Let's make a list of things that turned viewers off

I’ve followed “the buzz” on CiC online since its inception. I remember what people complained about and what reasons people gave for deciding to stop watching the show. I also observed that the show developed and was shaped based on the criticism and feedback it was getting online. I honestly believe that network execs and producers either read the buzz on IMDB and elsewhere online or else hire people to comb the internet and report back to them with the buzz. IMDB is huge. Everyone knows it, and everyone refers to it in their blogs, and so many people use the message boards here, so that has to be a HUGE source of buzz and feedback for the makers of these shows.

When people complained that the show was becoming too WB-like because they showed the kids too much and Becca whined too much, Bochco came in and showed the kids very little in episodes 9-11. Then when people complained that they never showed the kids anymore, he had them have that party in the White House in episode 12. When people complained about the moustache-twirling-villain nature of Nathan Templeton and his constant efforts to undermine Mac (and him always being foiled again), Bochco made Nathan and Mac civil and buddy-buddy in episodes 9-12. When people complained that Mac always solves the crises at hand and always wins in the end, and the conflicts last only one episode, Bochco created the North Korea crisis plot and the missing weapons in Pakistan plot, which extended into the following episodes. When people complained that Mac was too saintly, too kind, and too perfect, Bochco had her offer Frank Terzano “absolutely nothing” in episode 12.

Then when people complained that Dickie was the jackass, the Jar Jar Binks of the show, Johnson & Co. made him into even more of a jerk so that Mac could fire him in the last episode so they could be rid of him. When people complained that Nathan & Mac were too buddy-buddy, Johnson turned him back into her enemy. When people complained that the characters weren’t shown interacting enough and didn’t have enough of an interesting back story, they started showing scenes from their personal lives, such as Kelly and Vince’s friendship, Vince’s marriage to his partner, Kelly’s ex-husband, and Jim’s friend with whom he discussed becoming Vice President.

So, anyway, I thought it would be helpful if we made a list of things that we remember to have been mentioned as turn-offs to the viewers, to help the creators and producers secure high ratings as they make the TV movie and any future episodes. Like I said in another thread, I personally don’t care, just as long as I get to see Geena Davis every week. But what have others complained about? Add to my list if I forget something. I don’t mean for you to list things like the many hiatuses, the change in schedule, the firing of Rod Lurie, the firing of Bochco, and the negative press surrounding the changes in showrunners. I’m asking you what in the CONTENT of the show turned viewers off. I think they could use a little reminder.

1. the simplicity
2. the slow pacing
3. Mac always solving the crisis at hand within one episode and the crises never extending into more than one other episode
4. Mac was too saintly, too perfect, too much of a superhero
5. the inaccuracies, mistakes, and unrealistic nature – the creators didn’t do their homework and/or didn’t have good enough consultants/political and historical advisors
6. the emasculation of Rod
7. Dickie was a dumb character – the Jar Jar binks of the show
8. Nathan was a moustache-twirling villain, and Mac always defeated him in the end. And yet he continued to try to undermine her and nobody in Washington seemed to know he was doing that or call him on it publicly.
9. Then Nathan and Mac became too friendly and civil, and people couldn’t stomach that either.
10. Republicans were presented as villains, and the Democrats were hardly shown.
11. They didn’t develop the characters enough or show them relate to each other. All right, we know that Mac was a wife and mother of three, that she had been VP, that she had served in Congress for 4 years, that she had been the chancellor of the University of Richmond, that she had been a prosecutor before that, and that she had grown up on Connecticut. What else? Why are we supposed to sympathize with her? Just because she’s a woman? The people at www.fanfiction.net have done a better job of writing back stories for her than the creators of the show. What about her staff and family? What about Nathan? What are their back stories? Why does Mac want to be President? Why does Nathan want to be President?
12. They showed too much of these underdeveloped kid characters, which made the show seem too WB-like, and then they didn’t show enough of them, which only emphasized how underdeveloped they were.
13. Becca was too whiny in the first few episodes, and everyone got tired of her.
14. Amy’s obsession with sugar was a bit too much, and she was too sugary sweet.
15. The show had a soap opera quality. People found the “Cabinet members resigning on Mac” and “characters, particularly Nathan, betraying Mac” plotlines boring and tiring.
16. Mac’s speeches could have been written better.

Please add your thoughts to my list.


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