Lone Gunmen Get the Axe From Fox

squee23 noted that Fox is axing the lone gunman. Almost everyone I know watched the seriers premiere and bolted, which was unfortunate: the premiere sucked but almost every episode there after was pretty damn good: the first episode simply wasn't funny, and airing it was suicide. The X-Files is returning, sans Mulder. Fortunately, The Family Guy will come back, as well as the premiere of the live action version of The Tick.

Comments

Re:Fox has exactly two good shows:

[Hrunting]

Actually, AFAIC, Futurama is already better than The Simpsons (note, not The Simpsons in their prime, just the show as it stands now). It makes sense, though. Groening, et al, took the good writers off of The Simpsons and put them on Futurama so that it would have the benefit of well-written episodes from the beginning to bring in a large supportive audience. Futurama is just plain funnier. The gags are faster, the humor is darker, the comraderie is more bitter, and the episodes all around are more cohesive. The use of special guests is consistently flaunted exceptionally well through the "heads in a jar" theme, which means you don't have to fight to believe Drew Barrymore as Krusty's suddenly received daughter or some such nonsense. Believing that Lucy Liu's head survived because of futuristic technology is much easier to digest. The recent episode with the Harlem Globetrotters and the time shifts was downright the fastest, most hilarious, continuously played-out gag I've ever seen.

What do The Simpsons have this season? I lot of completely inane, very loosely organized episodes without any constant thread that made the earlier episodes such a joy to watch. Now, it's like watch 4 five-minute skits. I'm glad the writers are living on in Futurama with fresh faces and fresh adventures (that's much easier to do in a completely fresh setting, of course), but it kind of hurts to see The Simpsons sort of degrade like an old NFL pro who won't retire.

Bite My Shiny Metal ...

Picking apart "Lone Gunmen"

[Mike Buddha]

The big problem I had with the show was twofold: Jimmy Bond and Eve. They were so poorly written and so miserably acted that it was painful. In later episodes Jimmy became almost a good thing, because the character became less plain stupid and more idiot savant.

Eve is an all around loss. They really didn't need a guardian angel to come in and save the day every single episode. She's just too competent to believe. Plus, the woman who plays that character is a terrible actress.

All in all I think the "bit" characters dragged the show down. I think it's too bad that Chris Carter didn't feel that the Lone Gunmen could carry the show by themselves and had to come up with these two sorry anchors.

Gunmen (plural), not Gunman!

[antdude]

Yahoo's article has the title spelling wrong.

Don't believe me? Try visiting the official Web site. :)

Other TV shows list... [OT]

[antdude]

http://www.pazsaz.com/cancel.html

Here is a list of all the TV shows that will be cancelled or ending (i.e. The Lone Gunmen is included).

Re:Geek TV

[isomeme]

Computer programming/hacking doesn't involve smoke, explosions, fractal 3D patterns that escape the computer monitor and chase you down corridors, and especially not jiggling bits of female anatomy.

Have you ever considered the possibility that you're just using the wrong IDE?

--

Geek TV

[BluedemonX]

Is nigh on impossible for several reasons

1) It is against unwritten network rules to write something above an eight year old reading level (they figure that by doing so, you risk losing a sizable chunk of the TV viewing population who don't have a high literacy and will switch off)

2) Computer programming/hacking doesn't involve smoke, explosions, fractal 3D patterns that escape the computer monitor and chase you down corridors, and especially not jiggling bits of female anatomy.

3) RE the above: a chess match is high drama for those in the know: but to a channel surfer flipping through the channels looking for some light entertainment between "Survivor" and "WWF Raw", it's terrifically boring. Ditto software development or hacking.

4) Keeping things bleeding edge is difficult with the writing/editing/shooting cycle, so either set it so far in the future you just plug your cyberBorg headset into the computer and stare steelily into the Federation flat-panel screen, or risk people laughing their ASSES off at "yeah! This state of the art 486 is k-Rad!" (especially when the show goes into reruns).

5) Biggest hurdle: most geeks can't write. Those who do are VERY BORING WRITERS. "Hey dutch! When are you going to finish the script!" "Quiet! I'm working out the physics of the alien lifeform given a planet 1.4 x Earth's gravity with a methane atmosphere!". Most writers are cocaine snorting media whores. Write to spec as fast as possible. Open up the template, stick in some stock characters, sell the script, move on.

Hence, any "geek" oriented show will have to by definition not work. Hence the inclusion of jiggling women, dumb jokes, offensive stereotypes, and unrealistic, stupid storylines.