At lunchtime I thought tonight I was going to blog about The American Dialect Society’s choice of Word of the Year. It got Plutoed.
This afternoon I thought it might be that the BBC’s new children’s spy show M.I.High is supposed to be about teenage members of MI9. Not sure why anyone would reactivate the old resistance fighting and Escape and Evasion branch of Militiary Intelligence known as MI9. Is it just poor research or stupid writing. Pick a number that wasn’t used. Anyway that rant’s got Plutoed too.
At 9:58 I thought it was going to be Waking the Dead that got tonight’s post for its utter utter dark, twisty, fun silliness. It got Plutoed barely 2 minutes later.
Why? Because someone with less brain cells in an attempt to reinvigerate ER has taken an unmistakable theme tune and replaced it with an insipid none entity of a tune. The theme tune of a long running show is more than just a piece of music it is a statement of the brand. Shows like NYPD Blue, the BBC Cricket coverage, the West Wing, the Sky at Night and The A-Team have unmistakable themes. I could go on listing great themes.
They tell you when the show is starting. If you like it they say heres the show you’ve been waiting for. If you don’t like it you turn off. If you have an established brand on the slide you won’t save it by changing the music.
ER had a strong theme. Sure the title sequence needed modernising. Sure the style of ER which was once new, fresh and distinctive is now more like a set of comfy slippers. The characters cliche’s are getting a little used up after a couple of hundred shows. The same story lines are being foisted on newer characters without even a new twist or direction.
You won’t fix that by changing the music. You can’t fix that by changing the music. Especially not to a musical waste of space like the new ER theme. So why bring in a new theme? Probably because they don’t know what else to change. Where else to make a change. Their afraid that if they do make a change the slow decline of their product life cycle will crash in around their ears. So they do what fools in television do they change the only thing they think they can. One of the key piece of branding they have. The theme. Idiots.
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