SyFy: No Sir, I Don't Like It!

SyFy: no sir, I don't like it.

Ok let me start this one stating that I love science fiction and to some extent fantasy. Along with music, technology, RPG's and comic books, they ruined whatever chances my family ever had for me to become proficient at any sports-like activity and turned me into this angry, opinionated geek you all know and love. Or loathe. And I love them for it.

On to the Sci-Fi Channel. When I started watching it, of course, I was a happy little camper. A nice little cable channel dedicated to fantasy, sci-fi and horror. Some classics along with new series, syndicated reruns and original content. Hell, they had and sometimes put out or bring to the U.S. some really great stuff like, say, FarScape, Battlestar Galactica, Dr. Who, Torchwood, etc. I cringed a little, but was helpless to admit that adding World Wrestling Entertainment's ECW to their roster was an odd choice, but hey. I mean, it's people in costumes beating each other up with some lame soap opera-ish backdrop. Just like them comic books of old. I can actually picture Vince McMahon or his lackeys pitching the idea to the Sci-Fi head honchos. Add some crappy reality shows (the term just makes me cringe) and some so-called original movies that not even would go direct to video and voila! You've got a cable channel.

My problem with SyFy, as the channel is now rebranded, is that some of their decisions regarding programming and direction of the channel are not the best and brightest. In fact, some of them reminded me of the ones made by the current head honcho of programming of WAPA-TV a local affiliate, who decided to eliminate some of their best local productions that were actually giving the channels what they covet the most - ratings - to sub it for canned programming because they "wanted to cater to women. and women buy more advertising than men". Of course, this move was also an excuse to get his wife's crappy talk show that had no ratings in a prime-time spot and the move backfired on him when people exposed it for what it was and got the crappy talk show cancelled.

Syfy did their own boneheaded moves. Let's start with FarScape, a visually striking good sci-fi show, originally produced by Channel 9 in Australia, then picked up by Syfy. When the show's future was threatened and a massive campaign was launched to save one of their actually decent shows, management ended the thing. I mean, some webpisodes have been done and a three hour miniseries is scheduled to appear this year, but no word yet. Their milking of BSG and every single offshot of the franchise is a merchandiser's wet dream, but as a fan it's quite frustrating to try to milk every single drop of it in long periods of time. And don't mention their treatment of the StarGate series to their fan base. I'm no SG fan, but I feel their pain. By the way, tell whoever decided to do that Marvel Super Heroes reality show that it gave me a lot of laughs. At their expense.

Well, I mean these kind of moves are not exclusive of theirs. Lord knows they lost me as a viewer when eMpTyV became the Reality Show channel instead of Music Television. HBO lost points with me when they messed with Deadwood and decided to shorten The Wire's last season. Let's not forget about Fox's management of Firefly.

Now the Sci-Fi Channel's latest is to change the name. I mean it's basic marketing 101. When your product is not performing up to spec in a crappy economic landscape, you want to hold on to every money spending demographic that you can find with your crack team of market researchers. So they came up with a shorter name. So it's hip. And easier to remember. For whatever demographic they decide can spend their money watching their programming. Come to think of it, they can trademark this. Milk more money. And it's easier for my DVR to locate and search their programming. Brilliant! I'm sure there were high fives that day when they came up with it.

I still don't like it. Sorry. It's silly. Retarded. To the levels only seen in Mike Judge's brilliant Idiocracy. Dumb. Like the reality crap they are trying to push. Stupid. Like eliminating any show that not only has a loyal fanbase, but it is actually good. Retarded. Like buying whatever cheaply produced movie that even direct to video makers won't touch with a 30 foot pole. But hey, it's Syfy!

Christ, Spike sometimes has more and better science fiction related stuff than SyFy! Funny, Spike itself survived a rebranding from The Nashville Network to TNN to it's current nome de guerre, but played it smart. SyFy has not. So far.

I am sure my dear friend Alfonso Gómez Arzola in his blog is preparing a well-written response to this. Originally, in my fantasy world, he would be in charge of levelling SyFy's corporate HQ with all sorts of weaponry given our mutual hatred of stupidity in all it's forms. To my surprise, he disagrees. I look forward to his response. And your comments.