Stupid TV Decisions (this week’s edition)

I have a couple of bones to pick with network TV (and a closing “kudos” to leaven the criticism in between).

First, the bones of my contention: This week, two really stupid things happened. And they really kind of compliment each other: The powers-that-be at CBS saw fit to cancel “Jericho” (again) while the brain trust at Fox inexplicably opted to renew the execrable “Prison Break.”

First a word about “Prison Break.”

“Prison Break,” which I started watching on Netflix after its inaugural season had ended, had a pretty good first year. Fast-paced action, intricately-plotted storyline – its only real weak points were its principal actors, a couple of slabs of bald beefcake who just plain can’t act. After three seasons, that’s the only conclusion I can come to. One of them, Wentworth Miller, is skinny and buff and specializes in the “intense” glare. You know the one, soap opera actors use it every time there’s a cut to commercial. I call it the “Oh shit, did I leave the oven on?” look. He furrows his little brow, his eyes go even beadier… and they cut to commercial.

Sadly, that’s more range than his castmate Dominic Purcell demonstrates. Playing the other non-thespian’s bigger, buffer brother, his bag of tricks runs the gamut from “I’m angry and I want to hit someone” all the way to “I’m angry and confused and I want to hit someone.”

So season one was passable fair in spite of leaden lead performances. A lot of the supporting players picked up the slack pretty well, especially William Fitcher as a nasty-piece-of-work government agent (is there any other kind?) and a genuine star turn by Robert Knepper as a child-molesting Southern psychopath. Wade Williams as the sadistic head warden (again, is there any other kind?) also brought some real brio to his performance.

Season one ended with the titular jail break, and I figured, well this show’s jumped its designated shark. Still, for whatever reason, when season two came out on DVD I decided to Netflix it anyway and I’ll be damned if it didn’t improve on season one in a big way.

All the escapees – including the two good-looking fellows who can’t act – are out of jail and on the lam. The story spread out and took its characters in some pretty interesting directions. The episodes flew by, altogether entertainingly, until the last few, when it was clear they were laying the groundwork for season number three. As a hobby-writer myself, I can spot foreshadowing a mile away, and the last couple/few eps of season two were all about that. I decided: next season, I’m gonna watch the show weekly, instead of waiting for the season’s end DVD release.

All I can say is, thank god for the writers’ strike. It limited my misery from 20-something episodes to the approximately half-season’s worth of shows before it mercifully went off the air a few weeks ago. What a piece of shit this season was. All the best actors’ characters were either killed off in season two, or given nothing to do in season three. Knepper, especially, was cheated this year. His storyline, and performance, was one of season two’s highlights, and this year he was lucky if he got in a couple lines an episode, playing the gofer to the new prison’s top con.

It’s like the show just imploded. It was like the Bush administration and Iraq. Every creative decision was a bad one. It’s like they wanted to be cancelled. Alas, to no avail. “They’ll be back,” as Arnold once promised to similarly devastating effect.

On the other hand, “Jericho,” a near-future post-apocalyptic yarn about a massive conspiracy to destroy the United States government from within, was not without its faults, but grew more engrossing with every episode of its sadly truncated run. Uniformly strong lead performances distinguished the show above its genre roots, from Pamela Reed, Esai Morales (formerly of “NYPD Blue”); a breakout performance by one Lennie James; the poor man’s Johnny Depp, Skeet Ulrich; even the former Major Dad/Mr. Delta Burke, Gerald McRaney – all acquitted themselves honorably in the show’s unfolding storyline of the fall of the American empire.

The second season, like all this year’s shows, was hobbled by the writers’ strike, but managed to cram a full season’s worth of plot-developing paranoia into its brief seven-episode run. This show examined issues that, while not ripped from today’s headlines ala the “Law & Order” mega-franchise, shone a fearless light on the issues that have been tearing America apart since our ill-advised adventure in Iraq began without ever openly prostheletizing. And lest you think it sounds like it was all left-wing propagandizing, one of the first things the corrupt new government did was strike down the Second Amendment. This was a show of ideas as well as action and adventure, but not enough people in the era of the endless war in Iraq (John McCain again this week touted a potential 100-year engagement there) and post-9/11 weariness wanted to spend an hour every week watching the slow, fictional demise of the country when they could get the real thing every night on the six o’clock news.

Anyhow, season one is available on DVD already, and season two probably isn’t far behind. Not a perfect show, but a good one, and potentially an important one, if more people had given it a chance. With its anemic Neilson numbers, I don’t even blame the Suits at CBS for scuttling it, but I do regret it. It’s definitely a future contender for the “Cancelled In Its Prime” hall of fame. Unlike the Bush administration policies which it reflects, it will grow more respected with the passage of time.

Finally, an “up” note to end on, because I’m just a glass-half-full kinda guy – always have been.

“Smallville,” over on the struggling CW network, is hitting another strong patch of episodes as it closes out its season. The story of Clark Kent before he became Superman (check out this cool news story about the creators of Superman here), it looks like it’s finally abandoning its initial “no flights, no tights” rule, thanks in no small part to the success of the first season of “Heroes.” Lex Luthor is at long last turning once and for all to The Dark Side after straddling the fence between good and evil for the length of the show’s run; Clark is just thiiiis close to learning how to fly; this week Jimmie Olsen got caught sneaking a peek at Lois Lane (Erica Durance)’s more-than-ample bosom (a show staple among its female cast), and network teasers promise the death of a major character on the April 24 show (my guess – sayonara, Lex Luthor’s dad). It’s time for the show’s producers to take a page from the “Lost” handbook and schedule an end-date to the series, and write toward it. If they do that, the show’s final season could rank among genre-television’s finest. Superman is the ultimate superhero archetype – Truth, justice and the American way, baby – and the show deserves a send-off that respects the character’s history and legacy. And this latest run of episodes suggests that may actually be in the offing.

My advice: Watch “Smallville” while you can, mourn “Jericho” (and pick it up on DVD – last time I checked, season one was only $20 at the Big Box stores) and next fall, avoid “Prison Break” like the plague.