlie Francis. 
We did have a Charlie Francis in our universe, he was killed by a shapeshifter. 
  I not-so-secretly hope that Lincoln and Charlie survive the apocalypse too. 


   I find it interesting that even though the alternate universe is currently in a lot more danger, the Fringe agents have more work, and that universe has no peanut m&ms, sheep (no roast lamb!) or U2, the alternate universe agents seem a lot happier than our agents. They joke, and flirt and kid around and their interactions can be a lot more fun to watch.


  A lot of shows these days do musical episodes. Fringe is no different. In season 2 they did a musical episode called Brown Betty. The plot device was Walter telling a story to Olivia's niece Ella. It was a detective story set in 1940.
 I leave you with pictures from Brown Betty.

TV stuff

   Do you ever get obsessed with a TV show and then decide to track down as much of the actors other work as you can? Just me maybe?

   My current obsession is Warehouse 13. The basic plotline is that the two Secret Service agents pictured above, Pete (Eddie McClintock) and Myka (Joanne Kelly), have to go around finding artificats with destructive powers and bring them safely back to the Warehouse. They are assisted by a steampunk tech girl, Claudia (Alison Scagliotti) and their boss Artie (Saul Rubinek). It's way more interesting than I am making it sound, and if you get a chance to watch it, give it a go.


  Anyway, in my 'see all the other stuff they've been in' quest I decided to start with Canadian actress, Joanne Kelly, partly because she's had some longish range roles in stuff (making it easier to track down than the random one-off guest spots), or her guest spots were in shows I already watched and just needed to re-visit (Supernatural, Castle).  It was also partly because I have a bit of a girl-crush on Myka because she's totally kick-ass.

  So now a quick run-down on some of the things I've been seeing her in lately, and then a question at the end.

  Jeremiah (2002)

  Jeremiah was set in a post-apocalyptic world, taking place 15 years after a virus had killed almost everyone over the age of about 13, leaving all the kids to fend for themselves. It starred Luke Perry (90210), Malcolm Jamal-Warner (Theo on The Cosby Show) and, in season 2, Sean Astin and Joanne Kelly. She played Liberty, a woman who seemed nice until SPOILER she turned out to be secretly evil and had to be killed. :(


The Dresden Files (2007)

  The Dresden Files was a short lived TV series (12 episodes) about a wizard named Harry Dresden who works as a private investigator. Paul Blackthorne played Harry. Joanne was Bianca, head of the red court vampires, and sometime ally of Harry.
 The Dresden Files are based on a series of novels by author Jim Butcher, and both the show and the books are well worth a look.

Most recently (yesterday, the day before that) I was watching Vanished (2006)


  In Vanished, Joanne plays Sara Collins, a Senator's wife who was abducted, held captive, subjected to psychological torture and forced to wear the same tank top for weeks.

All good reasons not to marry a Senator.

In one of the later episodes she escapes, and while on the run realises that the reason they keep finding her is that when the  bad guys injected her with something they were placing a tracking device under the skin of her arm. So she smashes a mirror and uses the broken glass to pry the tracker out.

  Now for my question: If this was you, how long would it take to work up the courage to dig into your own arm with a piece of broken glass from public toilet mirror to remove a tracking device. Would you be able to do it, or would you take your chances with trying to keep running