#old and cancelled shows

[kuwdora]

my brain is still very soggy because of life stresses and I want to work on some fic. but i'm over here being thinky and nostalgic for a TV-watching experience that isn't fraught with cancellation at every moment. I don't like how we are all conditioned into watching everything ASAP or never having new episodes again. I recently read this thread by the showrunner of A League of Their Own on Twitter and I'm having feelings.

edit: i rambled a lot more about this over here.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Enki S Ending: God Blocking Gambit

[evermorebarbie]

[marciabrady]

MICKEY'S HOUSE OF VILLAINS (2001) dir. Jamie Mitchell

[edwins-fangirl]

@netflix is just giving us the perfect opening to scold them for canceling Dead Boy Detectives

[xx-sketchy-xx]

Lol, why is this so fun???

[sweetreveriee]

Just thinking about how for Luke’s parents every parents worst fear came true. Their son ran away, they haven’t had contact in months, don’t even know if he’s alive or where he is, and then one night they turn on the news and there he is, but it’s not because he’s a star. No. He is dead.

The last words that Luke and his mom said to each other were in anger. And we know that Luke’s dad wasn’t even home when he ran away as we can see him just pulling up in the driveway when Emily runs out.

Luke’s last interaction with his mom is him saying he never wants to see her again, but then up until his last days he regrets saying that and keeps looking for ways to reconnect.

But he never got to, because he died. And how did his parents find out? A news channel.

[starling125]

Some favorite screenshots from this masterpiece of a show. Forever missed.

[myenterpriseisparked]

I'm generally not a hater. The list of media I actively hate (vs what I simply shrug at and go "its not for me") is fairly small. I don't usually talk about hating media online. I don't find it constructive or a meaningful use of my time.

That said, I will get this off my chest: I hate Star Trek Picard and the way it has made me feel bitter towards TNG. I hate the fact that it gets so much praise when the writing was so objectively shoddy, while Prodigy, which was well written and executed, got canceled because it was a "kids show." I hate how much nostalgia PIC threw to the masses to cover up poor writing. I hate the fact that it worked. I hate that people are petitioning for even more of the same style of show in Star Trek. I don't hate people that loved Picard, it's okay if it *was* your jam, but I am personally very bitter about the show and how it changed the face of Star Trek as a whole.

[waterflat]

[lucianalight]

This is something my friend and I were discussing, but since neither of us watched the show and we just watched Ruth's clips because we love her 😅 I figured I would ask you.

How does Night Nurse's employment work in this universe? Is she a slave to Tamlyn Tomita's character? If she, at the end, said she didn't want to stay with the boys on Earth, would she get to make that choice?

As always this answer turned out longer that I expected🤦🏻😅 so TLDR; it's not clear how the employment works but the Night Nurse has to follow her superior's orders. Whether she can make her own choices depends on her origins and how Afterlife works but we don't have a definitive answer for either one of these questions yet. And I haven't read the comics so what I wrote are mostly speculations based on The Sandman and dbd TV shows.

Here's the long answer:

It is not clear how exactly Afterlife works. I would have said it's under Death of the Endless' supervision but the whole strict, bureaucratic theme of the office doesn't really match her vibes. It's clear that the people there, despite their power, do not have the freedom to do what they want. For example to get permission to go to Earth the Night Nurse had to have a specific location of the ghosts she wanted to retrieve. But does she have free will to disobey her orders? To answer this I have to make a detour first.

The Night Nurse works in the Lost and Found Department and her superior-Tamlyn Tomita's character-who is said to be very busy and has the number "002" on her office's door is in fact Niko. Niko was infected by dandelion sprites and was saved by dead boy detectives. As a result of her near death experience she could see the ghosts and became the dbd's friend. She had died just a few days ago protecting them.

So this powerful entity who according to her, could do anything she wanted was human once. The curious thing is that she didn't remember the boys, not until she saw her human name on their wall as one of the closed cases. So we can assume that all the other people in that department were also human once. A pair of twins that are mentioned as one of the closed cases can be further proof of that. The twins work under the Night Nurse could possibly be the same twins.

But why are these people working there? The Night Nurse mentions that death isn't an option available to her and technically she can live for eons. Maybe it is a place for the ones who can't actually find their afterlife? We see Niko dies but we never see her meeting Death or the blue light that comes with her. Instead we see Niko with the dandelion sprites in an igloo. This is probably the result of the polar bear lucky charm she had with her when she died but what that lucky charm did and why the sprites were there and how she aged or why she didn't remember the boys at first are all questions that we don't know the answer to.

