BrilliantButCancelled.com Blogs: Pop Autopsy

Jericho: Storytelling in a time of Fear-Mongering

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 09:45:48 -0800

I was pretty sure I wasn't ever going to watch the final 15 episodes of "Jericho," but that's the thing about a summer cold -- it's a great time to catch up on the television stored in my DVR. I work for an organization called "Brilliant But Cancelled" -- so my DVR is full of things like this. I'm a huge fan of the grassroots effort that convinced CBS to bring this show back for another try. It makes me feel like all the crazy petitions I sign are not in vain.

But watching them all in a row like this, makes me wonder -- why "Jericho?" Why not "The Class" or "Studio 60?" And I think it comes down to the peanuts. But we'll get to the peanuts.

"Jericho" has a lot to recommend it, don't get me wrong. These are moments that are rare to TV these days -- moments of real pathos....

Veronica Mars

Tue, 22 May 2007 12:36:11 -0800

What went wrong with “Veronica Mars?” She went to college this year. Was that it? Were viewers turned off by the Hearst college rapist plot thread, which ran through the first half of this season? Did Logan turn too sullen? They changed the theme music … I mean, same song but different mix. Was that when the shark jumped?

Here’s your answer. Nothing went wrong with “Veronica Mars.” It jumped the shark … never. We’ve been there since day one and it has never felt any less smart, or funny, or unexpected as it is now. There’s no dramatic drop off in quality here. This is pure math -- ratings math; network math. This is the sum of an easy equation, whose two parts are: a major network merger and a far too extended hiatus.

There’s no coincidence that “The Gilmore Girls” is ending its run at the same time this season. When the...

The Gilmore Girls

Wed, 16 May 2007 11:38:04 -0800

We all read how the end was coming -- that it was time. How the show was not itself this past season without Amy Sherman-Palladino leading the helm. We could go on and on about how great “The Gilmore Girls” really was but we don't want to bore you. Instead we've written goodbyes to some of our favorite characters below.

Rory: What is there to say? You are Rory. Everything is perfect for you and the most amazing thing is that we want it to be perfect for you. Even when you had your doubts, like when you dropped out of Yale, we always knew you'd find your way back. The one thing we do wish for you is that while you are traveling around with Barack you by chance run into Dean somewhere along the way. We always did like you the best Dean (that's right, we didn't say Jess). Also, we just want...

Interview with Ron Moore

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 14:43:14 -0800

One of the best things about working at a website devoted to television, is the opportunity to meet the writers of some of your favorite shows. We scored an interview with "Battlestar Galactica" head writer Ron Moore, and he told us all about the future of television, meeting his wife, and working on shows like "Roswell" and "Carnivale."

BrilliantBC: How did you start as a writer? Where was your entry point into writing?

RM: I always wrote when I was a kid growing up. I wrote short stories all through elementary school and I was in a play in high school and I was part of a literary society in college I never considered making it a career. came from a very small town in central California and I thought, you know, “that’s just not a real job , you don’t really do that.” So I thought I was going to be a lawyer and...

The O.C.

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 08:46:12 -0800

You could just hear the pitch meeting: A young, misunderstood hottie from the wrong side of the beach winds up living with his upscale lawyer and has to navigate the seemingly perfect (stress on "seemingly") lives of his new, rich friends. A west coast sort of "Dawson’s Creek." And we’ll call it "The O.C."

Originally its creator, Josh Schwartz, was hoping to bring a little more quirkiness and reality to his story, hiding a desire to throw in a little "Freaks and Geeks" when Fox wanted the next 90210. For a while, at least, the strategy seemed to succeed.

The unflappable O.C. followed the pattern set before it by so many lovely little teenage angst-fests. The focus was put on three wealthy families living in Newport Beach, Orange County, and the dirty secrets that the parents and children kept from one another.

