Where’s the love for SciFi?
So. I’ve noticed a trend. No love for SciFi (and Fantasy).
ABC recently told the makers of the new ‘V’ remake/reboot not to play up the ‘SciFi’ aspects of the show. In fact, they asked them not to even mention the word ‘alien’ in any of the advertising and all because they’re worried about the dreaded ‘genre’ label.
In a year where the tv landscape has a lot of new, returning and different genre shows (Lost, Fast Forward, Fringe, Stargate:Universe, Sanctuary, Dollhouse, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Legend of the Seeker, Smallville (bleh) & Supernatural, to name just a few), I can’t believe that they are still taking such a wait and see attitude about genre shows.
To make matters worse, BestBuy has rearranged their DVD’s categories and Shelves in store. There are a couple stores that I frequent (because I’m a DVD addict) and, over the past 6 months to a year, I’ve noticed the genre shelves shrinking as titles are folded into other, ‘normal’ categories.
The SciFi section at these BestBuy stores is now completely gone. They went from one aisle, to three shelves (this one has 5 shelves per row), to one shelf, to no shelf. When they had just the one shelf, it had The Lord of the Rings movies, the Star Wars movies, Starship Troopers, Aliens, the Star Trek movies, Underworld and the X-movies. That was it. Everything else had been blended with ‘Action/Adventure’ or, in some cases, ‘Drama’.
While this was happening, I failed to notice that ‘Horror’ was ALREADY gone. I have no idea what they blended that into, but they did it.
This last week, as I went wandering through BestBuy, I noticed that they were done; SciFi was gone. Everything is now inside of ‘Action/Adventure’ or ‘Drama’ which is just so freaking stupid.
I can only imagine that they did this because someone, somewhere, thought that ‘SciFi’ was for losers and geeks, which just pisses me off.
I would argue that there are more people today enjoying genre entertainment than they are giving credit for. Not counting the tv shows above, look at the video games that are popular with gamers, look at the movies being made, the books being sold – the surge of ‘nerd culture’.
If anything, SciFi should be expanding on the shelf, not disappearing altogether.
~P
1 Comment
I agree that it is sad to see sci-fi dwindle away. However, BestBuy could be merging the movies in other section to increase there sale. Some people, including members of my own family, would pass by the sci-fi section and go to one they are more comfortable with. My sister ignores sci-fi just out of habit. The other day she sat and watched Dollhouse with me and actually enjoyed it, not realizing at first it was sci-fi.
I think it helps to get people accustomed to the idea that its more than just techno-babble and special effects. There is story and character development too. Once you get people familiar with the good aspects of sci-fi then you will see it return as a genre of its own.
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