"Canceled"

Cancelled

            Community Fan #78 paced back and forth nervously in the dark, his socked feet occasionally sliding against the hardwood floor. His eyes were perpetually pivoting between the clock and the door. He paused only to wipe the sweat off his forehead. Already he had been here for two, maybe three, hours.  It was a Thursday night. In his apartment, he would usually be on the couch right about now, eyes glued to the television. But this wasn’t his apartment.

            This wasn’t a matter of life or death. No, it was worse. It was a matter of how in the world he was going to fill the half hour of his life that would be opened if NBC canceled his favorite show: ‘Community’. He knew he couldn’t bear the pain that would come with that loss. At least, not this soon. ‘The show should have four seasons, at least!’ he would tell himself as he angrily posted on message boards. But when NBC’s midseason schedule came with no mention of his beloved show and where the second half of its third season would air, the probable fate of the show became clear to him.

            Television had become a sort of drug for him since his wife left. Before, it was just a hobby. But the hobby soon turned into habit, habit into ritual, ritual into obsession, and so on. And the centerpiece of it all was ‘Community’. Every Thursday night at 7:00, there was only one option for Community Fan #78: to be set in front of his TV, tuned into NBC. If television was the glue that held his life together, ‘Community’ was the bottle that held the glue.

            This wasn’t the first time he’d watched a show come and go. He’d seen it all before: fan campaigns, flash mobs, letters to the network. It was almost like a routine, albeit one that rarely had an effect on anything. The executives were too focused on the numbers. Fan campaigns were too easy to ignore. Community Fan #78 realized to be successful, you need to make it personal. And as far as he could tell, he was the only one that would take the risk.

            Community Fan #78’s head snapped towards the door. He heard footsteps. They gradually became louder, then stopped altogether. The doorknob began to turn and NBC Executive #3 entered the apartment. He sighed as he set his briefcase down and his hand slid up and down the wall, searching for the lightswtich. He found it and flicked it upwards, revealing an intruder sitting at his kitchen table. A mix of fear and anger took hold of NBC Executive #3 and, eventually, the anger won out.

            “Who in the hell are you?”

            “Relax. I just want to talk.”

            “Relax? The guy who’s been sitting in the dark in my apartment waiting for me for God knows how long wants me to relax!?”

            “Just listen. We need to talk.”

            “What do we need to talk about? The punishment for breaking and entering? How deranged you are? How fast it’ll take the cops to get here?”

            “About ‘Community”.

            There was a break in the conversation. Disbelief only heightened NBC Executive #3’s anger.

            “This. Is about. A TV show?!” he said in a quiet way that maintained the intensity of gospel choir soloist.

            Community Fan #78 was afraid this would be the reaction he’d get. Some people just didn’t understand. TV shows could be so much more. In his eyes, a TV show could be reliable. A TV show could bring comfort. A TV show could encompass a wide range of emotion and elicit the same from its audience. A TV show was almost like person. A friend.

            Community Fan #78 blinked. He’d let himself get lost in his own thoughts again. He didn’t know how long the silence had been going on, but he was guessing it was unnerving the other man in the room even more.

            “Yes, a TV show.”

            “Well, what about it? What could possibly be some important about ‘Community’ that you have to break into my apartment and confront me about it?”

            “A TV show is like a person…” Even Community Fan #78 knew how absolutely stupid that sounded out loud and the cackle from NBC Executive #3 only confirmed it. It sounded remarkably foolish, but Community Fan #78 believed it more than he had ever believed in anything. Every time he wandered through his thoughts, he always reached that same conclusion. ‘A TV show is like a person’, he told himself again, ‘and how dare he tell me otherwise’.

            “Really? Alright, you know what? I’m just gonna go ahead and call the police and report you for breaking and entering and ill-informed metaphor” replied the executive between his laughter.

            “A Tv show is like a person. They are so much more similar then you would think. A Tv show can be comforting, or sad, or happy. They’re almost like friends….”

