the good ones

When I was kid my sister Susan once told me about a dream she had. I don’t remember the exact details but somewhere in the dream a man asked her what TV shows she watches. She replied most assuredly “The good ones”. I also like the good ones so I’m saddened by the cancellation of “Life on Mars’. Last night ABC aired the final episode. It has a clever premise and a great cast - Jason O’Mara, Harvey Kietel, Michael Imperioli, and Gretchen Mol.

“Life on Mars” was originally a BBC show by the same name. I guess there are a finite number of good TV ideas and they are all in Britain. The show is about NY City Police Detective Sam Tyler who is hit by a car and awakens from his coma only to find himself in 1973. He begins his quest to get back to his proper time. Sam becomes entangled in his own life as a child but is experiencing it as a grown man. Sound confusing? It's not. What its like is therapy in real time. The show combines a clever conceptual thread with interesting story lines and a love story. As you can imagine, it is littered with humorous societal observation and pop culture references. Unfortunately, like most smart television it met its inevitable fate. It found a devout audience but not one large or sustainable enough to appease the networks.

For those of you who never saw it, I recommend checking it out online. As an added bonus it actually comes to conclusion so it’s worth the investment.. That was one of the smart things ABC did do. They actually showed enough respect for their viewers to give them closure.

I write this eulogy because I’m afraid network TV shows of this caliber and high of concept are becoming an endangered species. It is a shame since quality TV narratives can serve a purpose beyond entertainment. They can mirror our culture and make meaningful social critique while reaching a mass audience. In the past, I believe a show such as “Life on Mars” would at least be given another season to find an audience and very well might. No longer. The stakes are too high and my guess is the show is too expensive. It's a period piece set in NY with what I can only assume is a high paid cast.

There is another good one i watch, “Friday Night Lights". "FNL" continues to survive despite less than stellar ratings. Without knowing a lot about how TV works, my guess is “Friday Night Lights” stays on due to a few factors. Direct TV runs it first exclusively for their audiences before NBC airs it. It is shot in Austin in a style based on naturalism. The cast is dominated by young unproven actors and the adult leads are hardly household names. In other words, it's inexpensive to produce and production costs are split. The only part of this equation I foresee as a sustainable model is the co-production relationship between Direct TV and NBC. Other than this not inconsequential alliance, I believe the show remains an aberration not a trend.

What will become of paid programming is anyones guess. For now, the Networks need viewers to justify the media buy to the advertisers. With advertisers paying less and wanting more in return, the networks have to produce cheaply with less resources to take risks in their decision making. Ultimately the losers are the audiences of the "good ones".