So it's that time of year when TV networks announce which shows will last another season and which are getting the axe. Some of the announced cancelled shows are no real surprise. But two of NBC's cancellations stand out to me; Law and Order and Heroes. L&O is a significant loss from the TV landscape, as it's been a fixture on that landscape for twenty freakin' years. Heroes is one of those shows where, and it pains me to say this as it was once a favorite of mine, it seems like the network is finally putting it out of it's misery.
Let's start with the good show. L&O, the groundbreaking, cut-from-the-headlines, serial prime-time drama that spawned 4 spin offs (Law and Order: Special Victims Unit; Law and Order: Criminal Intent; the short lived Law and Order: Trial by Jury and the across the pond take Law and Order: UK), as well as influencing every other cut-from-the-headlines, serial prime-time drama. It's the longest running crime drama ever, and tied with Gunsmoke as the longest running prime-time drama ever. It's formula is distinctive: the first half of each episode is devoted to the police investigation of a crime, the second half showing the criminal prosecution of that crime. It was one of the first shows about lawyers to be told from the point of view of the prosecution and not the defence. Because it's not a serial drama and did not focus on the personal lives of the characters it had a revolving door of cast members, most notably Jerry Orbach and Sam Waterston. It stayed current with each season, making gripping television out of real life events. It's theme song is iconic. It was one of a kind in a lot of ways.
I used to watch it fairly regularly when it aired late at night on Bravo, watching the earliest seasons. The stories always managed to suck me in; even if I was only planning on watching the first half I ended up having to see how it played out. For me, the trial was always the most interesting part. The police investigation was cool, but nothing could beat the chess game that took place in the courtroom.
It had to be cancelled sooner or later. And honestly I haven't seen any episodes of the last I-don't-know-how many seasons because after so many years, no matter how good a show is it just can't have the same impact it once did. That's the nature of television. Still, the world of TV will feel a little emptier having L&O off the air. Sure it's spin-offs will still be on, and apparently a new one is in the works as we speak (Law and Order: Los Angeles, the first American L&O to be set outside of New York) but the late, great original will be the one to miss.
Now the flip side, let's talk about Heroes, the show that started off with so much promise and then went downhill so fast you had to wonder if somebody on the show just gave up after the first season. Or if maybe someone was pulling a cruel prank on all of us.
The show introduced us to ordinary people from all over the world who suddenly discover they have super powers. There was a slow build to a great climax in the first season, a lot of drama, a lot of humor and heart, a villain that could haunt your nightmares and a mythology you just knew was deeper than was being shown on screen. The first season spawned a phenomena, and I was hooked from the get go.
Then the second season came along and...it was just okay. I mean the whole time-travel subplot with Hiro didn't make a lot of sense and went on way longer than it should have. That whole wonder-twins thing was just kind of dumb. Sylar survived when he really shouldn't have. There was a gaping hole in Peter's storyline that still bugs the hell out of me (what the heck happened to his Irish girlfriend when she was just left in the future?). It was kind of all over the place, but I held out hope that maybe the show could get back on track. The people behind Heroes even cut the season short and promised us a revamp in the next.
They lied. The third season offered nothing new of note, added more annoying plot lines and characters, made a lot of the regular characters come across as whiny and incompetent and finally turned me off of it entirely.
There were three big reasons that made me decide enough is enough. The first being their abandonment of the "Sylar's redemption" storyline. I'm a sucker for second chances, and Zachary Quinto is such a great actor he could convincingly show character growth for someone as evil as Sylar. But then, all of a sudden, after several episodes of him working so hard to be a good guy and doing pretty well, Sylar decided "Nope, I'm evil again". Well, he didn't say it like that, but that was the gist.
Secondly, the writers set brothers Peter and Nathan on each other. Their relationship was one of the cornerstones of the series, and pitting them against each other so did not fly with me at all. Pun intended, as Nathan could fly.
Lastly, and most importantly, when I'm invested in a series I have to feel that even if I don't know what the hell is going on with the plot, the writers do and they're just waiting for the right time to reveal all to it's loyal audience. I lost that trust with Heroes. It got to the point that I really began to suspect that the writers were just making it up as they go along. That is not only lazy it's insulting to the viewers. And so, with a heavy heart, I checked out of Heroes about midway through the third season. I haven't watched it since, but I suspect that my geeky hopes that the super powered humans would all eventually join forces into something resembling the X-men did not come to pass. Their loss. Ah well, in my mind they're all still the cool people from the first season and that super-hero team has been formed.
So there's one show that, while it may have been on longer than it should have, is still going out on a high note. And one show that showed so much promise at the start, then left a smoking, charred trail of what could have been. It's a sad moment for both of them, but for very different reasons.
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