UPDATE 1:
Sadly,
the CW chose to cancel Star-Crossed, with only one episode left in the breathtaking first season. I thought it was doing well
& was absolutely shocked when the news hit (as were many others).
Overall, 23 shows were axed. Some other great shows were
cancelled, but Star-Crossed was probably the most shocking, & the
most heartbreaking. There is so much left for this wonderful show, &
I hate seeing the fans so crushed, as well as all the work put into
this show going to waste.
When
a show has been cancelled, it's pretty unlikely it will get picked back
up. Nonetheless, many Statgazers (fans of the show)
have started campaigning for the CW to reconsider, or for another network to pick it up. Don't get your hopes up, but if you want to join
us in the Twitter campaign, we are using hashtags like #SaveStarCrossed
in addition to the usual hashtag, #StarCrossed. Some are also trying to get Netflix to
pick it up. I personally think Syfy would be a good channel for it, but,
we'll see. It's worth trying, but again, don't get your hopes up too
high. Closure is important.
^ That was my first reaction. Just in shock. There are plenty more that feel the same, which is definitely apparent when you search for #SaveStarCrossed or any of the related tags on Twitter. It's even more shocking when compared to some of the shows that were renewed, and some of the new crap coming out to replace the cancelled. It makes no sense whatsoever. The brilliant minds behind Star-Crossed deserve a second chance to tell their amazing story, and even if it does no good, Stargazers will not go down without a fight.
Here are some petitions you can sign that MIGHT help:
(If you know of more please let me know & I will add them here)
UPDATE 2:
The season (and most likely series) finale of Star-Crossed aired this week (5-12-2014) and it was even better than the rest of the series, with plenty of eye candy, all sorts of feels, some plot twists, and tons of action. I joined in on Twitter during commercials, and it seems the finale had the best online ratings yet, with it not only being a crazy amazing episode, but with the fans desire to see another season, and the hopes that tweeting like crazy about it would help. Only time will tell if it did. All I know is, after the finale, I now love Star-Crossed even more than before.
~ Clearly, I was impressed. And the show used the perfectly dark cover of "Stand By Me" by one of my favorite musicians Ki: Theory for the disturbingly epic end of the episode, which only made it better. Like I said on Twitter, the editing was done so well during the song that it was almost like a music video (which is great since Ki: Theory unfortunately had to remove the original "Stand By Me" video from Youtube because of 'violence' - which was crazy, BTW). And the way the show ended was absolutely without a doubt a cliffhanger, obviously written when they expected a second season. So now the fans are even more distraught, because while Star-Crossed did most definitely end on a high note and go out with a bang, not to mention an exciting science fiction shot that made scifi nerds like me squeal, it's obvious that this wonderfully intricate show wasn't given the proper ending it deserved. Good shows have ended before, such as The CW's other show Nikita, and the wonderful Being Human on Syfy, but both shows were given a proper ending. So, while I miss both shows to this day, the emptiness we felt when they ended doesn't compare to the void that this cancellation has left. Star-Crossed deserves to go on.
Like Amee said on Twitter (pictured) the main reason that the cancellation of Star-Crossed is so heartbreaking is that it never had a chance to tell its story, and it didn't get the proper ending it deserved. Season one left us with a huge cliffhanger, making us want to know what happens next season. Like I said, other shows (such as Nikita) at least had a good ending, so it was easier to say goodbye with everything tied up nicely. But Star-Crossed is left wide open, and while the finale was amazing, it just didn't wrap up the story as much as a series finale should. Some are even speculating that the CW is just messing with us and will soon laugh and say it was all a joke, but if it is a joke, it's not funny.
If there is a silver lining to this cancellation, it might be that it brought people from around the world together for a cause. People bound by their love for this wonderful show, and by their similar feelings about it being wrongfully cancelled. Stargazers are pretty awesome, and I hope this fandom is around for a long time. Whether it's a tattoo of Atrian markings or the beautiful Sondiv language from the show, or whether it's music videos commemorating Star-Crossed, or whatever it is, I have a feeling Stargazers will keep shining for years to come.
So keep shining, Stargazers. And never forget the impact that Star-Crossed had on you. Hopefully the rest of the world will realize how unique, beautiful and innovative this show was, and if not, well, that's their loss. ;)
Phew! That was long.
