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Networks are a loving travesty. TV shows are a commodity to them, and their only concern is how much they can sell ad time for. A tv program is garbage unless it hits high 18-49 numbers or has a fuckload of people watching it. Shows can get cancelled because a particular studio head hates it, because its ratings are garbage, or because the network just fucks with the series order so the show makes no sense to anyone watching. Let's take a look. Firefly  Anyone posting on the internet should be aware of this show. A quirky team of space misfits have space adventures. What's notable is some of the commercials Fox used to market it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1iWbgQUpRo Anyone who's watched one episode of the show will know that that commercial is a gross misrepresentation of the show. Either way, the network hosed over JMS by also messing with the episode order so poo poo did not make any sense to people watching because things previously introduced weren't explained. Jericho  Typical post apocalypse one town remains how will they survive story that quickly branched out. US gets terrorist nuked in 17 cities, everyone else is scrambling to survive in the aftermath, personal drama and mysteries all over the place. After a pretty great but poorly watched season 1 fans sent tons of bags of popcorn to the network and the studio heads reluctantly agreed to make a truncated season 2. It had potential, and continued in comic book form but opinions vary wildly. Revolution  Supposed to be a big tent pole drama, suffered from the main female character being a blatant rip-off of Katniss Everdeen (Hunger Games) and a slowly nonsensical plot that eventually wrapped up in a hilarious reveal. Many of the main cast where phenomenal, especially Giancarlo Esposito, but in the end the show suffered from the age old problem of what to do when you reveal the big mystery. Their response was to then make the mystery deeper, which didn't resonate too well. Cop Rock  How can any sane human being not want 100+ episodes of something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPk966PuQNE "I'M THE BABY MERCHANT, TOTS R US!" Rubicon  I haven't seen this show but every single time AMC comes up in any discussion its "Why the gently caress did they cancel Rubicon." quote:The narrative of the show involves the main protagonist, an intelligence analyst, during his investigation into the mysterious death of his mentor, which is later revealed to be an act of a larger conspiracy committed by a secret society of war profiteers in corporate America, whose members may include his employer. pentyne fucked around with this message at 05:47 on Jul 31, 2015 |
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Jul 31, 2015 02:45
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Thank loving God, finally someone else on the internet who wishes Firefly lasted longer
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Jul 31, 2015 02:53
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Looking at that Rubicon poster, what the gently caress does "Not every conspiracy is a theory" even mean?
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Sep 2, 2015 23:38
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Sarah Connor Chronicles. It started off loving awful with a really lovely Terminator. Then a character that sounded terrible on paper showed up and it started getting dark sci-fi and awesome. Then as it was hanging on by a thread, they did 3 super boring episodes nobody gave a poo poo about. Then it went straight back to being awesome until it was canceled. A mix of the fact people expect action in a Terminator thing and not heavier bents on sci-fi and the fact it had a bad start and also a brief bad stretch made most people write this thing off wayyyyyy before. I can't even blame Fox for canceling it, they really tried with it. But damned if I wouldn't have liked to have had another season. Also Derek had one of the coolest TV deaths. At least Lena Heady's carrer survived. (Ironically I thought she was horribly miscast as Sarah Connor but after seeing her in Dredd, I kind of wish we got Mama'ized Connor in the show. Her character was literally the weakest aspect). Also: GvsE. Sort of. It was an hilarious black comedy when it was on USA, then it promptly tried to turn 'hip and cool' when Sci-Fi absorbed it, and became absolutely unfunny. It deserved a second season of actually getting to be a comedy. (ED: For a hint how terrible it became they renamed it Good Vs Evil because they decided the audience was too stupid to get that.) Blazing Ownager fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Sep 3, 2015 |
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Sep 3, 2015 00:22
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juniperjones posted:Looking at that Rubicon poster, what the gently caress does "Not every conspiracy is a theory" even mean? It means someone got really high
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Sep 3, 2015 01:20
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Rubicon was probably the smartest and one of the most realistic spy show ever produced. It feels like the type of show that a jaded and disillusioned intelligence analyst would write about how everything is hosed. There weren't any dramatic close combat fights or exciting shoot outs with enemy spies or special gadgets and cars. Instead it focused on the day to day workings of a think tank and showed intelligence analysts shifting papers, writing research reports and making decisions that would affected the lives of people hundreds of miles away. The 'conspiracy' that was revealed played out really well and from memory, one of the goons here was even able to pierce together the entire plot really early on based on a knowledge of real life shipping lanes and logistic issues. Thankfully the show also ended perfectly and about as realistic as you'd expect. At the end of the show the main character, confronts his boss with carefully researched and sourced knowledge about his involvement in the conspiracy. His boss and his friends orchestrated a false flag attack to drag the US into another war in the Middle East where they stood to make billions from all the lucrative contracts. His boss however, played by a great Michael Cristofer, pretty much just laughs it off and asks him who'd care which is exactly what you'd expect would happen in real life. The bad guys win and made a shitload of money and even if the general public found out that they were lied to and dragged into an unnecessary war, they wouldn't really care enough to do anything about it. Another good show missed is Terriers which had the same love from critics but just not the audience.
