And while I’m recovering from vacation, we’ve got another guest blogger… Say hi to Kait!
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I was all set to post about principled heroes—you know, those paragons of virtue who fight for causes greater than themselves. King Arthur. Leonidas. But really, we all know why they’re great. Everybody loves a good, selfless, noble hero. Then this weekend hubby and I rented The Italian Job, so instead I thought I’d like to talk about thieves and why we find them so fascinating. But then I waffled on that.
And then Monday night I was presented with the perfect topic. I’d like to talk about resolution. See, my husband and I are addicted to ABCFamily’s Kyle XY. And after 3 seasons of building tension the jerkwads at the network declared Monday night to be the series finale.
And they didn’t freaking tie up ANYTHING!
Which girl did he choose? What’s he going to do about his brother? Did he foil Latnock’s plot? Where’s his family?
Seriously, it was GREAT as a season finale, with all kinds of plot threads left dangling. It’s like they finished shooting the season and then found out that it was getting canned. I can only hope and pray that there’s a TV movie in there somewhere to tie things up.
This is just the latest in a long series of disappointments from TV Land. Great shows that get cancelled at the whim of some ignorant TV exec based on who knows what. Neilson ratings? That system is so ludicrously antiquated in this day of renting seasons of TV shows and watching full episodes online.
Let’s review some of the other great shows that got cancelled without resolution.
Jericho. This amazing drama was cancelled after one season. After fans sent over 10,000 pounds of nuts (a reference to a line from the finale) to CBS to protest the show’s cancellation, they did bring it back for about half a season to tie things up a bit better, which mollified me somewhat, but didn’t make up for the cancellation.
Journeyman. This one was, I think, a victim of the writer’s strike. Fans were left right in the middle of wondering how Dan was going to juggle everything and save his family.
Firefly. Fantastic sci-fi creation by Joss Whedon that was inexplicably canned despite massive popularity. And yeah, so they made the movie Serenity allegedly to tie up loose ends. Newsflash: Killing off half the beloved characters is not a satisfying resolution!
Men In Trees. Okay, yeah, so we are pretty sure that Jack and Marin are firmly together where things left off, but I, for one, loved that show. It was like Sex In The City meets Northern Exposure.
The American Embassy. I don’t think this one made it past the first like six episodes. This was part of my study night line up in college. I was an international studies major and a geek, so I love it.
Veronica Mars. Brilliant and witty, like Buffy meets Nancy Drew, this was cancelled after 3 seasons. Granted stuff was tied up better here, and what you can see of the special on the season 4 concept was perhaps not true to the original story.
Women’s Murder Club. Okay how much did I love this show? All about girl power and murder mysteries? Seriously kick butt stuff. Granted, they did capture the Kiss Me Not killer by the end of the season, but I was so disappointed they didn’t bring it back.
What were your favorite TV shows that got cancelled?
Kait Nolan
Murder and Magnolias