"Clash of the Corps" Episode Discussion

[afd]

Caught the show last night. I have not seen the prior episode. Meant to watch a subsequent airing and fell asleep. Drat getting old!

You are old...:)

[31rabbit]

I was All There for the first two episodes, halfway there for the third, but then I was absent. After the novelty of 'this thing that I did/like is on TV!' wore off, there was just nothing content-wise to inspire me to give this show time over other things. Because I've heard it all before.

I marched for several years, so all of Illumination and Heart aspects aren't anything I need to be told. Yeah it's a hard activity, I was there. Yeah there are obstacles, I had them or knew friends who had them. When they were My Issues or My Friends' issues, we lived them for hours and days. So dabbling in these MM's issues for 5min at a time doesn't get anything out of me. and I nodded along righteously in the first episodes when they talked about how hard the activity was, but I'm over that particular point of narrative.

Doubt that I'm the only ex MM who is not investing in this: it's a show telling us stuff we already know.

Now I'm aware that the drum corps show that Could hold my attention regularly would probably be heavy inside-baseball stuff and of much smaller appeal, so I'm not saying the network should make a show for me.

Guess I was hoping a show about things I'd done would engage me, but it turns out it doesn't really hook me.

which is not to in any way influence anybody or decry anybody else's interest. if you're digging it, you certainly don't need my approval.

It's good enough at doing what it's trying to do, it's just not aimed at any viewer vacancies I happen to have.

maybe instead what I want is Dramatic Fiction. give me a 'Friday Night Lights' except about Drum Corps, I could watch that. same structure, really, with your characters running two trajectories (personal / activity). it'd be an interesting hybrid of the 'team sports drama' and the 'confusing lives of artists dramedy.'

[Ghost]

Maybe this show is geared for those who have no D&BC/band knowledge.

[31rabbit]

well I'm sure it's not geared away from them. But (and the caveat is that I'm projecting a stance which is always tenuous) it seems like there isn't enough context/background to make the show effective to the uninitiated? it's guesswork, but I tried imagining what the first ep would seem like to somebody with no knowledge, and it doesn't sufficiently seem to be convincing of anything. need input from the actual unattached.

suppose my rounder point is this: I've enjoyed a few reality or skill-based shows about things of which I know practically nothing (cars, shooting, dancing). I'd have previously said that a show about something I DO know about would be something I'd be interested in, but it turns out that it really isn't.

if that's just me, it's just me. but if I decide to go do something drum corps-ey right now, it'd be watching an old Finals show or two instead of watching CofC.

[dreamgrantor]

maybe instead what I want is Dramatic Fiction.'

.

I don't know much about being on tour but from what I do know, chatting over coffee in an empty diner sounds like dramatic fiction to me.

[Ghost]

but if I decide to go do something drum corps-ey right now, it'd be watching an old Finals show or two instead of watching CofC.

And I might be watching FN, but, that's another discussion for another month.

[CrownBariDad]

.

I don't know much about being on tour but from what I do know, chatting over coffee in an empty diner sounds like dramatic fiction to me.

Seemed awfully strange to me, too.

[31rabbit]

true tour story abstract: because of a bus breakdown in the wee hours and a necessity of having a location to the keep the staff cell phones charging while the corps waited all night in a truckstop trying to engineer salvation, I spent a loooong night in a nearly deserted diner drinking coffee and watching over phones while accompanied by a rotating cast of staff and other members.

so I mean if you march long enough you'll run through all 36 of the dramatic events.

Edited October 29, 2016 by 31rabbit

[brichtimp]

Just watched episode 5....very disappointed at this point. In my view, too much time spent on sickness and injury, too much canned sound, too little focus on the BD and Cadets brass and percussion sections in terms of how they develop their performance levels...after all, they are the engines that make the corps run. Too many insipid comments by Hopkins and his CG lady. I think this series could be so much more compelling without diving into the weeds of too much inside stuff.

Only 3 episodes left, and a viewer, not into DCI, still would not have a feel for how awesome these groups sound......a real missed opportunity so far, IMHO.

[barigirl78]

I caught up on the latest episode over the weekend. Maybe it's because I'm intrigued by seeing what was going on with the Cadets, I liked it.

The Blue Devils stuff is pretty boring, though. There's not much drama in people getting sick and they don't seem too concerned about the competition from Bluecoats. So, when the inevitable happens and they don't win, will it even be dramatic?