The Friday Paradox

It's a Friday night and you're a dateless wonder. A television network airs a program that falls under the category of science fiction, or some other genre that appeals to geeks. The show is canceled after one season. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? After moving to Fridays, Enterprise has seen its last season, and it isn't the first time a show like this has died on a Friday night. Where are the ratings? Are we geeks the minority? Surely we haven't actually gone OUT on a Friday night, have we? Maybe it's that tastes vary. I've enjoyed Star Trek shows and movies whenever I've caught them, but I've never been a “trekkie”. I've been to my share of comic book conventions, and I would say comics, cartoons and video games rate higher on my list of geek interests. In fact, even though I decided I would start watching Enterprise again for the last season, I forgot yet again tonight that it was on. I wasn't on a date or at a party, either, just surfing the web and playing games. There's really no excuse for me not to have watched. However, in the past shows with a small cult following have been given a chance. The X-files struggled for a season on Fridays before moving to Sunday nights and flourishing. Fox just doesn't seem to give shows a chance. Here are some short-lived favorites of mine:

The Visitor:John Corbett(Northern Exposure) was great as an alien abductee who is returned after 50 years without having aged. His whole world has changed, and he must adjust as he is pursued by the government. In the tradition of those hour dramas where “guy helps different people each week while being chase”, it's a shame it only lasted for thirteen episodes.

Harsh Realm: Set inside a virtual reality world created by the military, this show by X-files-creator Chris Carter had a lot of potential. Fox aired THREE episodes, canceled it, and apparently ran the remaining filmed episodes on their cable station. I liked the three that I saw. Also of note is the presence of Terry O'Quinn(Lost) as the main villain.

John Doe:Dominic Purcell wakes up on a deserted island with no memory of who he is or how he got there. When he makes his way back to society, he discovers something shocking about himself. He may not know who he is, but he knows EVERYTHING else. He quickly makes enough money on the stock market to make a life for himself, and makes several friends, a bartender, a young girl artist, a detective, and a police lieutenant. The show took some interesting turns as he used his gifts to help the police who were reluctant to accept his interference, even as clues to his own past turned up. If it wasn't shocking when they killed his young sidekick(the artist), it was a true cliffhanger in the finale when the leader of the organization suspected to be behind his amnesia is unmasked and revealed to be his bartender friend! We'll never know what happened next, unfortunately. The 21st episode would be the last to air.

Firefly: This sci-fi series by Joss Whedon was paired with John Doe, but didn't last more than half a season. They inexplicably replaced it with Fastlane, which thankfully didn't last more than a season either. Firefly of course had some of the best and most complex characters with great interactions and hidden pasts slowly being revealed, something that makes Lost so great right now. It was also one of the more scientifically accurate Sci Fi shows. I remember one episode with an entirely silent firefight between ships in the void of space. Inside the ship, when shots hit the hull, the impact was heard, but then they'd cut back to the vacuum of space and there would be silence. Fortunately, the series was released in its entirety on DVD(and in the right order unlike the Fox presentation), and a movie is on its way this year to tie up loose ends.

The talented cast went on to other great roles too.Nathan Fillion(Two Guys and a Girl), the ship's captain, went on to play an evil preacher in the final season of Buffy. His first mate, Gina Torres, played the main villain in the second-to-last season of Angel. She also has a recurring role as Sydney Bristow's devious rival Anna Espinosa in Alias, and figured prominently in the third season of 24 as a woman whose affair with the president's brother causes some tragic complications. On the big screen, she was seen in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. (on a side note I think she would have made a better Storm than Halle Berry). Adam Baldwin(no relation) was great as the morally ambiguous anti-hero Jayne, and made a great nemesis for Angel in the final season of that show. Astute viewers may also remember him as evil super-soldier Knowle Rohrer from the X-files. Alan Tudyk played the pilot, and I've enjoyed his performances in a lot of movies of late: Wat in A Knight's Tale, Steve the Pirate in Dodgeball, and Sonny, the robot in I, Robot.

M.A.N.T.I.S.: Superhero movies are popular right now. Sam Raimi is especially popular as a director of such films. Carl Lumbly is heroic in his role as Dixon on Alias, and as Martian Manhunter on Justice League. Why this Raimi show starring Lumbly as a crippled scientist who can walk and perform superhuman feats via a special exoskelton of his own invention isn't at least on DVD now is a mystery to me, and perhaps three or four other people.

I think I maxed out my allowed blog-theme exceptions yesterday, so I won't add Tru Calling to this list since it aired on Thursdays. It's unfair that even the six episodes filmed for the second season may never air now, especially given how excited I was about where the show was going and the concept of someone with her power to relive days who made sure people stayed dead that she was trying to save. It's too bad I couldn't find some clever way to work it in. Perhaps a post for another time...