You Are On The Global Frequency

Oh, internet. Thou art a purveyor of crap.

Fan created outrage took another giant step forward last week when the never-aired pilot episode of "Global Frequency" leaked onto Bittorrent. Important points:

1. "Global Frequency" is the TV adaptation of Warren Ellis' beloved comic book. It revolves around a secret global network of 1000 experts who will help save the world at the drop of a hat.

2. The TV Pilot was created for the WB, but did not get picked up as a series.

3. Someone has leaked a test tape of the pilot episode online, which has led fans in the tens of thousands to petition the WB, the writers, the producers, etc, to get the thing on the air.

Here's the problem: it's pretty bad.

Most of the time, when you have fan outroar, it seems to serve something that is deserving of praise, but underserved by audience. This is not the case here.

I understand that Warren Ellis & his graphic novels have a lot of fans (I count myself as one of them), but the pilot episode is just poorly made.

The sets all look like backlots, the acting is uniformly poor, and the script is cliched, at best.

Which is unfortunate, because it's a nice concept, and some of the effects aren't too bad.

Here's the biggest problem, though, and one that would hamper it being a successful series. The basic idea is that you have a global organization run by two people (Miranda Zero, the mysterious head of the organization, and Aleph, the punky computer brat) in an undisclosed location. So who are your main protagonists? Two people based in San Francisco.

Huh? What's GLOBAL about that. Nothing. Anyway.

Basically, my point is, there's nothing wrong in supporting stuff, but don't instantly assume that because the corporate suits didn't want it, and it's based on some sort of comic book/science fiction/cult thing, that it's good.