Now for my original post:
Now for my original post:
The CW has created some amazing TV shows, including Reign, The 100, The Tomorrow People, and much more. All of them have intriguing plot lines, epic quotes, stunning visual effects and cinematography, and perfect music that ties it all together for a great experience. But my favorite show of theirs so far is Star-Crossed, which is loosely based on Shakespeare's timeless tale of Romeo and Juliet, but with an alien twist.
In the show, Roman (who's name is an obvious play on Romeo) is among the aliens (called Atrians on the show) who come to Earth for sanctuary, and are in stead met with prejudice. Emery is the human girl (the equivalent of Juliet) who, unlike most humans, stands with the Atrians. After she befriends Roman as a child, they are separated for years, until a special program puts him and a group of his fellow Atrians at her high school, and the friendship (as well as romance) rekindles. Most of the humans continue to discriminate against the Atrians for being different, which is escalated by a few violent mishaps, and Emery continues to defend the Atrians, showing that not all humans are bad. Which is as true in the real world as it is in this show. Not all humans are bad. :)
Obviously, the romance between Roman and Emery is the main plot of the show, but it's done tastefully - the Atrians aren't "little green men" but look very similar to humans, aside from the markings on their skin, which are unique to each Atrian and glow blue in water "to light the way" - which hints at an amazingly intricate alien culture we want to know more about, and is intensified even more by their unique language, created by the wonderful David J. Peterson (who also created languages for HBO's Game of Thrones and Syfy's Defiance). There's a lot more to this show than just romance, and it holds a beautiful message about acceptance, tolerance, and the power of love. Which brings me to my music video. ;)
After the long awaited and shockingly passionate first kiss between Roman and Emery in "To Seek A Foe" (yes, the episode titles are all quotes from Romeo and Juliet, which is awesome), I decided I had to make a music video. So, I went to work getting as much footage as possible from that episode and the ones before it. I didn't get as much as I would have liked (I especially wanted to include footage from "An Old Accustom'd Feast" which was the next episode, but our internet connection coupled with the replacement of Star-Crossed reruns on Fridays by Hart of Dixie made it impossible). So, I did what I could with what I had to work with. I also added a few photos from the show, and animated lens flares over them to make them more interesting. I hope it worked.
I apologize for the poor quality. Since we don't have DVR or anything like that, I have to get most of my footage by recording the TV screen with a video camera. So that's why. That's also why you can barely hear the audio clips from the show, but I added text so you can at least know what they are saying. I just loved the quotes and had to use them, one way or another. I know it's not my best video, especially because of all this, but please try to ignore it and enjoy. The second half is hopefully better than the first, so try to stick with it!
When it came to choosing a song, I was stumped. So I posted about it on Twitter and got a couple song suggestions from fellow Stargazers (that's what fans of the show call themselves). @ThiaBaybee suggested "The Power Of Love" (the cover version performed by Gabrielle Aplin) and @MarsAmee suggested "Aquarius" (also a cover, performed by Digital Daggers - who I love BTW). Both great suggestions!
I had heard Gabrielle Aplin's cover of "The Power Of Love" on CW's other wonderful show Reign (it played during the "Frary" wedding scene), and I thought the lyrics were perfect for the storyline of Star-Crossed, but the music, although beautiful, didn't have quite enough "oomph" to edit to. But I decided to soldier on and add my own drum beats to the song to make it more powerful and easier to showcase my editing "skills" with. LOL.
I also added some subtle clips of the other request (the Digital Daggers cover of "Aquarius") over the song, essentially blending the 2 songs together. I have done this before, but never while adding my own beats, so the music alone is a pretty exciting reveal for me. You might need to blast it on headphones, but hopefully you can hear the changes. I will definitely be editing more music like this in the future, so keep those eyes peeled!
Oh, and "Aquarius" was used at the end of the very first episode of Star-Crossed, so I finished off the video with a clip of that song (also with drums added). I suggest listening to the whole song though - it really is amazing.
I hope both Stargazers who suggested songs will approve of the music and the video! I tried to give it the best of both worlds ;) And I added clips of the drums I used during the video credits (without music), in case you're curious.
Caution: This video is pretty romantic. Not only is the main song called "The Power Of Love" and the clips chosen accordingly, but it was made right after the first "Romery" kiss, so just keep that in mind. More than anything, I guess this is a "Romery" video, mainly for fangirls, LOL. So, watch with care. And possibly tissues? IDK.
