So Long, TV Shows

Lots of cancellations were announced today, and three shows I truly enjoyed were on the list.

The drama that I'm going to miss the most is Southland, an emsemble-cast police series that manages to blend human interest and police action in the same fascinating way that ER blended human interest and medical drama. The series ended on a powerful and disturbing low point for one of the characters, and I hate it that his redemption will go untold.

There are two comedies that I hate to lose. First is the freshman series Go On, which stars Matthew Perry as a radio sports-talk host who joins a support group after the sudden death of his wife. The series struggled to find its footing in the first few episodes (Is his wife going to continue having a ghostly presence? Will flashbacks be a regular part of each episode?), but once it hit its stride, I really enjoyed the interaction between Matthew Perry's character and the rest of the quirky support group. Of course, I should confess that I think Perry is one of the best comedic actors on television in the past ten years, and it's a shame that he just can't find a series that makes full use of his skills (remember Mr. Sunshine? Yeah, no one else does, either...).

Most of all, though, I'm going to miss Whitney, the sitcom starring Whitney Cummings. It lasted two seasons, and I thought it was really moving along quite well this year, but apparently it was too little too late to attract a sufficient audience. I'm not sure why it became so trendy to trash the show--I thought the characters were likeable, Whitney was charming in an irresistible damaged-goods way, Chris D'Elia's Alex was an adept blend of confidence and insecurity, and Rhea Seehorn's Roxanne was always fascinating and could have supported the series much more had she been played up from the beginning. (Seehom, by the way, always reminds me so much of Rick Hoffman, who plays Louis Litt on Suits, that I had to check her bio to see if perchance she was his sister... she's not.)

Ah well, such is the way of television. If all the good shows stayed on forever, I guess there'd be no room for the shows that are destined to become favorites in the future, would there?