Cancellations and curiosities

Well, TV executives make the strangest decisions. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has been cancelled after two seasons. I really enjoyed the show; when my digital box receiver wasn't breaking up the signal that is. It has some excellent episodes and a particularly strong first season. The second season did get bogged down with intricate story arcs and convoluted at times. I suppose when you are dealing with the multiple effects of time travel and changing the future things will get complicated. Nevertheless, the show was a decent extension of the first two Terminator films, which are both classics. If it had continued it could have gone in some very interesting directions.

Would it be cynical of me to think that the launch of the new Terminator film and its possible franchise might have played a part in the demise of the show? How viable is it to have the same property running simultaneously in differing guises? The movie has got a lot of buzz and some mixed reviews. The old ratings weren't good enough for the TV show to survive reasoning will have been the ultimate arbiter of the final decision.

Although Dollhouse has had atrocious ratings in the US and has been given a second season, so ratings are not necessarily a barrier to a shows continuance. Look at BSG. That lasted four seasons without being a major smash. Perhaps Sarah Connor needed to be on a smaller niche network to have had a chance of a longer term survival.

On the curious side is the decision to award Heroes a fourth season. The first season of Heroes was entertaining and well produced. The second was a mess and a disaster. The third less so, but still pretty crappy. The producers always seemed to want to top themselves and create rip roaring cliffhangers at the expense of character development and logical storytelling. I normally find a show and stick with it, but gave up on Heroes as it became less and less enjoyable and more and more ridiculous.

At least Supernatural is back for a fifth season. As this show has gone on it has grown in confidence and has become a very well executed premise. Apparently this will be the final season. At least Eric Kripke and the creative team seem to have a specific plan in place and ending the show on a high before it has jumped the shark is potentially a good idea.

Another show I gave up on a few years ago was ER which has become comfortable. Too much so. Storylines were being rehashed and it was getting way too melodramatic at times. When Romano was squashed by a falling helicopter and no-one noticed was about the time I started to think oh no. I persevered for a couple more years and drifted away. One reason was that Channel 4 in the UK dumped the show onto one of its digital channels. But, this week in the UK sees the final ever episode of ER. I may tune in to see how it all ends and although I haven't watched it for a while it still was a staple of my viewing habits for a considerable number of years and just deserved a mention and a fond farewell.