But if you're the sort of viewer who's inclined to watch these kinds of things on Syfy or Spike, they could be another argument for cutting the cable cord.
NBC cancelled it after only 19 episodes, citing low Nielsen ratings (and giving rise to an early instance of the sort of viewer protest now common when shows are killed off).
Early examples of this sort of programming have let viewers chat online while watching episodes of "Survivor," use their remote controls to play along with "Wheel of Fortune," buy the CD of whatever band is playing on "The Tonight Show," check stock quotes while watching CNBC and order a $1 coupon for Clorox Bleach while watching a commerical.
But for another sort of viewer -- the kind who would be more likely to commission David's paintings, for example -- that background is decidedly odd.
Just how much of this sort of background information to provide for viewers is a vexed area for curators.
Thus, short of farting out another montage of his chauvinistic "best bits", the BBC did all it could to reassure viewers that this sort of thing will stand.
What awaits to be seen is the extent to which, and the reason why, viewers find this sort of control pleasurable; how the level of mind control provided by Hitchcock (or, for that matter, Sergio Leone, surely a master, though a somewhat lesser one) compares with the captivation factor of great music or great books; and, as with so many aesthetic matters, who the outliers are.
The most effective factor to complete this would be to simply call them and inquire about more facts on the sorts of viewers they have presented and motivated.
Most of the social commentary, although depicted imaginatively, is deadly earnest, so Steve Gianakos's "Missing Children" sort of ambushes viewers with its black humor.
He said The Thick of It, Armando Ianucci's acclaimed political satire which began on BBC4, last week "had a quite clear statement before it about the sort of language viewers were going to hear.
