My Own Worst Enemy's Cancellation
NBC's Reckless Abandonment
As my previous hub has overly explained, I am a bit of a Christian Slater fan. What can I say? I can't help it. There's something about his eyes and his voice that just get to me, but I won't get into that here. This hub has a completely different purpose. I have a bone to pick with a certain peacock-type network. You know I'm talking to you, NBC.
Let's back up, shall we? Being the Christian-lover that I am, I was elated when I learned months ago that he was to cross over to television and have his own show. I didn't care what it was about, what time it was on, or who the target audience was, I was sold. It could have been a middle-of-the-day sitcom about chefs that live on the moon and have dog bodies with human heads. That's the reason Tivo exists! I would joyously have suffered through the content and quickly skipped over the too-boring commercials just to get my Christian fix.
Of course, the premise of the show turned out to be something slightly different. A man leads a double life as a regular, suburban husband while moonlighting as a spy. The twist is, the regular Joe (or Henry in this case) doesn't know about his split personality, Edward. Not exactly my genre, but I gladly marked my calendar for October 13, 2008 and greatly anticipated the premiere of My Own Worst Enemy.
Many of my friends and family alerted me to the time and date of the first episode, but I was already very aware. Popcorn in hand, I sat in a dark, quiet room with only the glow of the television and absorbed every morsel of Slater deliciousness. As previously mentioned, the show is outside my general television preferences, but I found myself engrossed in the twisted plotlines. I was hooked, and not just because Christian has maintained every droplet of sexiness from his younger years, but because the plot intrigued me.
I am not so biased as to ignore the fact that the episode was hard to follow. However, most pilots are rough because there is a certain amount of exposition that must be done in order to hook the audience. My Own Worst Enemy just so happened to have a lot of explaining to do about a very complicated situation. The parts I could wrap my head around though, I thoroughly enjoyed. However, as the great television critic, Keenan Hotchkin, put it "This show is a little too heady for American television." He was correct. It actually required the audience to pay attention and follow this man's struggle rather than sitting back and mindlessly staring at the tube.
Obviously, it turned out to be too much for audiences and NBC cancelled the show this past week. It happens to the best and the worst of shows, so that is not the surprising part.
why, Why, WHY?
Being a bit of a connoisseur of all things pop culture, I have to take in as many television shows, movies, and magazines as I possibly can. I am particularly a fan of NBC, so I watch (or at least give a chance to) most of their primetime schedule. In this, I have watched every episode of the Thursday night series, Kath & Kim. I love Molly Shannon, but this show is mediocre at best. There are very few laugh-out-loud parts, and it serves simply as a time consumer between the two great comedies, The Office and 30 Rock. NBC has been known to nurture their ailing sitcoms in their first few seasons (see: Seinfeld, Cheers, and even 30 Rock) to give them time to find an audience. I am not saying Kath & Kim must go, but if NBC is looking to trim the less-than-stellar shows, maybe they should look at Thursday night instead of Monday.
I know it's not a comedy, but why give up on My Own Worst Enemy so quickly? The network pumped some serious cash into promoting it and recruiting a movie star, so why not at least give it the effort of changing time slots or tweaking the broken pieces? Seriously, NBC is in the middle of its first year-round programming cycle, do they have so many shows they are just dying to put on the air that they can't spare one half-hour a week?
Oh well, what can you do? Since last week, the condolences have been pouring in all over the country about the cancellation. I'll have to go back to waiting for Christian Slater at the cineplex, rather than in my living room. I just hope NBC knows what they're doing because they definitely have one disappointed fan.
