Syfy Has Really Missed The Boat

[Jack-Hammer]

Something struck me in the past couple of days, it's really only come to me as I just haven't really thought about it very much, but I can't help but be in awe at just how many big sci-fi, fantasy, horror and/or comic book themed shows are out and how ironic it is that none of them are on Syfy. Anybody else noticed or thought about this?

Probably the single most glaring example is The Walking Dead, which has pumped fresh life into the zombie genre. Last night's season premiere drew a record 17.3 million viewers. When you consider the general, overall theme of Syfy, you can't help but wonder how come they didn't attempt to come up with that show first. They've come out with their own...well I don't wanna say rip off, but that's what it seems like, called Z Nation.

There's also Game of Thrones, which is a critical darling, and last season was generating somewhere around 6.5 million viewers per new episode.

Aside from that, there are all these various shows on television or about to hit television in one form or another based on comic book characters that've been pretty significant hits. The show Arrow, based on the Green Arrow character, is a spin off of Smallville, doesn't draw huge ratings, for a show on a broadcast network that is, but new episodes have been drawing in the upper 3 million range. Another series, The Flash, debuted last week to 4.5 million viewers. Gotham, which is sort of a prequel series to anything & everything Batman, has been a hit with critics and is drawing around 7 million per episode. Marvel's Daredevil is set to premiere on Netflix in May. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has drawn well and has been well received by critics. Agent Carter, based on the character Peggy Carter from the first Captain America movie will air on ABC starting in January. There's talk of possibly doing some sort of TV series involving the X-Men, though its in the early stages.

It just strikes me ironic, in both a funny and kinda sad way, that a network devoted to all things science fiction didn't try to develop any such shows or similar shows. I'm surprised they didn't approach Warner Bros or Disney, owners of DC & Marvel Comics respectively, about developing some of their properties into TV shows. While it's true that some of these shows I mentioned either aren't on or haven't been on for long and could possibly tank, it's little wonder why a lot of people see Syfy as little more than a C or D level network.

 

[Alex]

Honestly I'm surprised no one has tried a Game Of Thrones esque show. There's plenty of historical/mythic stories that can be mined for that sort of thing. Apparently Spartacus did that but that's finished now so you'd think networks (not just SyFy) would try the sword and sorcery thing.

It does seem strange that SyFy hasn't tried to capitalise on this at all. I mean they show Asylum films all the time so it's not exactly a channel that prides itself on arthouse programming.

I mean heck they could mine the underground comic market. I'm sure Jhonen Vasquez if you gave him enough money and creative control would be up for a Johnny The Homicidal Maniac tv show.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

When you stop and think about it, horror is a hot commodity with The Walking Dead as a juggernaut on AMC, FX has American Horror Story, Penny Dreadful is on Showtime, NBC has Hannibal, and the From Dusk Till Dawn series is on the ElRey Network. It's strange, because every now and then SyFy runs marathons with the Friday The 13th films, so they have the hook to catch horror fans.

Although, and Alex pointed this out, SyFy co-produces films with The Asylum, so you get the feeling they're more concerned with parody style horror films. The awful Sharknado films have a fan following, and they're going with a third film that's set to air on SyFy in 2015. Honestly, when I think back on all the SyFy original films, Ghostquake (or Haunted High) and Red: Werewolf Hunter are the only watchable films that pop into my mind. Long story short, Ghostquake is a campy horror film about a group of kids trapped inside a high school with evil spirits after an earthquake, and Red: Werewolf Hunter is about the descendant of Little Red Riding Hood hunting and fighting werewolves.

When you consider SyFy's past and current trends for producing cheesy parody films and generic shows with generic characters, cliched storylines, and bland writing, I find it hard to believe they'll take a serious step towards producing something along the lines of The Walking Dead or Game Of Thrones in the future, and you can say the window is closed now.

 

[Alastor]

Syfy did have their fair share of sci fi series that were popular to the core sci fi audience and didn't get much mass appeal as the likes of the walking dead and Game of Thrones. BattleStar Galactica, Eureka, Warehouse 13 were all pretty well received during their runs. Sci-fi tv series are notorious for being expensive to make while drawing very little.

The walking dead is more horror than Sci-Fi content to me. Horror is a genre that draws. Game of Thrones is probably a non-starter for Syfy. It would be a totally different series to the one on HBO due to budget constraints. The likes of Arrow and other DC titles are probably first dips for CW or they have to pay a premium to obtain like what FOX did for Gotham. Same for Marvel and ABC. It isn't like that they didn't try to hop on the comic book train either. They just weren't good at making them.

Personally I think they probably were too focused on making space operas after the success of Battlestar. Then when comic book craze hit they tried to make their own IP of superhero/powered which didn't catch on because of the terrible characters/writing compared to the decades of rich history of adapted characters.