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Sep 3, 2015 02:31
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The Good Guys was one of my favorites that ended before its time. Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks were perfect together 
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Sep 3, 2015 02:58
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Blazing Ownager posted:Sarah Connor Chronicles [..] had one of the coolest TV deaths. Terriers was cool too! Not what you'd expect from the name. I'd recommend it.
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Sep 3, 2015 03:05
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Megas XLR. A fat goony gearhead that plays too many video games throws his car onto a giant robot from the future. Cruises around with his skinny goon friend. Good times are had by all.
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Sep 3, 2015 04:25
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Family Guy and Futurama.
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Sep 3, 2015 05:04
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Ohhhh this is my new favorite thread! From this last season: Forever A show about a man named Henry who somehow becomes immortal in the early 1800s. He uses his knowledge of the human body to become a medical examiner in modern day and with the help of his son (who's now older than him) he spends the first season solving crimes and dealing with a mysterious individual who claims he is immortal as well. They have a big showdown at the end of the first season in which Henry is mortally wounded and believes he's finally going to die only for him to wake up just like every other time. It had good critical acclaim but the viewers just weren't there. It was a surprise cancellation for everyone involved. I was really curious to see where the story went and if he ever figured out how he became immortal.  Selfie This one got cancelled almost as soon as they decided on the name and I almost wrote it off myself but it turned out to be really funny and heartwarming. I liked seeing John Cho play a lead and he completely nailed a quirky, kind of socially awkward individual and Karen Gillan was absolutely hilarious. This would have killed on anything other than a network.  Sirens This show was loving amazing and every single actor on it was comedic gold. I started watching this show because it started when Psych ended and it took a couple episodes but by the time the 2nd season rolled around it was one of my most anticipated shows every week. This fact that they cancelled this incredible piece of work is a travesty and can only be seen as the dumbest thing USA has ever done because they don't have anything that even comes close to replace it with. Seriously, if you can find this show on any streaming service you need to watch it. And finally, one from yesteryear.  Journeyman Sure, maybe it's a Quantum Leap knockoff and maybe it's been 8 years and I should get over it but this was an incredibly well-acted show about a man who randomly gets transported through time to help people and I got goosebumps when he was finally able to prove to his wife he wasn't a deadbeat loser by digging up his porch and pulling out a toolbox of mementos. It was never released on dvd and I've never been able to find it even illegally so it's only increased my heartache. This was just another casualty of that drat writer's strike and, while I understand their motivations, I can only lament for the great shows that got cancelled before their time because of it. Daric fucked around with this message at 05:10 on Sep 3, 2015 |
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Sep 3, 2015 05:08
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Jericho ended at exactly the right time. There's no way they could possibly have done justice to the Second American Civil War.
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Sep 3, 2015 05:11
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Daric posted:
This show is cancelled? Awesome. To not be a drag on this thread, I'll say Alphas was cancelled too soon. It was a pretty grounded superpower show but it was canceled on a cliffhanger that would have been interesting to see the results of. 
Gaunab fucked around with this message at 05:23 on Sep 3, 2015 |
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Sep 3, 2015 05:19
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Gaunab posted:This show is cancelled? Awesome. Yeah, I was going through the shows I watch to see what was coming back soon and I saw that it ended. It's ridiculous. It was a really funny show.
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Sep 3, 2015 05:22
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Under the Dome
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Sep 3, 2015 05:25
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Nowhere Man (photojournalist takes a set of pictures showing that the government is doing some hosed up poo poo, gets his life erased, spends his life trying to get proof of the conspiracy and his life back) Strange Luck (another photojournalist that always happens to be in the right place at the right time, and has the superpower of being really lucky. Actually now that I think about this, it was Plot Armor: The Show. They were really reaching to show how lucky he was near the end... there's only so many times you can gamble on winning your meals cost at a diner by scratching lotto tickets. Probably good they cancelled it, but I loved it.) The Lone Gunmen (conspiracy dudes from the X-Files got their own show. It was loving awesome. gently caress everyone that didn't watch it and got it cancelled.)
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Sep 3, 2015 05:33
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God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title
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All you people naming shows that did two or more seasons are spoiled. Wonderfalls was a charming romantic comedy with some cool visuals from Bryan Fuller and was cancelled after four episodes. I still mourn it, 11 years later.
