The New Season (2014)

[ClarkKent_DC]

We've done this before (here, here, and here), but now it's time for this year! This is a place for comments about any and all shows, but especially for shows that don't generate their own threads.

[Ron M.]

Some shows seem to assume they have an unlimited number of episodes to develop their characters. There was an anime that tried to tell the epic Chinese story of the Monkey King. Thinking they'd get renewed, they spent 10 of their 13 episodes on the Monkey King's back story, and only three on the actual epic. The show was cancelled while they were still introducing main characters to his quest. Stopped watching Lost because so little time was devoted to the island and too much to background stories. Character backgrounds are supposed to be subtly added in without seriously interupting the story, not take over the story so it moves as a snail's pace. I have no interest in why Hannibal Lechter started eating people or how Edward Nigma's riddle fixation led to him wearing crazy green costumes with question marks on them.

Maybe there are too many characters in the show. Most shows of this sort have worked best with two main characters. The Man From UNCLE: Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin. Wild Wild West: James West and Artemis Gordon. CHiPS: Ponch and Jon. Starsky and Hutch: Starsky and Hutch. There were other members of whatever group they worked for, and we'd see one once in awhile, but they weren't important to the show.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

Rand Jackson said:

For me, the big problem with Agents of SHIELD was that with the exception of Colson, I disliked/hated almost every other character.

^This. When I mentioned dropping the show in the original thread one reas was because I didn't like any of the characters. Even Colson is my case.

[John Dunbar]

Watched The McCarthys, new CBS comedy about an Irish family in Boston that debuted on Thursday, last night from DVR.  Absolutely dreadful.  Parents and (four grown adult) children, except for the gay son, are unlikeable walking cliches.  Children, except for the gay son,  talk in exaggerated braying New England accents (Go pahk yah cahr in the yahd), but neither parent does.  The gay son is intelligent and successful, his siblings all appear to have room temperature IQs.  In case you may think this show at least has one redeeming quality - a positive portrayal of the gay community - another gay character is easily one of the most offensively gay stereotypes ever shown on television, and it's played for laughs.

I have no idea why Laurie Metcalf (Roseanne, Big Bang Theory) is slumming here.

[Richard Willis]

Laurie Metcalf would have been my only reason for even considering the show. From your description I think giving it a pass was the right decision. Sounds like cancellation bait.

[John Dunbar]

Maybe, but it's surrounded by hit shows - BBT, Mom, Two and a Half Men before, and Elementary after.  Heck, Two and a Half Men has gone downhill since Sheen left and it's still chugging along.

[Richard Willis]

They're putting it down this season.

John Dunbar (the mod of maple) said:

Two and a Half Men has gone downhill since Sheen left and it's still chugging along.

[Randy Jackson]

I'd be willing to bet that the original premise for the show was much better than what it eventually became, and likely she was already contractually obligated.

John Dunbar (the mod of maple) said:

I have no idea why Laurie Metcalf (Roseanne, Big Bang Theory) is slumming here.

[ClarkKent_DC]

From TheWrap: "ABC Cancels ‘Selfie,’ Gives ‘Forever’ Full Season"

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

I never saw "Selfie", but a local journalist wrote that after a bad pilot episode, it got a lot better. She said last week that it would probably be cancelled soon.

[Doctor Hmmm?]

The first couple of minutes of the Selfie pilot pushed the limits of bad taste about as far as I'm willing to take on TV.  I thought it was all  improvement from there, and I'm sorry that it's been cancelled.  My understanding is that ABC is letting the remaining episodes play out in their normal slot, rather than saving them up to burn off as filler sometime later. 

[ClarkKent_DC]

From TV.com, via Yahoo!: "4 Reasons FOX Is Having a Disastrous Fall"

[ClarkKent_DC]

CBS cancels The Millers in its second year: "'The Millers' Cancelled by CBS"