The Age of Procedurals
I have a nightmare. I mean I have a lot of bad maybe-gonna-happens but this one is related specifically to television. In my nightmare every night on television is the same. The faces are different, the shows are different but it all starts and it all ends after one hour. Yes, in my nightmare, procedurals rule the waves. Story-oriented shows don’t exist anymore. When I tell my friends about a time long when show’s used to air with story arcs, they don’t understand.
Four days ago, television lost two fantastic wonderful shows (and one average show). We all knew Pushing Daisies was in trouble but the cancellation still hurt. Specially since it came together with the cancellations of Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money. Stone, according to most (including myself) was giving us the best episodes of it’s short life. This news came soon after the cancellation of the excellent My Own Worst Enemy, a new high-budget spy show that barely had any time to attract viewers.
This is simply bad news for television. It makes me worry for Whedon’s upcoming Dollhouse. I’m a huge fan of Whedon and his history with FOX is less than re-assuring.
So do you think it’s possible. Five years from now. After Hiro sacrifices himself to save humanity. After the last housewife ODs on sleeping pills. After the Walkers discover yet another illegitimate brother. Will we have nothing else to watch except CSI:Alaska and the like?
Tags: procedurals, eli stone cancelled, diry sexy money cancelled, cancelled, eli stone, dirty sexy money, my own worst enemy cancelled, my own worst enemy, pushing daisies, bryan fuller, pushing daisies cancelled, abc, CSI
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