Three Shows That Ended Too Soon

It happens all the time. A show comes along that breaks the mold; it entertains, intrigues, and enchants us unlike anything we have ever seen. Maybe it is the humor, the drama, the characters, the story, or a blissfully chaotic mixture of all these things that keeps us coming back week after week for more. Then one day, without cause or provocation, it is taken away. Canceled. The network tries to justify this offense with musings of low ratings and other hogwash, but this satisfies us not. We are left wondering what might have been had the story been allowed to continue.

While there are more shows than I can count that have met this fate, there are only three which I have experienced personally, each of which I will give attention below. I welcome everyone to add in their nomination(s) for shows that ended to soon in the comments.

1 – Firefly
Of the three shows I will discuss in this post, this one makes me the saddest. Cancelled by Fox after its first season, Firefly met a far too unkind end light years before its time. The story was compelling and original, but the characters are what really made this show special. There were nine main characters, and you had an actual vested interest in every one of them. There was suspense, drama, humor, action, everything you could want from a science fiction/fantasy series. It should say something that the DVD sales for this series sparked the making of a follow up movie, Serenity. While this film gave fans some closure, it was forced closure; closure that Firefly should have had the opportunity to reach naturally through a healthy run as a series.

2 – Dead Like Me
Series released on Showtime have a tendency to be unique, and Dead Like Me was no exception. This show managed to last two seasons before Showtime pulled the plug, bringing what could have been a very compelling series to a premature end. Dead Like Me’s original concept and colorful characters brought a mix of humor and drama to the screen that couldn’t be missed. Its first season was a smash hit, but the second left Showtime with the impression that it had run its course, thus the series was canceled. While I must agree that some of the story lines were growing a bit worn from over-use, the show had great potential to grow beyond those lines. There was room for expansion, as it were. Unfortunately, the show never got to that stage, thus fans were left to pine over the possibilities and ultimately be insulted by the poor excuse of a follow up movie (Dead Like Me: Life After Death) that was released in 2009. This movie was a messy attempt at a cleanup and failed to offer any real closure to many of the series unfinished plot lines. Thus is what happens when a series is forced to end before its time I suppose.

3 – Pushing Daisies
I have but one thing to say to ABC for canceling this show: What the hell were you thinking? To this day, I remain utterly confused and disappointed in the network for ending this series after its second season. Pushing Daisies was one of kind. It was like Tim Burton meets Dr. Seuss. A comedic crime mystery series with super natural elements told like a fairy tale – how amazing is that? The interpersonal conflicts between the characters were compelling, the story was original and fascinating, the setting was surreal; and yet one episode before the end of the second season, ABC informs the crew that there will not be a third season. Thus fans are left with a barely two-minute montage at the end of the season-turned-series finale that hastily wraps up some of the bigger plot lines, and leaves others completely unresolved, never to be addressed again. There is no justification for such an end. What really hurts is the last episode was going to be a wonderfully painful cliff hanger, setting up the third season beautifully. But no, we get a last minute montage that leaves us with more questions than answers. There are rumors of a movie in the works, but they are few and far between and from unreliable sources. I suppose I will always be left wondering what the deal was with Ned’s Dad. Thank you, ABC, for totally ruining what could have been one of your best series.

And that concludes my commentary/rant about shows that met an untimely end. As I said before, I have not been exposed to all of the great shows that met a similar end, so mention any I left out here in the comments.

Et tu, Square Enix?

Beware the Ides of March.

Ok, so Final Fantasy XIII was not actually released on the Ides of March (March 15), but its March 9 release date is close enough for me to imbue upon it the same connotation. Like Caesar after his Senators were done with him, Final Fantasy fans like me are left a broken and bloody corpse at the feet of Square Enix, having been lured in by false loyalty and ultimately betrayed.
Too dramatic? I agree. And now for something completely different.

This game sucks.

In all fairness, I have to put one thing out there before I begin my rant, that being I have not finished the game. For many, this will discredit everything I have to say about the game. “You can’t complain about a game you haven’t even finished.” For a long time, I agreed. I told myself I would not utter a word one way or another about the game until I finished it. But you know what? I can complain about this game even though I haven’t finished it. I can, I will, and here is why.

I have read somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 reviews for this game. User reviews, magazine reviews, etc. The majority of the user reviews I have read were “good” reviews, that is, those in which the user rated the game as “good” or better. I noticed that 95% of them had one statement in common: “It gets really good after about 20 hours.” Not only did most user reviews state this, but I have heard this from the mouths of every person I know that has played this game (to whom I have talked). Just wait 20 hours then it opens up! The story really takes off after 20 hours. You have more control after 20 hours. You can actually start playing the game after 20 hours…

My response to this is simply: What the @#$!? 20 hours before the game gets interesting? 20 hours before it stops thinking for me? 20 hours before I can finally do something besides run in a straight line down some corridor or path fighting enemies that are just standing there like zombies waiting for me to run up and “fight” them? 20 hours before I actually get to play something that in some small way resembles a Final Fantasy game? I did not wait 3 years and pay $60 for 20 hours of mashing X over and over until the game decides it is going to get interesting. The fact that the designers of this game (who also designed Final Fantasy X2, oh boy) consciously subjected the loyal fans of the Final Fantasy franchise to this horrific excuse of a “game” makes me hurt inside.

At this point, I don’t care how interesting the game gets after this magical 20 hour mark…It sucks now, and has sucked for the 14 hours of game play I have put into it. The combat system is a joke and the character customization is a dull rip off of the sphere grid from FFX. Even if you get to do more with these features after the prophesied 20 hour mark, they still suck. Getting to play with them more isn’t going to make me like them. Game Over if the character you are controlling dies? WHAT THE @#$!?????

All that aside, this game is visually beautiful. It has some of the best graphics I have ever seen in a console game. The characters look realistic, the spell effects are awesome, the scenery is detailed (though inaccessible, grr). It is obvious that a lot of work went into the visual aspect of this game. So much so, in fact, that it seems everything else went by the wayside. It is as if they hoped to distract us with all the pretty colors enough so that we wouldn’t notice that the rest of the game sucks.

In summary, this game is a disappointment in my opinion. I vowed to keep my opinions at bay until I finished the game, but I could hold them no longer, simply because it infuriates me that they expect us to wait 20 hours before – supposedly – getting to actually play the game.