Interview with Bryan Fuller

Thu, 28 Dec 2006 15:23:01 -0800

As a special holiday present, our little corner of Brilliantbutcancelled.com was graced by none other than one of television's best writers: Bryan Fuller -- creator of fantastic fare such as "Dead Like Me" and "Wonderfalls." He's currently writing for the NBC hit "Heroes," and has thus become even more of a hero around the TV-obsessed offices. Fuller shared with us everything from his early influences, to his thoughts about gay characters on TV, to the cancellation of some of his pet projects.

BrilliantBC: What were the shows that you watched as a kid? And what shows do you think influenced you the most?
The “Twilight Zone” has to be the biggest. It was the first time that I was watching television that wasn’t confined by the boundaries of reality. In my house, growing up it was often westerns and very grounded kind of stuff on TV. So when I first...

Dead Like Me

Tue, 12 Dec 2006 13:23:07 -0800

Seems like a simple enough conceit. Girl drops out of college, lives in a disgusting apartment she can barely afford, eats only diner food, slogs her way through a soul-crushing temp job, observes her family slowly grow accustomed to her not being around, and generally learns what adulthood is all about. Classic coming-of-age story, nothing new to see here.

Not so fast.

The girl, in this case, is dead (or “undead”, but more on the difference in a moment), and is forced to walk the earth in a body that is not hers, all the while moonlighting as a Grim Reaper. And here is the premise for the brilliant, but prematurely cancelled "Dead Like Me."

Wonderfalls

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 08:02:17 -0800

Here’s the thing about the premise of “Wonderfalls:" it’s part coming of age comedy, part science fiction drama, part Joan-of-Arc-narrative. And all of it is nearly impossible to pin down. Nevertheless, for a show that lasted on-air for only four episodes, “Wonderfalls” is repeatedly on every list of shows marked brilliant, but cancelled.

One of the most (if not the most) critically acclaimed shows of the 2004 season, “Wonderfalls” had a flawless creative team. Spearheaded by Todd Holland, Bryan Fuller (“Dead Like Me,” “Heroes”) and Tim Minear (“Firefly”), the show boasted a perfect cast and an inventive idea.

“Wonderfalls” told the story of Jaye Tyler (played with great energy by Caroline Dhavernas), an Ivy League-educated philosophy major who moves back to her hometown near Niagara Falls. She gets a job working retail in a souvenir shop, lives in an “I Dream of Jeanie”-looking trailer, and is spoken to by inanimate objects. The show...

Firefly

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 14:24:37 -0800

Quick note before you begin: You can also check out our very informative and eye-opening intervew with Sean Maher (Simon Tam) by clicking here.

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away … Joss Whedon created a character called Buffy who could slay vampires. Failing as a movie in the early 90s, Whedon resurrected the character for a ground-breaking TV series that spun off another hit series, "Angel."

As the story goes, the Fox network so desperately wanted to be in "the Joss Whedon business,” that they asked him to pitch something...anything.

What they got they didn't quite understand.

"Firefly" can be summed up in one high-concept statement: Cowboys in outer space. But it's much more than that. It's a science fiction world torn from our own American Civil War. It's spacemen on horses and in cranky old spaceships that have as much personality as the characters that fly...

Freaks and Geeks

Fri, 19 May 2006 16:52:22 -0800

For most of us, high school sucked. And somehow sitcoms trying to mine the material of terrible teen years inevitably end up sappy, flat and boring. All in one. But "Freaks and Geeks" was different -- "Freaks and Geeks" nailed it. From the super-hottie Daniel Desario, played by James Franco, to the awfully awkward Bill Haverchuck, played by Martin Starr, it was easy to understand them, feel their pain and laugh at their inside jokes.

One perfect moment: The Halloween episode when Lindsay ditches her mom to egg houses with her new freak friends and ends up egging Sam, her brother – who only moments before was beaten up by the school bully. It’s an example of the show's bulls-eye use of dramatic convenience. While this geeky term makes the show sound cheesy, it's actually totally à propos considering the subject matter. High school: A series of bad coincidences...