            As Community Fan #78 went on and on trying to justify the metaphor he felt defined his life, the cackles of  NBC Executive #3 grew louder and more animal-like by the second, almost to the point where Community Fan #78 seemed to be the sanest in the room.

           “…our lives have so many of the same elements.” He almost had to yell to be heard over the cackles. “Drama, comedy, suspense, romance…” The laughter was becoming too much. Community Fan #78 feared he was very close to having to use his last resort. “In a way they can be renewed….” The laughter was echoing through the apartment, bouncing off the walls, bouncing off the furniture, bouncing off the floor, bouncing everywhere, bouncing in and out of his ears, circling his brain, seeping into his eyes and nose and mouth and flooding his stomach with nausea until it became too much. “…or they can be canceled.” He finished as he pulled out a gun.

            The laughter was gone. A stunned NBC Executive #3 stood motionless.

            “R-relax.”

            “You can’t cancel ‘Community’.”

            “Hey, come one. It’s just on hiatus.”

            “I don’t believe you.”

            “Look, I care about ‘Community’ too. It’s really one of my favorite shows.”

            “What’s your favorite episode?’

            Silence.

            “WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE EPISODE?!?”

            There was more silence, eventually broken by the sound of a safety on a gun being turned off.

            “Wait! Please, wait! If a person is like a TV show, that what would you be doing if you shot me?” NBC Executive #3 began pleading as he slowly moved towards Community Fan #78.

            “Canceling you.”

            “Exactly. If a person is like a TV show, what’s the difference between me canceling ‘Community’ and you shooting me. Nothing! In your eyes, they’re the same thing!”

            He had a point. Community Fan #78 lowered his gun and almost instantly fell into his web of thoughts. His own logic had been used against him and it was tearing him up from the inside. NBC Executive #3 saw his opportunity and tackled Community Fan #78 to the ground and unleashed his anger. By the time the police showed up, NBC Executive #3 was washing the blood off his hands and already making plans to buy a new security system.

            Season 4 of Community premiered on September 21^st, 2012. In Room 209 of St. Annie’s Hospital, Community Fan #78 paid no attention.

Review Roundup

Haven't seen the NBC comedies besides Community or Fringe yet, so I'll save those for next week!

How I Met Your Mother: "Hopeless"- Much the better than the previous episode, even if that isn't saying much. Neil Patrick Harris and John Lithgow continue to remain awesome and the rest of the cast, despite brief or trivial plotlines, made this episode very enjoyable. The best part was Barney's announcement to his dad "We're also a band!" with a direct cut to the cast preforming the theme song. Very fun.

Chuck: "Chuck vs the Wedding Planner"- One of the best Chuck episodes in quite some time. It gave some much needed closure on Sarah's relationship with her father and continued to push momentum through the non-Vivian related story arcs, you know, the ones that people actually care about. The plot was quite original and paced very well (which normaly wouldn't warrent a note, but based on this show's recent episodes, it seems almost out of the ordinary). The episode also did a good job of balancing the humor and the real emotional stuff. I especially enjoyed the reenactment of Chuck's flash face. Possibly the fourth to last episode of this show ever, so I'm glad it was as enjoyable as it was.

Raising Hope: "Cheaters"- Didn't particularly care for this one. I thought it was fine, nothing too bad about it, but nothing all that great either. I think the main factor might be a heavy use of Maw-Maw (please don't give her her own storylines), but some of the character work just felt forced and frustrating.

The Whitest Kids U'Know: "5.02"- I still am not a big an of The Civil War on drugs. I don't know what it's trying to do, I don't know why it's there, and I don't find it to be particularily funny (although I did laugh several times this week, as opposed to the straight face I had the whole ten minutes last week). I did like almost all the other sketches this week though. "Old Folks Home" was almost a spiritual successor to "Dinosaur Rap" and things like the last second turn of the "Dominos" sketch felt like things we should have seen last week. And the Anne Frank skit did bring up a surprisingly disturbing but true point.

