They’ve announced most of the fall schedule. here’s some decent looking stuff on it. I’m particularly looking forward to Bionic Woman. But, that being said, I think we need to take a moment to remember out fallen comrades, the ones that didn’t quite make it out.
First up on my list is Justice. I’ll be the first to admit it was a cotton candy show, not one to reinvent the medium, but a lot of fun. One of the things I thought was particularly cool was that the actual crime was revealed after the trial was over. Since the main characters never actually knew the truth, there was never that “Law and Order” acting. You know, the kind of acting where you know someone is lying because, well, they’re acting like they’re lying. In Justice, it could be played straight, and you wouldn’t know what really happened until later.
Next, The Nine. This was a wonderful character piece about nine people who survived a hostage situation. With Tim Daly, Chi McBride and John Billingsly among other actors, this was just a bang-up cast. Sadly, Tim Daly continues to be the kiss of death on Wednesday nights on ABC. Don’t get me started on Eyes, and I’m a little worried about Private Practice now, too.
It wasn’t completely unexpected, but I’ll miss Stargate-SG1. This series did the impossible, in that it rebooted itself with a new mission and a few new characters. It did the kind of allegorical stories that Star Trek used to do. Currently, the SG1 team are fighting an incredibly powerful group of religious zealots forcing people to convert or perish. Sound like anything? The show remained fun, too. The 200th episode was a hilarious love letter to the fans, and the characters were undeniably engaging. Sci-Fi has decided to cancel this but still allow it a couple of movies to wrap everything up. So it could have been worse.
I blame ER for the demise of The Black Donnellys. This was a Paul Haggis drama, in the same vein as his also-cancelled EZ Streets. Why I’d be attracted to the story of an artist named Tommy who had to keep his brothers out of trouble. It was supposed to replace ER on Thursdays mid-season, but the venerable doctor drama came on strong this year, and Donnellys was moved to the Monday Night of Death. I’ve got a theory that really smart dramas don’t work on Monday nights. People are too fried from their first day at work to watch something thinky. Both PrisonBreak and 24 have enough action to keep people going. Donnellys may have been a little too smart for the time period…like another show I’ll get to soon.
I thought Raines was spectacularly well-written. Its pilot had a surprise twist to it I didn’t see coming, and I watch enough TV that that’s hard to do. The mysteries were pretty good, Jeff Goldblum gave a great performance, and the art deco Raymond Chandler vibe was pretty slick. This delusional detective saw murder victims and imagined the way they’d look and sound. It could have been a really good show.
I feel like any description of Drive should end in the middle of a sentence, the was Fox yanked it so quickly. Four episodes over three nights is barely enough time for people to learn a show is on, let alone like it. It was an improbably plot about an illegal cross country road race, but it was addictive. And Fox canceled it in the middle of a two parter. Man, I hate those guys. Of course, I’ve still never forgiven them for canceling Profit.
The most painful one for me is, of course, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I am an unabashed Sorkin fan, and when you put Matthew Perry in the lead I was expecting gold. I think we got it… five episodes too late. The pilot and the premise in general were plot heavy: a great comedy writing-producing team are lured back to the sketch comedy show they were fired from to save it by the new network head. Why was that so bad? Because you have to establish the comedy team, the new network head, and the big stars who work the show.
It started off a little clunky. It became apparent that the show was about writing, which is a difficult sell. Still, seeing Matt Albie walk into his office in the middle of a successful first episode to see a countdown clock reminding him that he had only a week to do it again will always be with me. And once they did their Christmas episode, every episode afterwards was just fantastic.
I think this show needed a little more time, maybe a better time slot. Sadly, it got neither and it’s gone.
I accept that my tastes are rarified. There are probably a few shows that work just for me and few other people (Chicago Sons and Profit come to mind) but not enough to support renewal. But far too many of these shows are bounced after a couple of low-rated episodes and after the time and investment, aren’t given the time to find an audience. Or they’re pre-empted so they can’t build one.
Why networks invest so much money in a series and then kill it so speciously, I’ll never understand.
