"I love it but it's horrible" ?

Two days ago I went to a finale party for True Blood. Having never ever seen more than a minute of the show, the finale left me utterly confused. Maybe because I was confused I was able to ridicule and pick it apart more than deserved, maybe it just is really cheesy, I don't know. I was in a room full of devoted fans, sitting on the edge of their seats, dropping their jaws at every plot twist, and there I sat, trying extremely hard to not break the silence with my laughter. When the Queen, after making her sacrifice, headed into the woods and walked towards her lord and I saw a bull lit romantically in the moonlight I could barely contain myself. I watched the Queen and the bull walk closer and closer to each other. My mind immediately pictured them on the beach running towards each other, and in the meadow skipping and smiling, the cow mooing.

"I'm drinking a diet coke with LIME!" - I let out a giggle.

"Hold me for fourty?" - I let out another.

To sum up, I thought the show was pretty awful, acting, writing, effects and all. But this isn't my point at all.

I was talking with a fan who has seen every episode of True Blood and he told me he thought the show was awful. He finds the show horribly cheesy as well yet he continues to watch it, eagerly anticipating the next episode. Why is this? He finds as much fault in the show as I do, yet religiously continues to watch.

Several years ago I stayed home sick and ended up watching a soap opera, one of the worst of it's kind, called Passions. This show was absolute garbage. Horrid horrid acting, completely implausible stroylines, and tension so dragged out you would have to watch all week to hear one sentence. I watched this show for four years. Whenever I was home sick I would watch it and when I couldn't because I had school, I would read up on what I missed. There was an addicting quality to it. I was stuck with a sick curiosity to see what the hell the writers were going to come up with next. Passions had witches, the Vatican, tsunamis, stolen babies, orangutan caretakers, mermaids, and a web of characters so oddly intertwined it would take almost 10 minutes to explain. The show was finally canceled last year after already being taken off regular cable television and switching to being shown only on direct TV. The show no doubt entertained me and kept me interested but in the same breath I thought it was absolutely horrible. So this leads me to the question I've been rambling on and on trying to get to.

Despite how horrible a show may be, If it is entertaining and addicting, is it a success?

As a writer I'm constantly fighting myself for more original ideas and revising and revising toward perfection. But what if writing doesn't necessarily have to be really good but rather just addicting, whatever that means? If my goal is to get people to watch my show then should I spend less time worrying about if there are plot holes and instead spend my time working on hooks?  I'm taking a TV Drama writing class and I want my drama to be good but i'm not sure if I can be catchy. Is good writing inherently catchy though? If a show is well written and enjoyed is it going to have the same amount of people tuning in once again to watch it as would a horrible show with curiosity grabbing cliffhangers? If I wrote an amazing show that somehow got no fan base it would be cancelled. This has happened to several well written shows. Yet, I wouldn't want to write something like Passions either.

How much does good writing actually matter when deciding if a show is good? What are the best qualities of your favorite show? Really entertaining? Well written? Makes you think? Shocks you? Looks amazing? Great effects? Piques curiousity? What is the most important thing?
It's probably just different for everybody but I wish there was a formula for writing good television.



*UPDATE*

I just found this article on line that is very fitting.
http://www.tv.com/story/18455.html?tag=hotspot;gumball;1
It is fun to hate sometimes.

Who picked the weapons for the Ninja Turtles?

There are four turtles right. There is the blue one Leonardo, who is the leader, the rebel red one, Rafael, the goofy orange one, Michalangelo, and the smart purple one, Donatello. Now the leader has a sword, the rebel has daggers, and the goof has nunchucks, but Donatello, the supposedly smart one, carries a stick. A stick? It's not even metal. It's a piece of wood that can easily break in half. I mean splinters do hurt like a bitch but can't really kill you. He'd have better luck just throwing furniture in the room at someone.If he is truly the smart one he would have a machine gun. Shredder wouldn't stand a chance then, but I guess that wouldn't be ninja like. Or he could always just beat people with the gun, you know a little pistol whipping. And why do they all have to have different weapons? What's up with that? I know this is kinda very Jerry Seinfeld-esq but it's just something to think about...

Why the Chicken Crossed the Road

Since the dawn of time people have been contemplating the reasoning behind one chicken's action.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

-Plato: for the greater good. 

-Captain Kirk: to boldly go where no chicken has gone before

-To get to the other side.

-To prove he wasn't chicken. 

-I don't know, ask the chicken.

Why this question is so interesting to people I don't quite know, and why after so many years of questioning there is not one true answer is even harder for me to understand. What I do know is the answer. I have seen a chicken cross the road and I have figured out it's motive for doing it. So here it is ladies and gentlemen, the reason the chicken crossed the road: The Mailman.

It seems in many made up answers the chicken was fleeing from something but in actuality the chicken was fleeing TO SOMEONE.

When I was in seventh grade I would walk home from school on a street that on one side was completely residential and the other a farm. One particular day, I believe it was a Thursday, epiphanies most often hit me on Thursdays, there was a chicken walking down the farmside of the street next to me. As I walked trying to figure out how he escaped the farm I got distracted by the humming and grumbling engine of a US Postal Service Truck. The truck screeched around the corner and pulled up to the first house on the residential side behind me. Then The Mailman, about 5'11, 185lbs, and dark farmertanned skin with a Tom Selleck moustache, popped out of the truck. The Mailman approached the first mailbox on the street and started to feed in some letters. It was at this moment that the chicken on the other side of the street noticed The Mailman. The chicken stopped dead in his tracks. He stared openly at The Mailman. The chicken's eyes seemed to pop out of his head. He cocked his head to the side for a second as if confused only for it to perk back up with excitement. And it was at this moment that it actually happened.

The chicken crossed the road.

And not just cross it, he sprinted across. The chicken ran so fast across the road his wings were flailing behind him and he almost tripped over his own feet several times. He ran all the way across the road and stopped at the mailbox next to The Mailman. You may say, well maybe the chicken crossed the road to check his mail. But no. What I saw next, as I kept walking with my neck straining to see what was happening behind me, was The Mailman bending down and saying, "Hey little guy, haven't seen you for a while," and the chicken jumping up and down joyously.

So why did the chicken cross the road?
To visit his old friend The Mailman.

I don't know what happened next because I had to continue on with my life and stop intruding on this chicken and his deep emotional relationship with The Mailman. So question it if you will or use this blog as your primary source for the question. I don't care. Just maybe now that the Chicken's motives have been solved people in America can start questioning other things. Things of more importance. Like how can we end world hunger? Is world peace possible? And what is up with the Ninja Turtles?