Side note: This is my first official TV show music video and review! I plan to do more in the future (such as Syfy's recently deceased Being Human & hopefully some more CW shows) so again, keep your eyes peeled. And be nice. Keep in mind this is my first. No better show than Star-Crossed to break the ice with. :)
You can see Star-Crossed every Monday on the CW,
and you can see my video RIGHT HERE:
*Squeals* I hope you liked it! Please comment here or on the video itself and let me know! And please "like" and share and subscribe and all that jazz. Thanks for reading, and thanks for watching!
Be the lightning,
Kylie Kerosene.
}i{
Great post, Kylie! I can't believe how many good shows were canceled (although, cancellations on Syfy are predictable). They didn't even give Star-Crossed a chance! Many things can affect ratings of a show: Musical time slots, breaks for holidays or specials, competing shows (I had to watch the first few eps of Believe on demand, because TWD was still on then. Same happened with SC for a bit as Mondays are one of my busiest viewing nights), and alternate programming making some viewers not able to watch live or DVR (the third to last ep, and the finale of SC I couldn't watch until the Sat due to ballgames).
ReplyDeleteI really liked SC, it reminded me of Avatar in some ways, both sharing an important theme/message. I like shows/movies that make you think, and allow the viewer to see things in a different light than they may have previously. I found the racism against the Atrians disturbing and a direct parallel to the uglier side of human society, but was a message that needed to be shown, especially to the youth of today. To tolerate and accept others that are different, to treat others as you yourself would want to be treated.
As you said, if they had at least had a proper ending to give closure, it would have been more acceptable (if that's really possible). Although I was sad to see BH go, I was happy with the ending. But a cliffhanger! Really? smh. It left so many questions, that will now go unanswered: Are the humans really dead or in a coma? Humans who have Atrian DNA, are they awake (Gloria, Taylor, Emry's friend, Roman's half brother)? What about the the Atrian ships on their way to declare war with earth? Maybe CW could at least give us a mini movie to wrap things up, ala Firefly and Farscape.
Netflix or another network like CBS would be good, but not Syfy, as they are known to cancel a show at a max of 5 seasons (because they don't want to pay the additional increase in costs) unless of course, it's a reality show. I think SC would be a great addition to CBS, airing along with Under the Dome. It would boost the overall network ratings, as usually they don't do as well as ABC , NBC and Fox (I could be wrong though). Netflix would also be good because then we could see a complete season rather than waiting each week, which seems to be a trend that more similar streaming services (Crackle, Hulu, Amazon, etc) are doing.
I recently found out that The Glades on A&E was cancelled...after a MAJOR cliffhanger on the last season's finale. I hope that next week's finale of Revolution at least gives some closure that some of the other cancellations haven't (my theory is that the Nano is gonna make everyone "happy" or that it was all a dream/vr test). I don't know. I'm just getting tired of investing time and feels into new shows that are only cancelled. smh. (I am glad though, that The 100 and Rein were renewed)
Very well said Rayne! Thank you for commenting. :) I think the fact that the show aired around the Olympics hurt the ratings a bit in the beginning, and then changing the line-up hurt it a bit too. It would have been perfect to pair it with The 100, since they have similar themes, but for some reason, they didn't. And YES, that's one of the things I loved most about the show - the parallels to human issues like intolerance/racism. there needs to be more stuff out there addressing issues like this. Too much TV today is meaningless brain-melting crap. LOL. Sad, but true.
ReplyDeleteIf we don't get a second season somehow, a movie would be an awesome way to wrap it up! Even a TV movie. Just something to give the fans closure. And I didn't know that about Syfy, but thinking back, that does make sense. And Star-Crossed might have been too much like the Syfy show Defiance anyway, since they both have an alien theme, messages of tolerance/equality, the Romeo & Juliet love story, and even the same language creator working on both shows. But I agree about Star-Crossed being a good potential pairing with Under The Dome. We can only hope! Unfortunately we can't get Netflix where I live, but even if I can't watch it, it would be nice if other people could! Even if they released the rest on DVD's, that would be awesome. I would so buy them!
I haven't been watching Revolution lately, but I hope they wrap it up nicely for you! I think shows should be given enough time to wrap it up if they are going to be axed. The time between when people found out and when the last episode aired was just too short. But YES the silver lining is that The 100 and Reign were both renewed - 2 of my other favorites!