Cancellation and Renewal Predictions

It's almost judgement day. At this point in the season, we should be able to tell the fate of the remaining shows, or at least classify them as 'bubble shows'. For a more statistical look at the prospects, I encourage you to seek out the Renew/Cancel Index at TV By The Numbers, link on the right hand side of the page.

CBS doesn't have very many unsuccessful shows,. In some ways, that makes it hard to predict and in others, it makes it easy. I'd say the Criminal Minds spinoff will be back, as will The Good Wife (Emmy nominated, and recent rumours have suggested CBS is looking for a two-year renewal), CSI:NY has kind of tanked since moving to Friday, so I fully expect that one to do. I'd predict Bleep My Dad Says and Mad Love to be canceled, but with the Two and a Half Men situation, it's a wild card.


ABC: Detroit 1-8-7 and No Ordinary Family will be canceled. I'd say Better With You and Off the Map don't have much of a shot, Body of Proof is actually looking pretty good, the only succesful new drama from ABC this year. Mr. Sunshine could go either way, but I'm leaning towards canceled. If ABC decides they want to do a second comedy night, I could easily see it staying. Happy Endings is heading towards cancellation. It's hard to make a call on V. I'd lean towards cancelled, but I could see it coming back again next midseason.


FOX: With Fringe renewed and The X-Factor on its way, there's hardly any room left on FOX's schedule. I'd say the only bubble show that could make it would be Lie to Me, possibly with a summer renewal. I'd say Human Target and The Chicago Code are dead (then again, I said that about Fringe a month ago). Breaking In has a decent shot, it depends whether or not FOX really cares about the fact its retention from American Idol is not so great. Traffic Light is a goner.

NBC: Chuck, as much as it pains me to say it, is probably not coming back next year. If it does, it'll be a very limited order. In the past couple weeks, its ratings have fallen too far for me to look at the situation with optimism. Harry's Law will probably return. It stayed slightly under NBC's average until its last episode, and it gets a low of viewers, which really only helps NBC in the PR department, but it still helps. The Cape, Perfect Couples, The Event, and Law and Order: Los Angeles won't be back. Parenthood will be renewed.

Community: "Paradigms of Human Memory" Review

 

Clip shows feel outdated. They feel unecessary, they feel boring, and they feel lazy. It seems like you can almost mark the point a show jumps the shark by going a few episodes past or before their clip show. Community knows this, so that's why when Community did their clip show, they made up all the clips. I love the idea that there are so many of these adventures that happened this season that we haven't seen. It does wonders to expand the universe of the show. The sheer number of clips in this episode was mind-blowing, I can't even imagine how long it took to film. But it was all worth it. This is one of my favorite Community episodes ever. In fact, I'd be willing to go as far as to call this episode this season's Modern Warfare.

I also greatly admire the show for using some clips to expand on previous episodes. Many people, including me, stated that they wanted to see the other side of the Christmas episode, with Abed describing what he was seeing in claymation and the group sitting in the study room reacting. The expansions of episodes like the Halloween episode helped to service the plot of this episode, involving Jeff and Britta's secret hookups. Besides the clips, this episode also had many callbacks to previous episodes, my favorite being Chang saying "I know these vents like the back of my Chang".

Out of the clips from the episodes that don't exist, I was particularly fond of the Glee Club (which was a hilarious Glee parody), the fanfic montages (complete with cheesy music), and Jeff's speechifying montage. And who could forget Abed as The Cape? Even though this was a fake clip show, it still managed to be retrospective on the season in general. They mentioned how they've been to fun places, they mentioned how they've gone dark places. They references the fact that whenever the group threatens to come apart at the seams, Jeff gives a speech and everything works out. Just a brilliant episode all around (streets ahead, you might say), complete with a genius tag that even managed to top last week's "Fiddler, Please". My only complaint is they didn't manage to work in a Magnitude reference. Pop pop!