So I wonder why I'm surprised by being surprised by this:
ABC made a flurry of midseason programming announcements Thursday, including ordering more episodes of "Life on Mars" and deciding against picking up "Pushing Daisies," "Dirty Sexy Money" and "Eli Stone" for a full season.
I'll skip the usual eulogy I have -- and that sick feeling of knife to the heart -- any time an interesting or original show like Daisies (which I admit I didn't return to this year after hearing from people that it wasn't as good as last year) and Eli Stone, and say that though the Dirty Sexy Money move is hardly surprising -- so is the vote of confidence in Life on Mars.
I always thought the show was too out there to work on a U.S. network. I stopped watching after Ep 3 convinced me they were going to go too watered down to be true to the material. (that ep had a gay subplot where even the 'homophobic' officers weren't so terrible about the killing of a gay guy -- this, supposedly less than five years after Stonewall in NYC. Uh uh. No sale. If you're gonna be PC 21st century, what's the point?) I also am disappointed that Harvey Keitel isn't more like his character in Bad Lieutenant. I mean, he's a sock compared to Philip Gleinister in the original.
But not only are they giving it more eps, they're putting it on after LOST in January.
I don't get it. I really don't.
...and that almost makes me a little bit hopeful.
Funny that.
5 comments:
I was really happy to see Life On Mars renewed. On the whole the episodes have been refreshingly different and interesting (and I don't mean the outlandish kind of "interesting" you'd use when referring to Pushing Daisies). Life In Mars is my favourite new American series of the season. The only other new American series I am still watching are Privileged and Fringe, and to be honest, I've really been struggling with Fringe. As much as I want to love it I'm finding myself losing interest--there doesn't seem to be enough of a story to keep me in. I love the two leads, Josh Jackson and Anna Torv, but I'm finding the show a tad too procedural for my taste.
I never got into Pushing Daisies or Eli Stone so the decision by ABC to put those two on probably permanent hiatus doesn't bother me a bit. I have been watching Dirty Sexy Money but to be honest I wasn't really all that into it--the characters just didn't seem likeable enough to me.
So as of late November, I am watching the fewest American shows ever (in previous years my list has always surpassed 20). The only American shows I've been watching and really liking are Life, ER, Life In Mars, Grey's Anatomy, Smallville, Privileged and One Tree Hill.
There's also the shows I find myself watching but not really liking anymore a whole lot: Samantha Who, Dirty Sexy Money, Chuck, Private Practice, and Heroes. Hell, I've even started watching Desperate Housewives again even though I'm not a big fan.
Good thing Kyle XY and Lost are returning in the new year then there's few new prospects like Dollhouse, Merlin and Kings. And good thing there's been a whole lot of good Canadian TV lately too--The Border, Rick Mercer Report, Heartland, Mixed Blessing, Degrassi and The Guard--plus there's a few new series starting come the new year, namely The Wild Roses and Being Erica. And I can't wait until a new season of my fave Brit drama Waterloo Road turns up on BBC Canada. I'll see in another two months how many shows I'll be watching.
Oh well. I'm *still* going to finish my Pushing Daisies spec. At least I'll be able to send it out to the competitions . . . which is the only place people seem to want spec scripts these days anyway, yes?
Didn't you hear? 'Nobody knows anything' ... except in hindsight. ;)
hey loved your "why" post btw.
I want to like "Life on Mars" so much. I heard about the British version two or three years ago, and I loved the premise, but I have only seen the american one and as I said I really want to like it. But just the basic story-telling is really bugging me. i'm okay with the mythology but the characters being (imo) inconsistent really bothers me.
"life" on the other hand is a great show and even though it got its back nine no one seems to be watching it.
And I've got three Heroes sitting on my DVR. So I'm not a dipstick, I just can't make myself watch it. And aside from not being 18-34 I'm the perfect audience for that kind of show. I know Havok and Scott Summers are brothers and their powers don't hurt each other. I should be watching Heroes every week and I'm just about to delete those eps along with the four Fringe episodes I have on the dvr as well...
Then I think why don't I talk that way about Canadian shows, call things out etc. And then I think about your run-ins with show creators and showrunners and various others, and to be honest I wonder why (did) do you do it?
And then I remember how I asked you questions about Across the River and you answered them in not a snippy or defensive way, but just to explain the intent and what I had missed. and I appreciated it.
so, to make a short comment long, I understand if you don't want to get into it with the Canadian creatives anymore and want to take the blog in a more this is how you write kind of direction. And I understand that anyone can read the Internet so it's kind of public but mostly I read this for inside stuff and your thoughts and the commenters thoughts (even though blainew hates everything I worked on man, does he have some great comments). That said, I'll read this blog whatever direction you move it to. I find it harder to kick in on the this is how you should write kind of stuff, but so be it, and judging by the self-referential lamesness of my current comment that presumably someone is reading right now, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
And to wrap this up in a truly Canadian manner, sorry this life on mars comment turned into this strange rambling meandering statement.
all the best
mf
Well, thanks Mark. That's the most entertaining comment I've gotten in a while. Cheers.
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