Here’s an honor that no one wants to get and that I hate to bestow: The best show that was canceled too soon. This year’s winner is “Privileged.”
Is there anyone out there who tuned into “Privileged” and didn’t like it? Didn’t think so. Because “Privileged” just needed more people to watch it, rather than more people to like it, it should’ve been a strong candidate to stick around. Stupid CW.
Joanna Garcia (“Reba”) played Megan Smith, a recent journalism graduate (ouch!) who finds a job (lucky!) tutoring two rich girls in Florida while also penning a memoir of their successful grandmother. “Privileged” was a comedic soap opera, with laughs coming from the culture clash, the “Gilmore Girls”-esque wit and the fact that Megan was just a bit more awkwardly, likably real than most TV characters.
The actresses who played Rose and Sage — Lucy Hale and Ashley Newbrough — were the sisterly answer to the Gilmore Girls. And Michael Cassidy brought a lot of heart to the role of “the guy who likes the oblivious main character,” Charlie. I’m glad they addressed that would-be-romance before the season ended, even if I didn’t like the outcome.
Two things are sure: All the main actors on “Privileged” will pop up on other TV shows, and in every case, that show will be worse than “Privileged.”
The No. 2 show on my “most missed” list is “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.” After a mediocre first season, I found myself mesmerized by the slowly unfolding tale of a Terminator (played by Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson) who goes back in time to rebuild Skynet right under everyone’s noses.
As for the ragtag team investigating all this: Lena Heady and Thomas Dekker were the first actors to show Sarah and John’s daily life on the run, and they hit the brood-o-meter dead center. Brian Austin Green and Richard T. Jones also got the tone right, and Summer Glau was so good as a reprogrammed Terminator that I forgot about River while I was watching.
If the series had continued, Season 3 could’ve featured a tie-in with the movie franchise (which is unlikely to be canceled). As I’ve noted in previous posts, the movie and TV stories take place on different timelines. But I think if the two camps had worked together, some neat cross-timeline stories could’ve been told.
Consider this high praise: I cared more about the events on “Terminator” than I did the events on “Dollhouse.” (I’m not trying to start a debate; in a perfect world, both shows would’ve returned.)
I’ll also take this opportunity to bid farewell to three shows formerly on my viewing schedule: “Cupid” (a great concept, but Sarah Paulson was so much less likable than she was on “Studio 60”); “Pushing Daises” (original, for sure, but too whimsical for me); and “Life” (which wanted to be cool, but just ended up being violent and weird).
To find out how your favorite shows fared in the networks’ annual wave of ax-wielding, check out the Fall TV Cheat Sheet compiled by Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausiello.
What canceled shows will you miss from the season gone by?