Idle Ramblings

Should I even bother...

In just about a month, February 13th to be exact, Joss Whedon's new show "Dollhouse" makes its premier on the FOX Time Slot of Death - 8 p.m. Friday nights. What I have to decide at some point is: Should I bother?

There are lots of things that bother me about this show. The premise seems weak. There's been all kinds of trouble in the development stage and Joss has had to go back and redo so much of it because the FOX people didn't like what he'd done. I really don't like Eliza Dusku.

But, the biggest thing is that I don't want to get sucked into a show that turns out to be great only to see it cancelled after a handful of episodes. Whedon's been up that road before with Firefly and, at least to me, the similarities between the two can't be ignored. Whedon had to cave into FOX executives because they didn't like the Firefly pilot. He got little to no support from the network and was, once again, stuck in the infamous Friday night black hole. It just seems like they're setting him up again.

I don't want to start a passionate relationship with another of Whedon's shows only to have it run out on me and toss me a "pity movie" a couple of years later.

I don't have a problem with Whedon and his ideas. Honestly, I didn't think a series based on the crappy movie "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" would amount to anything or be even remotely interesting. I now have all seven season sitting on my DVD shelf. I never thought David Boringass, er Borenaz could pull off an "Angel" series. He did and it sits right beside Buffy on the shelf. I thought the idea for "Firefly" wasn't the greatest and only was able to see one episode when it originally aired. I'm now watching the series once again and lamenting about its premature end.

Joss has a history, at least with me, of putting ideas that sound kind of lame out there and then blowing me away with the results. I hope, if I take the chance and actually watch "Dollhouse," he'll do the same again.

But, here's the biggest thing. FOX has a terrible record of canceling shows I like. Sure, 24 has stuck around for a good run and I'm looking forward to more gut-wrenching action this spring. But for that one show, there is a list of others they put the hatchet to which deserved a rich, full life. Here are a few:

Millennium - Remember this one? Lance Henricksen as a former FBI agent who tracked down serial killers and worked for the mysterious Millennium group? After the success of that series that never existed - The X-Files - FOX gave him another show and this was it. It was great, for two seasons. Then it got cancelled after the second season so they ended the world. Then it got uncancelled and they had to unend the world and they limped along for a third season.

Space: Above and Beyond - Starship Troopers as a weekly, big budget sci-fi series. Brought to us by two of the big names behind that show I mentioned earlier that doesn't exist. Maybe a bit cliched, especially in the beginning, but it grew into its own on. Then, after a season that just got better and better, it got zapped and ended with a maybe it's over, maybe it's not final episode.

Futurama - The show from Matt Groenig much more than The Simpson (love The Simpsons, though). They made four seasons. Fox stretched it into five. Revived thanks to Adult Swim and Comedy Central. But as all things revived, well, the sparkle just isn't there, though each movie has progressively gotten better.

Family Guy - Okay. Cancelled, revived and funnier than ever. But still cancelled. And in the first episode after it comes back there's a great opening where Peter lists off all the shows FOX has cancelled between the end of Family Guy's first run and its return. Freakin' hilarious.

The Tick - Just watched this again for the umpteenth time. I still laugh my ass off.

The Critic - Okay. Cancelled on both ABC and FOX, but FOX was the last one to cancel it.

As much as I hope against hope, I just have a bad feeling the "Dollhouse" is going to be added to this list of shows that I really got into and then had jerked away from me. It's not just FOX. In recent years other networks have teased me with shows like "Threshold" and "Surface" which lasted as much as half a season before they were taken away. They weren't great, but they were good. And they are the reason I've refused to watch any new sci-fi series on network television for the past several years. I've even skipped "Fringe" which I have heard is pretty good, but very iffy as to how much longer it's going to last.

So, Joss, let me apologize in advance. I may watch your new series. I may not. I may wait and pick up the entire 13 episode run in coming years and lament about its demise much in the same way I do "Firefly." I am going to hope for success for you, but, I mean, dude.... It's FOX.

posted by Joseph @ 1/08/2009 04:14:00 PM