Way OT: Chuck's back!

I watched the first 8 or 10 episodes on Hulu a couple months ago and felt like nothing ever actually happened on that show, even though every episode seems to imply that the next episode would be totally climatic. Needless to say, I was disappointed.

I think I can watch 1 episode of Scrubs per year. Otherwise, I get Zach Braff overload.

It was very good again this season for the first time in years.

I’m still asking that about ‘Til Death. Which should be re-titled "Slow and Painful Death. Seriously, Why Hasn’t Fox Cancelled Us Yet?"

I read an article on that show and how it has stayed on the air for so long. From what I remember it has never been that popular, but not as bad as you think in terms of ratings. The biggest reason it is still on the air is it is really cheap to make as the cast doesn’t demand that much money.

Hey, I was just wondering that a few day ago. I checked, and the show had more episodes than Seinfeld. One of the most unoriginal, unfunny, just plain useless shows I’ve ever seen.

I liked Scrubs this year, but I can see why some people wouldn’t like Zach Braff. I heard he did sign on to do a few episodes next year, but won’t be a major character. I’m fine with that as long as they don’t get rid of Dr. Cox and the Janitor.

The 31 flavors of Law & Order, Office, & Heroes are back. This will preserve Domestic Tranquility. Domestic Tranquility is good.

Looks like “Life” was cancelled.

Mad Men: so good.

Deadwood: I fuckin’ conjure the cocksucker who don’t like Deadwood ain’t welcome in this fuckin’ town.

I never saw Deadwood but is it worth a look? All i hear about it is how much the cowboys cuss.

Chuck is awesome and you should see it. It’s about a dude with a computer in his brain. Seeing as you are a computer, you could identify with this character.

I’m watching Deadwood again also. Just finished episode 6. I’m still waiting on Wu for the comic relief.

I don’t follow, is this some sort of new TV show?

It has Captain Tightpants so that’s all I need.

He also throws in lines from his old shows here and there. For instance, someone asked him if he was cool with the situation he was in, and he said “Five by five.”

Reality shows belong in the stupid crap people keep watching category.

It’s a little of each. Basically, there’s a lot of television for people to watch these days. More and more cable channels are putting out good television, and I’m not just talking HBO (which definitely has put out a lot of quality). Shows like Breaking Bad, Sunny in Philadelphia, Monk, Rescue Me, etc. are pulling people away from the big four networks. So what ends up happening is executives need to get more hits on television, but don’t have time to develop them. If a show is getting bad ratings, executives will often cancel it without a second thought because bad ratings mean fewer sponsorship dollars which means the board of directors aren’t getting as rich. That’s bad for them.

However, ‘Til Death is essentially a unique case, as I understand it. ’Til Death was kept by Fox because their track record of new shows that year was horrible. If I recall correctly, ’they cancelled every new comedy (and maybe every drama) that year, but in order to make it seem like the year wasn’t a total loss, they retained ’Til Death, presumably for the star power of Brad Garrett and Finch from American Pie. By the way, I sat through the pilot and wanted to bludgeon Finch “To Death” by the end.

But ultimately, you can push a show and push a show, but if people don’t get drawn into it because they’re dumb or lazy or just watching something else, there’s not much you can do. I remember seeing a lot of previews for Arrested Development, Firefly, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, and other shows that got cancelled prematurely that I liked. But other people just didn’t get into it. So with the ratings-now mentality of network execs to feed the bottom line, quality shows get cancelled, even if the execs really like the show (like AD). Patience is a virtue the big four networks don’t possess these days, and until they figure that out, quality shows are going to continue getting cancelled.