With 2012 just around the corner, one can't help but look back and reflect on what this past year has given us in terms of the best and the worst that Television has to offer. Since primetime television has come to an effective standstill because of the holidays, I found myself reminiscing about the TV shows that were never really given a fair chance to flex their muscles and show us what they really had to offer. The advent of reality shows (whom I consider to be the scum of television) has seriously deprived genuinely promising TV shows the opportunity to garner a bigger audience. And without the numbers to show for it, shows that deserve a second chance don't usually get one.

Screw the networks. They may have dropped these shows in the meanest way possible, but let us give them the proper accolades they so richly deserve.

I would actually like to go a step further and mention some of the shows that were canceled before 2011, because they deserve to be mentioned AND remembered.


HUMAN TARGET

I loved this show! It was the perfect blend of action and comedy to keep me interested for an hour. The stories were engaging, the action scenes were fantastic, the dialogue was witty & clean-cut, and the cast was simply brilliant.
Mark Valley as Christopher Chance put his best foot forward in this role. After his seriously lame stint as Brad Chase in Boston Legal, I was happy to finally see him in a show that gave him enough space to shine. Chi McBride as Winston and Jackie Earle Haley as Guerrero provided serious backup both in terms of action and entertainment. Guerrero in particular, had some really hilarious moments that I sorely miss.

Season two added two new characters to the mix (Ilsa Pucci & Ames) that actually added another element to the show that I didn't think it missed! You would think that this combination would work, and I personally thought the series was going in an interesting direction when wouldn't you know it, the hell hounds from FOX decided to cancel it. The action/adventure genre is a dying one and this cancellation didn't help.
So where's Mark Valley now?? Pretty much where he was before Human Target, in a douchey role in another douchey David E. Kelly show where he plays the exact same character.
Mark!! If you're reading this (fat chance. Ha!), you got screwed big time, bro. You're talents are being wasted on Harry's Law. Get the hell out of there!


THE CHICAGO CODE

After The Shield, I was eagerly waiting for Shawn Ryan to deliver another series that would make me not dislike cop shows again. The Chicago Code got me hooked from episode one. The fact that it got dropped by FOX after a single thirteen episode season had me breathing fire for a week.
Jason Clarke is one of those underrated actors who deserves his own show. This was finally a role he could sink his teeth into, and he was doing it with absolute magnificence. Jennifer Beals' strong presence was an added bonus in itself, but to top it all off with Delroy Lindo as Alderman Gibbons? What could go wrong, right?

The show was a realistic interpretation of the politics and the power struggle between City Hall and the Chicago Police Department. It possessed Shawn Ryan's inimitable style coupled with brilliant work from both sides of the camera.
So what the hell happened?? Ask FOX Entertainment Chairman Peter Rice. He's the only guy (that we know about) who knows the answer. And although the show wrapped things up nicely in the series finale, another promising show got kicked in the nuts for no logical reason.


FIREFLY

This was without a doubt the MOST MASSIVE SCREW-UP in the history of the FOX network. Joss Whedon's space/western masterpiece was arguably the best show ever to be canceled too soon. The sci-fi genre lost its most precious jewel the day the FOX execs made this blunder of galactic proportions.
Whether it was the cast, the action, the visual effects or the environment in general, Firefly made me a resident browncoat for life.

It was absolutely despicable what the network did to this show. Although the actors involved have moved on and carved separate roles for themselves in different shows (though none of them will ever be as good), this half-assed butchery by FOX made me boycott the network for a couple of years. And make no mistake, every time someone mentions Firefly in my presence, I imagine a representative of the FOX network spitting teeth. I have been appeased a little since then after Nathan Fillion re-entered primetime TV on Castle.
But seriously, who would you rather watch?? Richard Castle or Malcolm Reynolds?

So what does FOX ( aka The American Idol Network) have to offer now on its current primetime lineup?
Except for Fringe (which might be canceled too by the way, wtf?) and House, the lineup represents a list of shows that uniformly suck. I have a special place in my garbage disposal for Glee.
So here's the bottom line.

All eyes are on you, FOX! Except mine.
I have a finger pointed in your direction. Wanna guess which one?

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