Hollywood
Q: I’m trying to remember a TV show about an average Joe sheriff in a town of geniuses. Can you help me figure out what it’s called?
A: I’ll avoid the obvious joke here and say instead, hooray, I found it. The show you’re looking for is called “Eureka.”
It aired on Syfy (back when it was still called Sci-fi) for six years — almost to the day, in fact, from July 18, 2006, to
July 16, 2012.
The cult-favorite sciencefiction comedy series was set in the fictional town of Eureka, Oregon (though there is a Eureka in California, a little bit south of the Oregon border). It was, as you say, about a regular cop (a U.S. Marshal at the beginning of the show) who becomes sheriff of the isolated town, which is home to a bunch of scientists doing secret government research. That premise could result in an “X-files”-style paranoid drama, except that the research often goes comically wrong.
Q: Why do they play the background music in movies and TV shows so loud? Many times you miss a lot of conversation due to this irritating music.
A: This is a question we receive fairly regularly, but every so often when the volume of questions rises (see what I did there?) we revisit it.
Unfortunately, there’s not just one answer, nor is the problem likely to go away.
One of the reasons experts point to is show producers feel that a dramatic contrast between music and dialogue is exciting and “cinematic.”
The BBC in the U.K. caused a minor controversy a few years ago when it responded to this criticism of one of its shows, “Wonders of the Universe,” featuring celebrity scientist Brian Cox. It stated publicly that it would release a remix of the show with the music turned down. Cox criticized the decision, saying, “It should be a cinematic experience — it’s a piece of film on television, not a lecture.”
However, there are a number of other factors feeding in as well. That “cinematic” ideal may only work when you’re working on cinematic timelines, and with a movie theater’s sound system.
Some experts point out that the volume problem on TV is the result of the hasty editing that often occurs in the TV biz, which works on much shorter deadlines than film. They also point out that our ability to distinguish different types of sounds depends on the audio system we’re using. If a show’s sound editor mixes it for a high-end home sound system (let alone for a “cinematic” experience), the result won’t work as well on the speakers of your average television.
Unfortunately, it also depends on the ears we’re using. Some people, particularly older ones or those who have experienced hearing damage, have more trouble picking up some sounds.