Opportunity No Longer Knocks

[silverscreenselect]

ABC has cancelled low rated, moronic game/reality show Opportunity Knocks after three episodes. Next week, a recap special of Dancing with the Stars will take its place but no permanent replacement has been announced.

Last night, the second episode of Life on Mars dropped considerably from its premiere a week earlier and finished behind CBS newcomer (also in its second episode), Eleventh Hour, which drew more viewers than the week before. I've seen both shows and Eleventh Hour is a solid but not spectacular procedural along the lines of the CSI franchise (it's produced by Jerry Bruckheimer), with a main character who has considerable possibility of development along offbeat lines (imagine a cross between Gil Grissom and Fox Mulder). It also has the incredibly hot Marley Shelton as his partner. I was skeptical after the first episode, but I think it will be a good fit with the rest of the CBS crime lineup.

Life on Mars will be a lot harder to keep going. It has the potential of creating a Lost like storyline but it also could get bogged down into red herrings that go nowhere and wind up being a mismatched cop buddy show.

[ulysses5019]

It also has the incredibly hot Marley Shelton as his partner

So someone thinks Marley is hot?

[NellyLunatic1980]

"Opportunity Knocks" was a decent show, but I just had a difficult time flipping amongst that, Olbermann, Colbert, and GSN's WWTBAM rerun.

[Flybrick]

"Opportunity Knocks" was a decent show, but I just had a difficult time flipping amongst that, Olbermann, Colbert, and GSN's WWTBAM rerun.

While not surprised politically, I am disappointed that you'd include Olbermann in your viewing dilemma choices.

He's not as witty or smart as Colbert or even WWTBAM re-runs.

Yes, I get that he's the anti-O'Reilly, he's just not in the same league as his nemisis when it comes to success and viewers.

Most importantly, however, he's just not funny. He's not even up there with Maher who is at least sometimes funny. Although he's tied with Maher for smarminess.

But to miss a good show for Olbermann? Really?

[ghostjmf]

Sigh.

I didn't get to watch either show this week, Mars or 11th, but I should have Mars on tape back home. And there's always the ABC site, if it lives that is.

11th was to me a total loss.

I am a big Regenesis fan. Regenesis is a Canadian show about a supposed team of Canadian/Mexican/American scientists who track down science mysteries. I dunno which came 1st, Regenesis, the British 11th Hour, or that absolutely awful show of a few years ago about an American team which tracked down, well, medical alert situations. I watched that, in a slim-pickings year, just to see how bad it could get. The team was vapid, but at least the science was solid, up to the point of "oh this one was a false alarm anyway" which happened almost every week.

On Regenesis the plots interlace for weeks & weeks, the characters are watchable way beyond the TV requirements for "watchable quirkiness", the science makes a lot of sense & about the only flaw of the show is that in real life the characters would never have to take so much time explaining it to each other. Of course, the local station that was playing Regen in the late weekend night kept dialing it back to somewhere in the 1st year, to make the most of episodes featuring the actress from Juno (as the lead character's daughter, not a pubescent CSIS agent), & then stopped showing it suddenly this fall, about 3/4 of the way through the 2nd year.

I admit I signed on to Regen for Sarah Strange from Da Vinci's Inquest, who does not even appear 'til mid-1st-year, but I was hooked on the 1st episode.

I can't speak for the British 11th, never having seen it, but the American show I watched the premier of had

a vapid hunk in the starring role

an FBI agent who looked about 16, & unlike Jody Foster in "Lambs", who also looks about 16 at times, was less convincing as an FBI agent than Hayden Panetierre or Ellen Hodges?, the actress from Juno would would have been (since Heroes seems to be tanking fast, maybe a role for Panetierre will open up here; ditto for Hodges if her film career tanks)

a plot with absolutely no science mystery in it.

Let's see:

Mad scientists are trying to clone a zillionaire's dead son. The mothers keep dying. So do the babies. The show never says why, since they apparently get to around 6 or 7 months gestation; the answer would at least be interesting, & might involve some science.

Instead, what you get is "chase the mad scientists, rescue the current human clone-mother before she dies". There is absolutely no scientific mystery, as advertised, here.

And watching hot very young chick pretend to be FBI agent does nothing for me. The role of girl sidekick to know-it-all male protagonist is not a happy one, but the actress who plays Eames on Law & Order CI does it with elan, panache, style, everything hot-chick of 11th does not posess. "Life"'s protagonist's fellow officer, female variety, is also quite believable & well-played.

And everybody loved & misses the actress who played Meghan on "Numbers". I had more in my head, but you get the picture. The women in these roles have to show some spark of intelligence, as do the women in medical shows, unless they're playing the interns (other than Sandra Oh) on "Grey's Anatomy", which we all know is just a glossy soap.

11th's hot-chick would probably never make it through day one at a social sciences program, let alone the FBI academy.

My guilty pleasure this fall is so far "Fringe", the Fox show where the science is all metal-beanie whacko, the head whacko, released from a mental institution, is played with great carries-the-show style by some actor who sounds like he's trying to suppress an Irish accent, & the de-rigeur hot-chick FBI agent is way older-appearing than 11th's hot-chick (by "way" I mean "in her 20s, not teens") & has sufficient style & believability to be eminently watchable in the role.

The African-American actor with the death's-head physique as head FBI Guy is fun to watch too, but in real life I'd be worried for the health of somebody who's cheek-bones jut out that much.

[Kazoo65]

If ABC wants a show that people will actually WATCH, there's one that has been in mothballs for several years now. It's fun, exciting, and oh yeah, you can win a million dollars. Regis isn't doing anything at the moment (when do we get to see those Million Dollar Password episodes he taped in August?) so why not?BRING BACK MILLIONAIRE!!! BRING BACK THE PHONE GAME!