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Sep 3, 2015 05:43
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Apart from the obvious Firefly/Arrested Development/Carnivale/Deadwood examples that people will give, I'd like to nominate Better off Ted which never got the same love as AD or 30 Rock but belong in the same conversation and Freaks and Geeks, or even Undeclared for that matter. How can shows with that pool of talent, headed up by Apatow have only got one (limited) season each?
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Sep 3, 2015 05:53
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Stella.
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Sep 3, 2015 05:58
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Probably gonna get poo poo for this and say Stargate Universe. Yes the first season largely sucked but the 2nd made up for it, especially the back half. It was cancelled in 2011 but it pulled numbers that Syfy would kill for now. And had it lasted as long as the previous Stargate series we'd probably still watching that rather than the dogshit that is Dark Matter. I love you Joe Malozzi but seriously Dark Matter blows. RedneckwithGuns posted:The Good Guys was one of my favorites that ended before its time. Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks were perfect together This show was just too good to live. Whitford totally killed it in that role. The fact that they ended up in an insane firefight every. loving. episode. was great.
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Sep 3, 2015 07:47
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The simpsons
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Sep 3, 2015 08:05
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HUGE SPACEKABLOOIE posted:Probably gonna get poo poo for this and say Stargate Universe. Yes the first season largely sucked but the 2nd made up for it, especially the back half. It was cancelled in 2011 but it pulled numbers that Syfy would kill for now. And had it lasted as long as the previous Stargate series we'd probably still watching that rather than the dogshit that is Dark Matter. I love you Joe Malozzi but seriously Dark Matter blows. Nah, man, I came to post the same thing. The second season is when the cast finally found their stride and I appreciated that the franchise was trying to make new lore while incorporating old stuff alongside it. Hell, SGU made the Lucian Alliance seem like an actual threat and/or semi-capable and that's a miracle in and of itself. As for my contribution, Kings on NBC was a retelling of the story of King David set on an alternate version of Earth and in a time period comparable to our own. The show had a wonderful cast and an intriguing setting where the major countries in the world were named after places where the Tribes of Israel settled in antiquity. Ian McShane killed it, Macaulay Culkin portrayed a serial killer in the making and rounding out the cast was an interpretation of the Old Testament Judeo-Christian God that wasn't an overseer so much as it was a fickle force of nature whose favor was impossible to garner. The second season could've been something great and it's unfortunate that its story and setting will likely be forgotten.
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Sep 3, 2015 08:23
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 Charlie Jade Trailer An evil cyberpunk megacorporation builds a portal between the cyberpunk universe, our universe and a hippie nature universe. A hard-boiled cyberpunk private eye travels into our world to prevent them from taking over. Oh, and the whole thing is set in South Africa. The first season did wrap up the main plotline pretty well, but it ended on a cliffhanger and they had some really awesome plans for season 2. The second season was supposed to be set several years in the future, after the portal has become public knowledge and the different universes have established economic cooperation similar to the European Union. SimonChris fucked around with this message at 09:10 on Sep 3, 2015 |
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Sep 3, 2015 08:57
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Vanderdeath posted:Nah, man, I came to post the same thing. The second season is when the cast finally found their stride and I appreciated that the franchise was trying to make new lore while incorporating old stuff alongside it. Hell, SGU made the Lucian Alliance seem like an actual threat and/or semi-capable and that's a miracle in and of itself. Kings was fantastic. Ian McShane in perfect form. As for SGU, well once they finally revealed what the mission was, it blew my mind. As far as I know no other scifi series has had its cast cut off and billions of light years away chasing down evidence of a creator of the universe. They kept the same mantra about false gods and turned it on its head. After so many species claiming to be gods I wish we had gotten to see what happens when they find the real deal
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Sep 3, 2015 09:24
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ThaGrandCow posted:Strange Luck (another photojournalist that always happens to be in the right place at the right time, and has the superpower of being really lucky. Actually now that I think about this, it was Plot Armor: The Show. They were really reaching to show how lucky he was near the end... there's only so many times you can gamble on winning your meals cost at a diner by scratching lotto tickets. Probably good they cancelled it, but I loved it.) IIRC on the final episode of this they stated that it took place in the same universe as The X-Files.
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Sep 3, 2015 13:07
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I'm surprised no one has said Constantine yet since it was fairly popular here. Dresden Files the TV show wasn't good but it could be a decent procedural.