Yeah, the ratings suffered from a few things and TPTB don't take them into account. (IMHO, I don't think the network execs even watch TV much less their own station, lol). That would have been an awesome pairing with The 100! Agree: waay too much crap on TV. Don't even get me started on reality shows (there's only a few types of those I watch). I didn't know that about SC/Defiance, cool! (Just got inspired for a SC/Defiance X-over, lol)
ReplyDeleteYeah, a movie would be a great way to wrap it up. Like with the cliffhanger ending (which was supposed to have been the season finale, not series) of Farscape, after the fans rallied together, Syfy gave us a movie that wrapped it up, gave closure with the possibility of a sequel/prequel. I'd like that to happen with SC.
As far as not getting Netflix....there are other places to watch for free online, sites that list links of where to watch the eps. That's how I watch a lot of imports (like Merlin and Lost Girl) and other shows that aren't available on Demand or on the official network site (American Idol). There's some new shows, Salem and Penny Dreadful to name a couple, which I don't get those channels, so I'm going to watch them online, though there won't be CC. The site I use most often is http://www.primewire.ag/?tv . I don't know whatever happened to the direct-to-dvd trend that was going on a few years ago. There were a few shows, like Stargate-SG1 and movies like the I Know What You Did series that went that route. I guess it faded out when more people began to stream programming rather than purchase DVDs.
It's ironic about Revolution ending. While I was catching up on last week's ep the other day, I thought to myself about how fanficcy the show was getting and I didn't know how much longer it would continue....then after the ep was the coming attractions for the series finale. lol. It's too bad, the show had potential, but it went too far off the rails. The thing I'll miss the most about it is the humorous moments and the Myles/Monroe slashy-ness ;) (I think the writer's did that on purpose...fan service and all).
I cheered out loud when I found out that Rein and The 100 were renewed, lol. The 100 is my next fav show on CW. I love PA stuff. The only issue I have with it is that the cannon established Octavia's age as 15 or 16 (given the back story with their mom) and the age difference between her and Bellamy (5-7 yrs)...Lincoln is not a teen-aged kid. I was hoping they wouldn't go there because of that, but it's not as big of a gap as on some shows. I just don't think the writers are paying attention to the cannon they have established either directly or indirectly via back story (I've noticed this trend on a few shows in the last 2 yrs). I think Lincoln (27?) is older then Bellamy (22 or 23), but not by much. I wish writers would remember the canon and distinguish character age from actor age. Haha, at first I though Lincoln would turn out to somehow be Octavia's father that had escaped the ark. I don't mind it so much though because the age difference isn't too bad, and putting that aside (and remembering some romance novels I've read) they are rather hot together. I know...Lincoln looks older and just big for his age, lol. :p
Yeah, it almost seems like networks are trying to dumb-down TV watchers by getting rid of the smart shows and bringing in more mindless viewing (such as reality shows, ETC.) - Scary thought! But at least there are still a few smart/good shows left (like The 100 and Reign). Haha, a Star-Crossed/Defiance crossover would be awesome! LOL.
DeleteThanks for the link, I might check it out sometime. We have Hughes Net out here, which is a crappy internet service that only lets you watch videos online in the middle of the night, so yeah, it sucks. We can't even play video games online because it would lag, LOL. But it's still better than dial-up at least! And yeah you're probably right about streaming taking over the DVD trend. Either way though, I would love to have all Star-Crossed episodes (especially the finale) so I could make a better music video of it. Maybe someday, we'll see...
Haha, I probably cheered too. I had just found out about Star-Crossed and The Tomorrow People being over, so I was really bummed, then I found out about The 100 and Reign being renewed and it was a huge relief that they were at least renewed. And I agree, The 100 is probably my favorite CW show now that Star-Crossed is gone (sniffle) but there are still a couple things that bother me about it, such as the love triangles (not just one but 2?) and the fact that they involved sex in said triangles, which is nasty, especially if it's supposed to influence young people. And I agree about Lincoln and Octavia (AKA Linctavia LOL) and the age difference being weird, but I still kinda love them. Can't help it :p I think it would be less weird if they had waited longer to bring sex into it, but, the show is based on the book, so maybe they were just following the book(haven't read it but want to). Still love the show though!
Also, just discovered this petition to try and get Star-Crossed on DVD (i will add it to the list too) --> https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/itunes-the-cw-network-cbs-tv-studios-release-star-crossed-season-one-dvd-and-episodes-worldwide
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