Recently, I was reading a magazine that outlined the big projects coming out in the upcoming year.  Some of them I can't wait for--HBO's Game of Thrones series, Steven Spielberg's epic War Horse, and the final novel from David Foster Wallace.

Then there are those projects that the media is convinced I should be excited about, but alas, I'm not having it.

Take Pirates of the Carribbean:  On Stranger Tides.  Nobody seems to be pointing out that the first three movies were meant to be a trilogy, not a franchise.  As a trilogy they worked fairly well, but watching Johnny Depp pull out his old Jack Sparrow costume for the fourth time made me groan in the theater.  I realize this stuff is supposed to be the equivalent of cinematic comfort food, but if you're going to go back for a fourth round, shouldn't you at least have to come up with an exciting reason to?  Based on the trailer, the only difference between this movie and what's already been done with the series is "Hey look!  Penelope Cruz is in this one!"

Ditto for Scream 4.  There should be a rule that if you promote a movie by promising it's going to be the last one, a la Pirates or Scream 3, then you should be forced to sign a contract ensuring that it is, in fact, the last one.  I sat through the last Scream purely because I felt like I owed it to the franchise for scaring me to death back when I was twelve, but I'm not feeling any loyalty this time around.

On television, reality is about to get even bleaker.  A&E is taking advantage of Intervention's popularity by creating a spin-off (that's right, you heard me, an Intervention spin-off) entitled Relapsed, where coaches will help people trying to stay on the wagon.  TLC was actually thrilled to announce that they're doing an entire series on extreme coupon-ers.  All things considered, it might be smart to crack a few more books this year.

Speaking of books, it's a little strange to me that Diane Keaton's memoir is drawing more attention than Wallace's posthumous work.  I'd rather see Diane Keaton do another great movie than read about the ones she's already done.  Tina Fey is also coming out with a book, but even though I love her, the book just seems to be a novelty item.

I don't mean to sound too pessimistic.  There are an awful lot of things to be excited about in the coming year.  For me, the exciting movies, tv shows and books are always the ones that take people by surprise.  Nobody ever predicted that movies like The Hangover and True Grit were going to be blockbuster events when they came out.

Very few things can hurt a project more than too much hype.