Why Cancelled?

Some shows don't always last. They can be good, but just not have enough viewership. Of course there are many shows that get canceled for just reasons... cough Pan Am, Work It, Man Up, Charlie's Angels, The Playboy Club cough. Let's face it, all of these shows, who all premiered this year, were terrible.  It saddens me what networks try to pass off as TV sometimes.  I mean Work It? Really? A show about two men dressing up as women to get a job. Did people really think that was going to last? This year has been kind of a failure for new shows. Okay, it's been kind of a failure for comedy shows.  If you think about it, most drama television that was created this year is actually doing really well. But why? Why do some shows do really well but others crumble? How does this system work? Let's investigate.

This year* one of my favorite TV shows called Lie To Me was cancelled. I think I liked this show mostly because it tied in with my interest in psychology. The show was based around a team of psychologists (scientists? crime stoppers? whatever.) who used science to tell if people were lying. This was really interesting because it was actually based on a real science. The show's main character Dr. Lightman, played by the amazing Tim Roth, was actually based of a real behavioral scientist named Dr. Ekman. Lightman and his team use psychology to interpret microexpressions and detect if someone is lying.  They use this for various high profile crime cases or other special cases that they are hired for.  Unfortunately this very interesting show was cancelled. Why? I can only guess. First of all, it's not the "typical cop drama." There are few dramatic gun scenes or much violence at all.  The cases are varied, but they tend to be solved the same way; finding out if they're lying and using that to solve the case. I'm obviously making this sound pretty black and white, but the truth is, a show that is based around science and justice doesn't hold up as much as law and justice. I'm not sure why.  As for the characters, they did not have much depth to them. Cal (Lightman) was always breaking rules, and his teammate who was a psychologist (Foster) was always keeping him in line.  But their relationship was kind of awkward, like they were brother and sister or something. Cal and Foster weren't like let's say Cuddy and House who would have this on and off relationship and had a very interesting dynamic. Instead they often made me feel awkward to watch them. But I digress. This show I felt was an example of a TV show that wasn't really given a chance.  They had very interesting content, they just needed to go somewhere with it.

Another show that I was just reminded of the other day is Dead Like Me, a show very different from Lie To Me but also cancelled after a few seasons.  Dead Like Me was a dark comedy on Showtime that was based around grim reapers who helped people through the stage of life to death.  It was a very strange show, but I gained a liking to it.  It had interesting story lines, complex characters, and it was all free on Hulu. The free part was probably the strongest reason I watched the two seasons of this show... but it provided good entertainment for that summer.  Why did this show get canceled? This reason I can be bit more definitive on. The characters were great and the show had interesting content, but it just went a bit too far.  The whole grim reapers thing just did not go over well with people.  Shows with vampires, werewolves, witches, superheroes typically do well, but I don't think many people were very fond of the concept of helping people reach death.  The grim reapers did not cause it, they were just there to help along the inevitable. The show was just kind of weird, and people didn't get into that.

So is there a formula to being a successful television show?  If you have the easy job of watching the shows and not having to actually make them, then I would say yes. All you have to do is make content with good actors and interesting stories. But it's never that simple. Even when all of that is accomplished shows still do not last.  It's honestly just a factor of whether there are enough viewers.  Shows like Community who are actually really good but don't get too much viewership, tend to get pushed out to make room for other shows that do. That is exactly what happened to Lie to Me and Dead Like Me. These were decent shows, but because they didn't attain the amount of viewers required, they did not survive.




*When I say year I don't mean 2012. I know that doesn't really make any sense, but my years are based on the school year and also when mainstream television is on: fall, winter, spring. So my new "year" really begins when the new seasons of television begin. I know it's not right, but it's much easier than saying last year and then clarifying that it's still the same season (season as in TV season).