Two thousand and ten was a very good year for televisison. Unfortunately, many good programs ended before they should have.
"Breaking Bad" This series on American Movie Classics was an example of "All good things must come to an end". In case you never saw it, the show was about a high school chemistry teacher named Walter White ( Bryan Cranston of "Malcolm in the Middle") in New Mexico who uses his chemistry skills to 'cook' crystal meth to support his wife Skyler and his cerebral palsy afflicted teenage son soon after discovering that he has terminal lung cancer. His unlikely sidekick is a former student who is a recovering addict, and Walt's brother-in-law is a Drug Enforcement Agency agent. Unlike many series, "Breaking Bad" got better, and more dangerous for Walt and his family as time went by. In the final episode, White just barely maneuvers to avoid being killed by his drug kingpin employer's (Giancarlo Esposito) henchmen.
"Legend of the Seeker" Poor farm boy Richard Cypher discovers as a young man that he is the "Seeker of Truth" who with the "Sword of Truth" helps innocents in the 'Midlands' from evil tyrant "Darken Rahl". Rahl himself has magic powers and the loyalty of many ruthless soldiers and the sadistic Dominatrix-like "Mord- Siths", beautiful young women with no compassion. The Seeker travels with his protector, "Kahlen", also known as the "Mother Confessor", who is a witch-like nun of sorts who has the power to know if someone is lying. Also, if she "confesses" someone, they will show absolute loyalty to her and even kill for her. Before long, Richard and Kahlen fall in love, but they can never consummate their love or the Seeker will be "confessed" by her and go insane. The Seeker also travels with a powerful wizard who turns out to be his grandfather. After the evil Darken Rahl is slain, Richard must contend with the Devil-like "Keeper of the Underworld", who can raise the dead in exchange for them bringing more dead to the Underworld. This excellent syndicated series only lasted two seasons. It was a victim of a lousy timeslot and even worse publicity. While Darken Rahl, the Mord- Siths, and the Keeper couldn't defeat Richard the Seeker, he met his demise at the hands of lousy ratings and an arbitrary Nielson Ratings system which rewards popularity over quality.
"Lone Star" This very short-lived series was about the son of a con artist with two girlfriends who has a life of grifting on one hand and a the potential of giving up that life as an oil magnate. This series had great potential, but as too often happens in the world of television the plug was pulled before it could become popular. This show was on Fox, a network that used to be willing to take chances on shows which would likely die on ABC, NBC or CBS.
"Outlaw" Jimmy Smits, who lately has a bad track record with series television (2009's canceled "Cane") fails again with this short-lived series about an arrogant conservative Supreme Court Justice who quits the Bench to practice as a lawyer of controversial cases. Smit's character is a gambler on the side, and his team of lawyer's and investigator's are also an interesting aspect of the show. This is another example of a series with great potential killed by low ratings.
"Undercovers" Samantha Bloom (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and her husband Steve ( Boris Kodjos) are an African-American married couple who are former CIA agents turned caterers, who are lured back into the lives of secret agents. They are enticed to accept espionage assignments by their irritable handler, played by Gerald "Simon and Simon" McRaney. The tagline of this series was "sexpionage". In every episode, Ms. Mbatha-Raw appeared in bikinis and/or lingerie. In my opinion, she is perhaps the sexiest woman on television. Also, I think this show should have lasted longer than it did. Mission terminated by ratings or a bad time slot.
"The Whole Truth" Maura "E.R." Tierney and Rob "Numbers", "Northern Exposure" Morrow played rival lawyers and friends. I only caught a few episodes and I was impressed with what I saw, but I think this show's early demise was due to going head to head with another lawyer show in which Jim Belushi and Jerry "Stand By Me" O'Connell play a pair of cocky Las Vegas attorneys.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think the excellent new version of "Nikita" was also unfortunately cancelled. If you haven't caught the show it is or was about a sexy female government assassin for the clandestine organization "Division" who escapes and uses a young recruit to try to "take down" the organization which trained her to kill or else. (tbc?)
Update from Monday, December 13, 2010: Good news for "Nikita" fans, "Nikita" will resume its schedule in January 2011
Unfortunately, both "Medium" the psychic murder mystery series and the excellent cop show "The Closer" are about to meet their imminent demise by the end of 2011. On a unrelated note, wouldn't a show like "Legend of the Seeker" make a good movie or a great movie franchise? Ciao for now.
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