Now that the writer's strike is officially over, attention turns to the fate of our favorite shows. Immediately, people started asking, "Which shows are coming back? When? For how many episodes?"
I figured that, if anything, the strike would finish weeding out the shows that were too weak (either in viewership, story or both) to continue. In a way, letting certain shows vanish in the giant chasm of the three month-long strike is an incredibly convenient (and less harsh) way of dropping the axe. Instead of stopping abruptly, they sort of just...floated away into the backs of our consciousness and disappeared.
That's all well and good for crap like Bionic Woman, Journeyman and Big Shots (Vartan, how could you? Christopher Titus was your co-star, dude. If that's not a warning sign from God to sprint in the other direction, I don't know what is). But here's where it gets troubling: when the strike threatens to let the same thing happen to shows like Friday Night Lights and Scrubs.
One of the greatest comedies of the last 10 years: going straight-to-DVD?
Also less than awesome? Lost squeezing 16 episodes of material into 13; for a show that's already dense and confusing enough as it is, that's troubling. Depriving me of precious episodes of Bones that allow me to stare dreamily at David Boreanaz (in a suit, carrying a gun and smiling a lot) for 42 minutes. Postponing the return of Chuck, Dirty Sexy Money, Pushing Daisies and Heroes until Fall '08. Forcing pretty much every other show to operate on a very shortened season (less problematic for episodic series, but a minor kiss of death for serialized shows with season-long arcs).
Supervillians: on hold until September.For the curious, here's a link to an Ausiello Report article chronicling the future fate of all Primetime telvision shows: http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Report/Wga-Strike-Favorite/800032698
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