Cross Promotion or Realism
as i sit here making a shopping list i'll never purchase and filing my badly bitten finger nails i was thinking, lets write something...

I know a lot of you don't watch ESPN's fantastic football drama, Playmakers and i could stop talking to you right now for that, but last night's episode brought something up, that i'd like to talk about...

Since ESPN is the self proclaimed world leader in sports, and i'm not disagreeing, they definitely are, they have the resources to make a sports drama as real as possible. Not only do they investigate and report any and every sports related story, and therefore have thousands of possible, real to life story lines that they can base episodes of Playmakers on, but they also have every resource available to make the show as real as possible.

In last nights episode, ESPN may have gone too far in blurring the line between reality and their fictional series. One of the main characters, Leon Taylor, who in a fight with his wife, was fending off her punches and pushed her, causing her to fall down the stairs and sprain her wrist and split her lip, was charged with Felony Spousal Battery...he had come clean and explained the situation, how it was an accident, and how he has resolved this issue with his wife, along with going to counseling to handle his temper, and he was still arrested and charged, despite his wife not wishing to press charges....

During the course of the episode, the characters made references to the Laker's not suspending Kobe even though he was accused of rape and Jason Kidd hitting his wife and coming clean, and how it didn't hurt his reputation very much. This is getting a little too real, and right out of left field... i've seen every episode thus far and, in no other one, had references been made to real people...and suddenly now, this fictional football team exists in the same plane of existence as my reality?

Now that's forgiveable but here's where ESPN did too much in one episode...Every time a character turned on the radio, Jim Rome or Dan Patrick were on the radio crucifiying Leon Taylor, ok, ok, this shows how the media gets hold of an issue and goes off and what that must be like for a player wrapped up in the middle, i get it, but when the coach turns on the tv and watched maybe 2 whole minutes, 2! of Around the Horn with Max Kellerman, discussing Leon Taylor, complete with Jay Maritotti and Woody Paige arguing with each other, in an obviously insincere and staged way, i was a bit annoyed...

At first i was very happy with all the realism, making the show have a certain amount of credibillity, and it's good to see the Around the Horn folks on another show, but like just about any cameo, its exciting for about five seconds, and when you think about it, its a very cheap and annoying ploy, it pulls you in but won't hold your attention.

The media blitz is a good issue, and this show leaves no issue untouched, to the point where i don't know where they can get fodder for a second season, but i'm not sure if the use of ESPN tv and radio personalities was warranted, expecially 7 episodes into the season, to suddenly hit us with it all at once...how much is for the show and how much is for ESPN cross promotion?

"I get paid to be violent...sometimes that line blurs between on the field and off"