All of this though can give of us some clues. Like wherever Niko went, time doesn't work the same and she could age. She somehow existed before she was born and died on Earth. So can the Night Nurse be one of the future cases the boys haven't helped yet? She has the ability to see people's traumas and when Crystal tries to see inside her head she sees a skeleton with lots baby hands inside her that terrifies her. I wouldn't be surprised if her human life is tied to sth traumatic involving children.

It is also interesting that one of her main interactions is with Kashi, someone in a terrible situation with no trauma, someone kind with no alterior motive that helps her sees and considers different ways to what is always been done. Free will and doing what one's like to do are also topics that are mentioned in relation to her character. So if there's a second season those are some of the themes that can be explored with her character.

But I think it also matters who the number one is Afterlife is. Dream of the Endless decided to give free will to his subjects. Whoever the number one is in Afterlife, is probably the one who has the last say in this.

[kuwdora]

The fraught experience of watching TV in a streaming entertainment economy.

I basically watch new TV with the expectation that current season I’m watching is going to be the last. That includes The Witcher Netflix, btw, but other shows, too. I get the feeling we’ve all sort of…come to this conclusion, right? We’re all so jaded because things get cancelled left and right. Nothing is safe. Nothing. :(

We all have to race to watch The Sandman or Shadow and Bone ASAP instead of enjoying a week-to-week drop. It’s exhausting. I don’t like feeling guilty when I don’t have the brain to watch things. I definitely have just streamed stuff in the background and watched it for real later, too.

Star Trek Prodigy on Paramount? Cancelled and pulled from the platform. People who purchased the rest of the season on Amazon never got the episodes because the rights were pulled. Star Trek is the flagship IP!!! And it STILL GOT CANCELLED. Even though it’s beautiful, and fucking brilliant and incredible television and had new episodes in the pipeline.

The other show I’m currently mourning is Moonhaven. I wrote about that show here. It was renewed for a second season! It’s an fascinating, atypical sci-fi TV premise with great leads and interesting worldbuilding and shooting locations in Ireland. And then AMC decided that they were not going to renew it. It’s similar what happened to Avenue 5 on HBO (Ave 5 was more of a Schroedinger’s Cancellation. It’s cancelled except maybe not? But it really is cancelled.)

A League of Their Own? Cancelled. Willow? Cancelled. The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance? Sense8???? The list goes on and on. :(

I think for me it was in 2017 or 2018 that I really started internalizing this idea that none of my favorite, amazing shows were going to last. Santa Clarita Diet was axed by Netflix far too soon. Same with Altered Carbon. Those cancellations changed me, yeah…

I follow a lot of WGA writers on twitter and there’s been a lot of discussion happening about the Suits renaissance. Suits aired on the USA Network for 9 years with 16+ episodes/season. It’s been streaming on NBC’s Peacock platform for awhile and now has 8 seasons on Netflix. It’s currently the most-streamed show in Nielson’s history, something like over 2 billion minutes now. people are discovering it for the first time or coming back to it for a very happy rewatch.

This writer sums up the situation perfectly.

I also can’t track down the tweet where a writer was talking to a development executive at Peacock who admitted that they wouldn’t be able to get Suits made today.

Ugly Betty is another show that’s having a similar bump (thanks in part to Barbie, people catching up to how amazing America Ferrara is. Also watch Superstore!!) because people are looking for these longer shows that have character development and the longevity.

The only streaming platform I currently ‘trust’ with my vested TV interests is AppleTV. And I only trust them because I can see what kind of free reign they’re allowing their creatives to do with their shows. They’re specific and bold premises and commitment to characters and themes. Similar to Netflix in the early years. I doubt this will last much longer.

On Apple TV you’ve got incredible psychological thrillers like Severence and Silo happening. The musical comedy Schmiagdoon! too.

Ted Lasso got to have longer episodes and handed over showrunning duties to the lead actor with some questionable creative choices made in those seasons. It still got to complete the show on its own terms. Amazing.

Apple TV also has Mythic Quest which is a unique comedy in the streaming age.

It’s a workplace comedy about a fictionalized video game development company. Picture Ubisoft who also provides video game assets/interstitials for the show among other things. It’s Community meets Always Sunny in Philadelphia (features writers and actors from both). A comedy that examines toxic masculinity in a workplace, completely roasts the girlbloss tropes and the patriarchy. The main characters are really autistic and ADHD coded. The show is completely self-aware (at times painfully so).

