I saw the above linked article regarding the cancellation of V, No Ordinary Family, and The Event, topped off with the fact that SGU was already cancelled with a very abrupt open-ended series finale. All of those shows are set to automatically record on my DVR. I think someone or something is telling me to not watch TV anymore or to develop new tastes.
Ok, not every show I watch is being cancelled. House is still on. Castle's still around. A few more are still on hiatus. But I have a thing for (geek) genre shows and I always keep a set on there, even when they aren't really that good. Actually I'm not surprised that the above shows were canned. I don't consider myself a true fan of any of them. Haven't seen a really good genre show that I really like since BSG ended, save for Dr. Who which I'm behind on. It's just hard to do that stuff right I suppose.
Actually it's just as well all of these cancellations happened. I've had to tone down my TV watching a lot and in truth most of those shows are stuff I leave on in the background while I work or do something else. They don't require serious attention to get the gist of the story. But thanks to the wonders of the interwebs it's also so much easier to test out or catch up on series that I missed or didn't know about. So I'm not all concerned or up in arms as I was felt with, e.g. Firefly. If I have a peeve, it's that the trend is to cancel genre shows first and foremost; I can think of other kinds that should be slated for demolition. That an the fact I get this sense they don't provide enough warning for the show to really wrap up, to resolve their arcs, to at least bring the series to a proper resolution as genre shows now (thankfully) are more in need of.
In light of this not-so-new trend for genre to get axed by the execs, the people who make these shows REALLY need to take a cue from the Brits: Make each season as if it were the only one ahead of time. It's OK to leave a little something dangling or to leave people wanting more but definitely start with the end of the season in mind, make it complete on it's own, resolve the major purpose of the season, in other words know how to end it should the axe fall even if it means compressing things down to a few episodes like Caprica did. Why? To get the story out, to aid in making the boxed set a complete thing fans would buy (I am much less interested in starting a series that just stops). In fact, while you're at it, take another cue from the Brits (or even HBO/Showtime) and make the seasons tight and short. 13 to 15 episodes is a very good length. It prevents you from putting in too much boring filler that no-one's interested in or have nothing to do with the main arcs. It's one of the things I adored about BSG season 1 over the others; it was tight and almost every episode related directly to the main plight of the series.
Addendum:
With my recent shortening of watched shows I've been watching more talk/late-night type shows. The Daily Show is my main one but I'll catch the monologues of others (e.g. Conan, Late Show, etc). I gotta say, I don't think much of Jimmy Fallon as talk show host, but he has the BEST band of them all.
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