Why did Eastwick fail?
If you haven’t heard yet, ABC declined to order anymore episodes of Eastwick, essentially canceling the series. The obligatory “Save Eastwick” campaigns have already begun, but the chance of anything happening is small. Sure, the show had some fans, but when Jay Leno is beating you in the ratings, it’s certainly not a good sign.
I know I was looking forward to the show before the season started, as I was a fan of the movie and the book, but I was ultimately disappointed. Indeed, the series was very, very loosely based on either pieces of source material and clearly was not targeted toward single 27 year old males, such as myself.
So why did the series fail? I have some thoughts.
Glee – The music has saved me during the hiatus
It was awfully nice of the folks at FOX to send over a copy of Glee’s Volume 1 CD. It probably wasn’t so nice of me not to share it with any of the staffers here at CliqueClack, but this one’s mine, all mine!
These many weeks off from my Glee fix could have been a little difficult (well, aside from the fact that I got to preview Wednesday’s episode already … ahem) without my soundtrack. I’ve gotten Owen addicted to the driving beat of “Bust-a-Move,” learned all the words to “Defying Gravity” (yes, I’m ashamed I didn’t know them before), and embarrassed myself at stoplights singing “Don’t Stop Believin’” at the top of my lungs.
My one disappointment was that the awesome version of one song that you’ll hear in the upcoming episode wasn’t on it, while another song featured in that episode was. I’ll spill it all after the jump, but don’t read on unless you want a spoiler about what song I adore in Wednesday’s upcoming episode.
TNT: The little network with the smart decisions
I adore TNT. For me, they seem to have come out of nowhere when Leverage boomed onto the scene (I know, I’m a late bloomer), but I’ve been keeping a good eye on them since then, and every decision they have made has been a winner.
Before Leverage, TNT was going strong with The Closer and Saving Grace, two unique series driven by strong women. Nothing bad about that angle! Since then they’ve realized their original programming is kind of kick-ass, so they’ve debuted Dark Blue and HawthoRNe. It’s like watching a good game of poker, as Kenny Rogers said: “You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em (Leverage), know when to fold ‘em (Trust Me), know when to walk away (Saving Grace being allowed to finish out), know when to run (*cough*Trust Me*cough*)….”
Too much of Gordon Ramsay is not a good thing
Currently, we have superstar chef Gordon Ramsay as host and berater of FOX’s Hell’s Kitchen and Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. We also have him as host of the British version of Kitchen Nightmares and Gordon Ramsay’s F Word on BBC America. So, do we need to see any more of the verbally abusive chef who we never see actually cook anything?
Apparently we do. FOX has decided to bring over the Masterchef concept from jolly ol’ England to air in America because, frankly, we don’t have enough cooking shows out there that start or end with Master. The show will be hosted by Ramsay, who will challenge everyday backyard BBQers, homemakers, and folks who can’t boil water to prepare delicious dishes on their way to becoming a MasterChef. As with Ramsay’s 500 other shows, he’ll gently put these innocent folks through their paces to create amazing, culinary creations. That, or he’ll make them crying heaps of Jello.
Shark Tank may have had Jason Calacanis?
I mentioned previously that I dug ABC’s Shark Tank. What I liked about it wasn’t that the “sharks” picked on the people who presented, it was that I got a sense of how people tend to pitch their ideas in a somewhat closed setting and, ultimately, what ideas seem to sell. This was all before I got to watch BBC’s Dragons’ Den, which is definitely what Shark Tank was based on, but it’s a much different feel and one that caters more to helping out the entrepreneur.
As part of my whole addiction to listening about ideas and how they are presented, I started downloading the This Week in Startups podcast, hosted by my former boss at TV Squad, Jason Calacanis. The show actually airs live on UStream every Friday afternoon at 1 PM, but I grab it for the road the next day. As part of the show, Jason does his own form of Shark Tank, allowing a caller 60 second to pitch their idea to him, while he gives his advice.
Southland is officially moving to TNT, but will we get new episodes?
As often as NBC fails, there are certain things that they do well more often than other networks. I’m in love with their current Thursday night comedy block, and they have a tendency to put out really great police procedurals. Unfortunately, this is where the fail comes in. Life is an amazing show, but we’ll never see a season 3. Southland was also much better than I expected it to be: the 7 episodes that NBC aired pulled from the best aspects of Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order. Yet NBC still canceled it, after initially picking it up for a second season.
So as soon as NBC pulled that boneheaded move, the speculation began as to who was going to swoop in and save this show. Early on, TNT was named as a top contender, and now it’s official: TNT has announced that it will be airing Southland. Honestly, when I first heard the news, I didn’t really care. After all, the current deal that’s in place is to air the seven episode first season that already aired on TNT, and follow it up with the six episodes that have already been shot for season 2. But what about new episodes? Is 13 all we’re going to get?
How Defying Gravity would have progressed, straight from the creator
One of the things that kills me anytime a show I love doesn’t get picked up for additional seasons — or is flat-out canceled mid-season — is dangling storylines. Being that I’m into sci-fi shows, enduring long story arcs is pretty commonplace. So, when word came that Defying Gravity was not only not getting a second season, but it wouldn’t be airing the final handful of episodes in the U.S., it was par for the course. But dammit, I wanted to know what was going to happen next!
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