ACK
Fox cancels my favorite show "Fastlane" and keeps the unwatchable "Boston Public". Also cancelled is Andy Richter's show, which I thought was good.I know it's all about ratings and sometimes good shows just don't make it. I just think that Fastlane suffered from being placed before John Doe, which sucked major ass.
I think Boston Public will suffer at it's destined Friday night timeslot. It's a chick show, and not an intelligent chick show, it's a show for teenage girls who want to watch a vapid soap opera before watching American Idol. I've tried to watch Boston Public, I think I've sat through 4 or 5 episodes and it just completely sucks.
This brings back the frustration of seeing Newsradio cancelled even though it outperformed network darling 3rd Rock from the Sun (an excellent show as well) despite being moved time and again. It also brings back my annoyance at seeing Earth 2 cancelled in favor of Sea Quest. Sea Quest got about 700 times the promotion that Earth 2 did and was given more of a chance to succeed, which it didn't.
Now I'll never know what would have happened!
Well, here are my postmortem thoughts on the show:
The show succeeded in it's main goal. It wanted to be cool, and it was. Beautiful women, fast cars, drugs, money, guns, bad guys, good guys, dual loyalties, plenty of bloodshed, hot music, and hip locales. Oh yeah, and it was also about cops.
Sure, some of the scenarios were hokey. Some of the endings were a bit forced, ...but overall the stories were edgy, fresh, and exciting. They used non-linear story telling in some episodes and that was kinda neat: starting at a point about 5 minutes from the end, jumping to the beginning, and then jumping back for the end.
I wondered how the show would do. When it's 1980's counterpart Miami Vice came out there was nothing else like it. TV did not show much violence or sex, crime and drugs were not glorified, and modern music was absent except for MTV. But that is not true anymore. With HBO shows like the Sopranos and Oz, there really isn't the demand for slightly cleaned up violence on TV. Fastlane was not shocking or gripping compared to what else it out there. Really, it was a cleaned up "Grand Theft Auto" set to music and put on Friday nights at 7pm. When HBO is pulling no punches, why watch something that does?
Well, it was a lot of fun. I loved the show, thought it was hilarious, well done, well acted (mostly), and FUN. I like this kind of thing, apparently I'm in a minority on this one.
Anyway, I think they are still playing the re-runs this summer, so watch it while you can. Heck, maybe I'll even tape them. My favorite episodes were the ones where Van's father was involved, the episodes with Jay Mohr (who was great as the perverted, angry, annoying cop watcher), the 2 part cop killer show, and the episode about the Chinese drug kingpin.
Maybe another network will pick it up. Maybe, but not at the budget required to showcase the show's glitz and special effects.
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