Recently one of my favorite shows, Jericho, was pulled back from the brink of the cancellation abyss. It was one of those shows with a small loyal following, which gets canceled then comes back harder, better, faster and stronger. Unfortunately it didn’t get to that point until two episodes before its demise and thus ended prematurely and embarrassingly unsatisfactory. There are a couple of new shows which might suffer such near-future humiliation.
New Amsterdam is about an immortal named John Amsterdam who currently plays the role of an NYC detective. Well, he’s not technically immortal since he was given an entrance back to mortality. In other words, someone made him immortal and they told him that when he meets his true love, he’ll become mortal again. Sounds cheesy, I know–doesn’t help that it’s on Fox either. The cool thing is that the guy has stayed in the general same area for four hundred years: New Amsterdam, aka New York. With a series of photographs of the same area developing over time, the guy became a detective because of what They did to his city in 9/11. With him recently having a heart attack after bumping into his future girlfriend/doctor, he’s pretty sure he’s found the One. This is all just a long way to spell DOOMED.
Terminator, the Sarah Connor Chronicles (FOX network) is also extremely excellent but I fear its demise. The robot on robot fighting sequences would be unimpressive (as in Terminator 3 unimpressive) if it weren’t for former ballerina Summer Glau. The effects in general are marginally impressive but the show gets extra points for figuring out smart ways to show violence and increase impact (at this point I would link to the season finale but that would be wrong). The good thing about this show is that as a franchise off the movie it might have some legs and it’s sci-fi enough to possibly transition over to SciFi.
Miss Guided follows the school life of Becky Freely, a former (and current) geek and high school guidance counselor. The show is fun, chock full of 80s references, and doomed to failure with or without executive producer Ashton Kutcher. Okay, maybe its not technically doomed since this is the same network that gave us years of Family Matters and Full House (MCF will love the pre-Saget Danny Tanner).
Eli Stone (also on ABC) tried to generate some interest by airing right after Lost. I’m not sure how successful that was but either way, I’m hooked. It’s about a lawyer who gets weird visions (George Michael has either showed up on the show enough times or been referenced often enough to be sainted by ABC) that help him figure out which cases to take and how to win them. His father (Tom Cavanaugh) was cursed/blessed with the same condition and there’s been some discussion that Eli Stone is actually a prophet except that weird tumor in his brain gives an altogether different reason for the oddities. Of course, no tumor has ever made someone know the future (or the past) and the show proceeds to mix humor and concern while tiptoeing around the Big G. If they get far enough, I wonder what they’ll do with that or if they’ll bring in an Evil Leaper. Either way, the show is probably doomed to be canceled before then.
Terminator might survive but the rest are probably doomed. We’ll see how my predictions pan out after a 2nd season (if they get that far).
9 responses to “Doomed to Cancellation?”
And the writer’s strike is like this wildcard that threw the season into disarray so things could go either way. SCC had a short season, and New Amsterdam has its season finale next week after only 8 episodes. Is it enough time to get ratings? Will FOX have anything else to put on next year? Would they fill empty slots with reality shows rather than give a drama another chance? I’m just glad they mysteriously keep renewing Prison Break each year; it’s almost like the token “see we don’t cancel all your favorite dramas” show.
I wanted to check out Miss Guided; I saw the commercials and I actually thought it was Jennifer Finnegan from Committed but I just double-checked and saw it was Judy Greer from The Specials and supporting roles in a lot of less-obscure movies like Elizabethtown or 13 Going on 30. All the more reason to watch but I have no idea when its on. As for Eli, I’m pretty burned out after Lost and its hard enough to go finish a Netflix or write my evening blog post. It does look interesting from the commercials though and looks like a good cast.
And of course, I NEED more to watch. My agenda tonight is to watch Barton Fink and/or The Constant Gardner from Netflix, four new episodes of my favorite Thursday NBC sitcoms(including Scrubs which is rumored to be getting a proper final season on ABC next year since the strike cut it short and NBC isn’t ordering more eps and ABC technically owns it), and if time allows, another SG1 episode. I’m into season six now which is probably the season I’ve seen the most episodes from in syndication, but I appreciate it more in context now.
Yeah, I need more stuff to watch.
MCF, if there was one show I would say to add it would be Miss Guided. The musical references alone evoke memories of the Breakfast Club or cheesy 80s movies once more proving that our generation is in charge. Over here it’s airs on Thursdays, 8:30.
Against 30 Rock? Aaack!
don’t forget pushing daisy’s.. i blinked and that show was already off the air. And to me, it was perfect tv.
Oh yeah, Pushing Daisies would be another show that is in danger of death but at least it was renewed for another year and we’ll see that coming back during the next season.
MCF, you need to TIVO. 30 Rock is exactly 19 minutes long without commercials and with TIVO you can record at the same time.
Either way, Miss Guided is over now (until the next season) and 30 Rock just kicked in so they were technically never against each other.
(I can’t believe you didn’t watch the Pre-Sagat Tanner Clip!)
What clip? You just linked to the guy’s IMDB profile?
I’ll find Miss Guided online. And I usually only spend 19-22 minutes on sitcoms, watching DVDs during commercial breaks. Usually Thursday consists of Smallville and Supernatural then watching the four NBC shows and fastforwarding commercials. I’m lucky that when Lost was airing Thursdays at 9, it only conflicted with CW shows. When Lost returns later this month at 10, I’ll be watching Smallville, Supernatural, Lost, then at 11 going back and watching NBC sitcoms. That’s five hours of television including commercials. Why is everything on Thursday?
I’m glad Pushing Daisies is getting another season. That and Chuck were ones I worried about. The rest of these mid-season shows are probably more on the fence right now.
It was in the Full House link here.
Okay, that’s just weird. They framed it all the same when they brought in Saget, but now I’m like “who’s that creep rubbing Danny’s kids’ backs by the marina?”
It would be awesome if they had a version of those credits with Josh Radnor as Danny Tanner. ;-)