It’s about to the point that I will hesitate before committing too much time and energy to a new show because so many I have liked too much get cut short or cancelled altogether. A partial list might help make the point:
Justified
Terriers
Vegas (the Dennis Quaid one)
Kidnapped (Delroy Lindo)
The Chicago Code (another Delroy Lindo)
Rubicon (although I was losing interest when they pulled the plug)
I’m sure there are many others, and I was curious if you feel somehow that you may be in a “loser demographic” or else have tastes that aren’t shared by enough other people.
And for the real point to this thread: what shows that you’re enjoying now do you think will be the next to get the ax?
My husband and I have been really enjoying a new show called ‘Intelligence’, on CBS.
We hope it lasts, but it seems like whenever we enjoy a show that much, it gets canceled. We hope that isn’t the case with this one.
I was just thinking about this subject this morning, although from the opposite point of view. With a few exceptions, the shows I like are the most popular ones, with large and largely uncritical audiences. On the one hand, that makes my tastes pedestrian, and in the eyes of the SDMB, I lack sophistication. OTOH, at least my shows tend to run forever, including favorites like NCIS; CSI: Las Vegas; The Amazing Race; and the lamented but never really gone original Law & Order.
I liked Chaos. Pow, gone. Misfits of Science, Q.E.D., American Gothic… I’m surprised The Big Bang Theory is still ongoing.
…and it makes me worry for Almost Human.
Strange you put Justified on your list, Zeldar. It’s already completed its fifth season and even though it’s ending after a sixth season, it had a really nice run.
First of all, did you mean to say Justified, or are you thinking of another show? I think next season is its last season, but chosing to end after six seasons is different than being canceled.
Second of all, there have been a lot of TV shows I’ve enjoyed that have then been canceled. But I don’t find it too terribly surprising, since it seems that there are so many shows competeting for attention, and TV networks don’t often give shows time to build an audience, and so there are a ton of shows that come and go.
Yeah, that’s true. May be in my all-time Top Five shows and with still a season to go, it’s certainly outiside the one-and-done group. But the fact that it’s going away after next season really puts me wondering what will replace it in my weekly rotation. The fact that it was either clear #1 or tied with How I Met Your Mother in – Which of these 16 ending TV shows will you miss the most? – helped me put it on this list. (Note that I haven’t linked to that thread )
ETA: This should clear up the Justified issue, Sam Lowry.
But, then, she fell in love with Supernatural, and you can’t kill that show with a stick, so maybe she’s broken her curse. We’ll see how she does with Arrow, Almost Human, and Sleepy Hollow.
Could y’all please stay away from “Almost Human”? It’s really picking up steam right now, but clearly doesn’t have a lot of support. The last thing it needs is your anti-support kiss of death!
It doesn’t seem to help that Fox is apparently pulling the same crap with Almost Human that they pulled with Firefly – airing episodes out of order, and thereby messing with ongoing storylines and character development. Talk about not learning from history…
I have felt like the OP, including Terriers. It has gotten so bad that I now do the “Wait until it appears to be succeeding and then catch up on the DVDs after a few seasons.” thing.
I hate getting invested in a show that goes off the air so soon. Especially shows with long story arcs/mysteries that just … stop airing.
Others: Memphis Beat, Fairly Legal, The Firm and Awake. At least with Awake they did a quicky “resolution” at the end of the last episode to sort of resolve things in a way.
Plus there’s ones that were so short lived I can’t remember the titles. E.g., there was one set at a mental hospital with a House-like theme.
I am definitely the kiss of death for TV shows! I actually religiously follow TVbythenumbers/CancellationBear on twitter so I can mentally prepare myself for their ensuing demise.
Sorry folks. I really like Almost Human AND Intelligence, but it’s not looking good…
There are well-established patterns for success on the small screen. If you hew closely to them, you live. If you don’t, then you’re an “also-ran.” Since I neither produce nor create television series, my role in the business is that of a passive viewer.
Are there series which I wish had received longer runs?
Certainly.
The most prominent of these were:
Hot L Baltimore
Frank’s Place
WKRP
SCTV
Chicago Story
The Original Battlestar Galactica
Enterprise
Alphas
However, they were unable to find mass audiences, they became evolutionary dead
ends and they were culled by natural selection. Happens with businesses all time.
I just turn on the set and watch what’s presented.
Recently for me it’s been Mob city. I am a sucker for that period and I think they did a good job of capturing the tone and dialog of films of the time. It certainly had some issues in that some of it was very cliched but the last couple of episodes were excellent and they really set it up well for another series. Robert Knepper’s character was starting to get interesting and Edward Burns did a cracking job as Bugsy Siegel.
Oh, hell yes. Too many to count. So many left behind…
Y’know, I can’t actually remember the last current-production show—as opposed to ones that were made and completed overseas, and brought to the US later—that I made a point of really watching regularly that was popular enough to live out it’s natural life.
Actually, there’s one, that’s still running—The Legend of Korra. And I’m really kind of lukewarm towards it, at best.* I may not stay on past the next season.
(God, that sounds way more hipster-y than I’m comfortable with. Double )
After that, I think the closest are some shows that I used to watch regularly, but lost interest in, or ones that I’ll (usually) watch if they’re on, but usually don’t think or bother to take the time to watch every episode of.
It’s all made me more than a little gunshy about getting invested in anything new, I’ll admit.
*(I felt the plot, pacing, setting, and characters have been a bit…um…like this.)
I really believe the person in charge of axing TV shows has some sort of monitor on my television. “All right, he seems to enjoy this show…Let’s put it on the chopping block!” It doesn’t matter whether it is comedy, drama, Western, science fiction or whatever. If I show an interest, it’s out the window…The only exception to the rule…Dr. Who. I started watching it when it had been on the air about 10 years. Somehow, it survived me.
No, but I definitely AM the kiss of death for fine dining establishments in Austin. If I take my wife to an elite Austin restaurant, odds are very strong it will close down within a few weeks.
)
