Just like every other Friday night, television fans were treated to three pretty good series that all have ratings problems. While one series has surprisingly been picked up for another two seasons, the other two face a pretty imminent cancellation. Poor ratings shouldn’t get fans down though since last night brought us three pretty good television episodes. From a major death to a championship game there is plenty to talk about regarding last night’s shows.
©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Carin Baer/FOX
Dollhouse S1.E8 Needs
Well at this point it probably doesn’t really matter much what fans think of Dollhouse. Unless Dollhouse gets a Friday Night Lights type of offer from another network (which it won’t), I can’t imagine Dollhouse lasting past it’s original 13 episode order.
It’s sad really since Dollhouse has improved quite drastically the last three episodes. I guess it doesn’t matter though since Fox doomed the show before it even began. First they give it a time slot of death. Come on Fox, you must have known that the target audience wouldn’t stay at home watching a sci-fi series on a Friday Night.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Fox decides to interfere with the series. While Joss Whedon denies Fox interfering with his vision, you can tell that they did. Whedon is obviously not going to come out and insult the company giving him his paycheck. After Fox mishandled Firefly I thought they would give Whedon the benefit of the doubt this time around but it appears like they mishandled Dollhouse as well.
Dollhouse should have started with episode six with a little background added in. The “five pilots” idea just didn’t work. (I have a feeling that this was Fox’s idea.) For a series to be successful the show has to start out strong. The “five pilots” resulted in Dollhouse having a pretty poor start which lead to it losing quite a few of it’s potential viewers.
While this week’s episode was a little bit of a disappointment after the previous two episodes, I am still hoping that Dollhouse is somehow given another season to hopefully grow and development. I am not getting my hopes up though since I think Dollhouse will go the way of Firefly and be cancelled way too soon.
Friday Night Lights S3.E12 Underdogs
Well I have to admit that I was wrong when I thought Friday Night Lights would end after this season. I guess I underestimated how much DirectTV wanted the series back for more episodes. I applaud DirectTV for continuing a quality television series. I just wish it would have save more quality shows that have either been canceled or will soon be canceled.
So this week’s episode was a good episode of Friday Night Lights. While it would have been nice to see the Dillon Panthers pull off the upset, I think the series made the right decision by having them lose in a close game. While the Dillon Panthers are a good football team, I think things would have been a little unrealistic if they won the state title two out of three years. Dillon isn’t a big city so I find it hard to believe that they would have a football team that would consistently win state.
Now with only one more episode left this season the question becomes what is the series going to do for the next two seasons. With most of the characters leaving Dillon there will definitely be some changes next season. Some cast members won’t be returning as regulars next season so there will have to be some changes. My guess is that next season will revolve around some new Dillon Panthers along with following a couple of the original cast while they are off at college.
©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Richard Foreman/FOX
Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles S2.E21 Adam Raised a Cain
Even though fans of the series won’t want to admit it, next week’s episode will end up being the series finale of Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I am a little torn about this fact. I think my feelings will most likely come down to how well next week’s episode wraps up the series’ storylines. If it does a good job, I won’t be that upset to see Terminator go since in my opinion it was a very inconsistent show. One week it was good and the next week it was below average. I don’t know if I ever watched a more inconsistent show. I just hope that the series gets a respectable series finale since very few shows end up getting one.
As far as this week’s episode, I thought it was a strong episode. I question Derek’s death though. I don’t mind Derek being killed since the gang is facing danger every week and casualties are to be expected. I just question how the series killed him off. While I don’t really care for cheesy death sequences, I think a little more could have been put into Derek’s death. It just had the feeling he was killed off and the show just kept moving with little time spent on his death. When a series regular dies you expect at least a little time is spent on his death.
