It's only when we hit the US off-season that we truly understand how crappy Australian television actually is.
It seems like every time I turn on Australian free-to-air I see whitebread bogans whinging on Big Brother, or "stars" showing how multi-talented they're not, or shameless product placement and political spin trying to pass itself off as journalism.
While I'm as fond of throwing crap at US TV as anyone, as far as scripted drama is concerned, it's where the good stuff has been coming from for the last few years.
The success of shows like 24 and Lost has very effectively done away with the antiquated notion that TV shows need to be episodic. These shows heartily give the finger (sorry . . . "flip the bird. Ayuh.") to anyone who just wants to dip in now and then. You gotta watch regularly. You gotta keep up. And you gotta pay attention.
Since then, we've had a run of great shows operating like this . . . The L Word, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, and Jericho.
The unfortunate thing is that right now, in the US off-season, they've all finished. That means we have to amuse ourselves with repeats for the next few months. Or go outside and get some exercise . . . Nah, they'll be back soon.
Except for Jericho. CBS has decided, in its infinite wisdom, that there'll be no more Jericho. Ever.
In spite of the legions of loyal fans (your humble correspondent among them) and in spite of the mother of all cliffhangers, apparently a second season of Jericho just isn't worth the effort.
In case you're not familiar with it, Jericho was a cheery little tale about a small US town isolated after a series of unexplained nuclear blasts decimated the rest of the country. It was a nice dramatic setup with lots of interesting characters, interweaving plots of government conspiracy, profiteering and powermongering, and how good ol' reggerler folks stick together.
It ended with a juicy government conspiracy plot half-articulated, the town of Jericho in a shooting war with the next town over, one of the main characters being very unexpectedly killed, and the army about to descend and do whatever it takes to shut the whole shebang down.
And now it's over.
There are 58,952 signatures (at last count) begging for its return, so here's hoping that the good people at CBS are listening.
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Late update:
There's a rumour circulating that because cancellation was anticipated, a final episode was filmed for DVD release. Here's hoping . . .
3 comments:
So what they are advertising on TV isn't the 2nd season?
Did they do that stupid thing with stretching out the new episodes so that it looks like they play it for a longer portion of the year? House drove me up the wall with that. I'd sit down all ready for some Hughy crustiness and get Vogler appearing. Grr. anyway i have the first season of Xena and Twin Peaks to watch so I'm set for a while :)
No, Ten's now playing the second half of the first season.
They started out playing it simultaneously with the US, so they also had to follow the mid-season hiatus. And apparently they've dropped the idea of playing it simultaneously.
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