As summer comes to a ceremonial end, we here at tableau have to ask: "Where did all the smart people go?" What we're talking about is the last few months of music, movies and the majority of television that found its way into our iPods, theaters and living rooms alike. I promise this piece is not a simple complaint lamenting the loss of brain cells during the past few months. What we're interested in knowing is why things are the way they are.
The easy answer, of course, is that summer is the season of fun. Beaches are filled to capacity, fireworks are set off on a nightly basis, and there's a general carefree atmosphere. But does this setting automatically merit the substantial increase of unnecessary explosions in movies, and the seemingly limitless amount of radio spins of the latest Katy Perry single? That's a rhetorical question, in case you are wondering.
The most curious thing about summer is that when audiences are offered quality variety, it seems they respond. This past summer's prime example was Inception, which managed both ambition and entertainment with thrilling results - it has earned more than $200 million at the box office and stands at staggeringly high 87 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. If only more major studios were willing to take the risks that Warner Bros. did with Inception, which excelled with a public relations campaign that explained very little and left us all the more intrigued.
In the world of television, a similar phenomenon occurred when cable network Showtime premiered its new show "The Big C" featuring a favorite thinking-man's actress, Laura Linney. Although its premise was spelled out during the promotional tour, "The Big C" garnered Showtime a lot of press and its biggest premiere audience in eight years. Once again, originality wins against the mundane.
So why is this not the norm? Why don't more studios and networks take more risks during the summer, when it seems that's exactly what audiences want? It's not that we didn't find Iron Man 2 entertaining, but we've got to ask: Did you ever think about it after you left the theater? Let's hope the suits in Hollywood have been taking notes for the past three months, and that by next Memorial Day, the norm of loud explosions and Tom Cruise jumping out of airplanes is gone, or at least accompanied by a concept that reaches beyond seeing an A-list actor jump out of airplanes.
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