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Sep 3, 2015 13:16
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Vanderdeath posted:Kings on NBC NBC completely hosed up Kings and sold it as a stupid 'what if America was a monarchy?!?!' show instead of a Biblical retelling of the story of David with characters like Ian McShane and Eamonn Walker chewing delicious Shakespearean Biblical scenery. You could easily remake Kings now with a talented cast and expect it to have a huge following, especially with a post Game of Thrones audience. Two more that haven't been mentioned here are:  The first is Awake Jason Isaacs plays a cop who gets involved in a car accident with his wife and son in which his son dies. As a loving husband, he has to deal with the loss of a son and the impact that has on his already strained marriage. Except when Isaacs sleeps and wakes up, he gets transported to another reality where it's his wife that has died and now he struggles to be a good father to an increasingly emotionally distant teenager.He's fully aware that he's probably crazy and that one day he'll wake up and lose either his wife or child for real but for now, he's just determined to make the most of his time with his family. Oh and there's some poo poo about penguins and a police conspiracy.  The second is the Neighbors which is a comedy about a group of aliens who come down and try to fit in among humans. It was hugely underrated but killed by the Friday death slot.
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Sep 3, 2015 13:36
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I'll probably get some poo poo for this, but Surface ended too soon for me. Nostalgia is probably coloring how really good the show was. The thing for me is that the main three protagonists on the show don't come together until the last 15 minutes of the final episode. It's awesome when it happens and the show sets up some amazing possibilities and cool stuff and then it loving ends right there and there's nothing else.
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Sep 3, 2015 13:40
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computer parts posted:I'm surprised no one has said Constantine yet since it was fairly popular here. Constantine is gonna show up on Arrow this season though so they're at least not killing the character. As big a comic book fan as I am, I couldn't get into Constantine.
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Sep 3, 2015 13:53
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Firefly was good for what it was, but I don't know how long they could have lasted dealing with problems on desert planet #1 - #2345. There were some pretty good characters to watch, though. I doubt Jericho could have survived another season with how its plot line shook out. I mean, sure, they could have definitely made some interesting stories but I don't think for a minute they'd have the budget to do it justice. Rubicon was amazing, and one of those shows where its good to have the plot/mystery revealed in a slow crawl. I wish that would have gone on a lot longer. Alphas was great, while it lasted. Obviously not top network type stuff, but the actors who needed to be good were, and those who weren't were written well enough to get by. I don't know how they would have gone into their next season with the cliffhanger, but I'd love to see them try. Terriers getting cancelled was a loving travesty. An amazing show.
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Sep 3, 2015 14:21
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Doctor Butts posted:
The only things which could get me to finally subscribe to Netflix is if they got Lucha Underground or financed a 2nd season of Terriers.
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Sep 3, 2015 15:57
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Profit A very dark show from 1996 that was cancelled after three episodes. The main character, Jim Profit, gets a job at a very well know company and quickly moves up the ranks. No one knows he is really trying to destroy the company from the inside out in a dark revenge plot. He will destroy and kill anyone who gets in his way! This was "too dark" for 90's viewers but would most likely be a big hit on something like AMC or FX in this day and age!
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Sep 3, 2015 16:22
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Don't Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23 Not an exceptional show, but Kristen Rytter as an unrepenting sociopath loving people over was comedy gold. James van der Beek as himself seemed like it could be gimmicky as hell, but turned out okay. Could have gone on for more seasons, way better than 2 Broke Girls and other shitcoms out there. Episodes aired out of order, be sure to check up on that when you want to rewatch.
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Sep 3, 2015 17:03
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Cancelling Deadwood was a criminal act by HBO.
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Sep 3, 2015 17:04
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Carnivale, especially ending it with that cliffhanger.
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Sep 3, 2015 17:34
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Party Down. Hopefully someday it'll be back.
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Sep 3, 2015 17:37
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As much as I loved Terriers, I’m kind of glad it only had one season. It was just a PERFECT season that wrapped everything up and had an absolutely great final shot. I miss the show, but it’s a show I’m glad I got to watch and enjoy while it was on the air. Shows that WERE cancelled too soon? The Middleman. Shows that should have been given more of a chance/another season? Rome.
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Sep 3, 2015 17:46
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I've said it before & I'll say it again: F/X dropped the ball on it's summer fare by giving Tyrant a 2nd season over the chance to give The Bridge a 3rd.
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Sep 3, 2015 17:48
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Checking in to drop some heavy good vibe cancelled TV show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaSR8xj80Sw Key West Like a Jimmy Buffet song, but as a TV series. Was a really mellow show that died way too young.
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Sep 3, 2015 18:12
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Space: Above and Beyond. Had really found its legs by the second season, but Fox pulled the rug out from under it so it could get Morgan and Wong back for the X-Files.
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Sep 3, 2015 18:16
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