But what sets Mythic Quest apart and what tells me Apple TV is letting creatives do their jobs: This show has Bottle Episodes! And flashback episodes that don’t feature any of the primary actors! But the episodes are still relevant to the the themes and character dynamics the show is exploring.

In a hyper-serialized streaming world where executives and product strategists are measuring engagement by minutes watched and how soon they watch, Apple TV is letting these folks make episodes you can watch out of order or skip. But they’re also episodes with high rewatchability. It’s a show with a ton of heart. Apple TV renews Mythic Quest ahead of a season premiere. It renews it for multiple seasons. I’ve found this commitment to the longevity of the show very heartening.

In the past I’ve fallen in love with shows that were irreverent, campy, self-aware comedies. All of these were ABC shows so I can’t even rail against the streaming model. But like Netflix shows they weren’t given enough time to reach a wider audience even though I think some of these definitely have Cult Acclaim by now. I showed up bright an early for most of these and my god. The cancellations stung so much. That pain just accumulated over the years. A precursor of what was to come. :(

Better Off Ted - 2009 show. Another workplace satire that was just ahead of it’s time in the way it showed us the gallows humor of being a cog in the capitalist system. Addressed sexism, racism and classism. Funny as hell. Portia di Rossi knew the fucking assignment and fucked its brains out with her performance. Maz Jobrani was only in like 5 or 6 episodes and he was SO GOOD. I made sure to see every local comedy show I could to see more of him once I saw him in Better off Ted. - currently streaming on Hulu

Galavant - 2014-2016 - a fantasy musical. Monty Python meets Princess Bride. Featuring creators and lyricists who worked on 90s Disney films. So fucking funny and cheeky and heartwarming and silly. The music is so GREAT. All my Witcher and Our Flag Meets Death friends need to check this one out if they need something new-to-them that is witty and light and heartfelt. - also streaming on Hulu

Don’t Trust the B— in Apt 23 - a 2012 show with Krysten Ritter!! Before she was Jessica Jones! This show has eccentric women characters and James van der Beek playing a fictionalized version of himself. This is a show that had so much potential and they aired everything out of order and and and and and and I loved it so much. - Hulu since this is again an ABC show. Vid Rec: Applause by elipie.

Selfie - JOHN CHO AND KAREN GILLAN! John Cho and Karen Gillan in a ROM COM. The screeching wails from fandom when this got cancelled. It was an amazing set-up, amazing chemistry. Funny, quirky. You could see the growth in both of the characters!! And! We Never! Got enough!! - seriously watch this on hulu if you can. John and Karen are AMAZING.

Every first season of Star Trek has been wobbly or had wobbily episodes that didn't work or actors were still getting to know their characters. Every first season. Including new Trek! The X-Files? Even rebooted again? I don’t think it would work. Heck, even if they made second reboot of Battlestar Galactica I’m not sure it’d last. FARSCAPE! Got cancelled! By SyFy! They (like Sense8 and Firefly and a few others) got to have a movie conclusion. But at what narrative cost?? The Expanse got cancelled and uncancelled. The Orville got cancelled and uncancelled. I can't get my hopes up about anything unless I know it's a "limited series" at the onset.

I'm exhausted and sad by the state of the industry. I hope the writers and actors get everything from the studios and we can see a shift back to the previous working models again. Better working conditions and pay and residuals.

So I'll eventually watch A League of Their Own and 1899 and I know I'm going to fucking love every moment that we got to have. And then mourn. And go dig up all the fanfic and vids and art that I can to get my fix.

I think for now I'm gonna join in the Suits rewatch cause I love the humor and the character growth and relationships are fantastic. I don't think I rewatched Suits or Ugly Betty since they aired.

[foxgloveinspace]

People jumping ship cause of the new masks is very ahhhh. Telling. Tbh.

[pearls-n-opulence]

This show was WAY ahead of its time

[redvanillabee]

on the one hand i thoroughly understand if, say, hayley wants to outrun the legacy of agent carter. it must be kind of weird to have people dressing up as your 2015 role wherever you go. it was just a job, after all

but on the other hand given the circumstances of how this show ended...i think marvel/cast/crew constantly dodging agent carter and only offering up captain carter as an alternative will only make people double down on wanting ac back

[s0ap-bubbles]

Shout out to mappa for giving one LESS reason to live by cancelling my gay ice skating movie