"Robert Reed - Eight Episodes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reed Robert)

With minimal fanfare and next to no audience, Invasion of
a Small World debuted in the summer of 2016, and after a
brief and disappointing run, the series was deservedly
shelved.
One glaring problem was its production values: Computer
animation had reached a plateau where reality was an easy
illusion, spectacle was the industry norm, and difficult tricks
like flowing water and human faces were beginning to
approximate what was real. Yet the show's standards were
barely adequate, even from an upstart Web network
operating with limited capital and too many hours of
programming to fill. The landscapes and interior shots would
have been considered state-of-the-art at the turn of the
century, but not in its premiere year. The characters were
inflicted with inexpressive faces and stiff-limbed motions,
while their voices were equally unconvincing, employing
amateur actors or some cut-rate audio-synthesis software.
With few exceptions, the dialogue was sloppy, cluttered with
pauses and clumsy phrasing, key statements often cut off in
mid-sentence. Most critics decided that the series' creators
were striving for a real-life mood. But that was purely an
interpretation. Press kits were never made available, and no
interviews were granted with anyone directly involved in the
production, leaving industry watchers entirely to their own
devicesтАФanother problem that served to cripple Invasion.
Other factors contributed to the tiny audience. One issue
that couldn't be discussed openly was the racial makeup of
the cast. Success in the lucrative North American market
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 Eight Episodes
by Robert Reed


meant using characters of obvious European extraction. Yet
the series' leading man was an Indian astronomer working at
a fictional college set in, of all places, South Africa. With an
unpronounceable name and thick accent, Dr. SmithтАФas his
few fans dubbed himтАФwas a pudgy, prickly creation with a
weakness for loud shirts and deep belches. His wife was a
homely apparition who understood nothing about his world-
shaking work, while his children, in direct contrast to virtually
every other youngster inhabiting popular entertainment, were
dim-witted creatures offering nothing that was particularly
clever or charming.
A paucity of drama was another obvious weakness. The
premiere episode involved a routine day in Dr. Smith's life.
Eighteen hours of unexceptional behavior was compressed to