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Eureka Cancelled
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I never got into eureka but I gathered that it was a solid show and I knew a few people that watched it. lets hope syfy doesn't come up with some new ghost or reality show garbage though I'm not going to hold my breath.
I haven't watched Eureka so far, so this comment is purely from a general point of view. I watch a lot of TV shows though and my general opinion is that any show that gets more than four seasons should be okay with it.Actually, seven is the number of seasons that I think should be enough for most any show. A lot of shows get worse in the later years and although I was sad for some of my favorites which got cancelled "before their time" (Firefly, Wonderfalls, Veronica Mars, Arrested Development). However, part of what makes them so appealing is that they never got the chance to actually get worse.
(It wouldn't have hurt if Firefly got a second or third season, though. One was mightly little.)
I don't mean to say that fans of the show shouldn't be sad, but I would like to put this into perspective. Five years is quite a nice run for a show, and as long as they have the time to wrap everything up properly, I think it's more than a lot of other great shows have gotten.
I don't think it would be impossible to write a good, intriguing 10+ season show if the writers knew they really could produce whole 10 seasons without getting cancelled mid-second season.The way the current TV-business works is they have a vague storyline for the first season and do a great pilot script and try to pitch that to everyone they can.
If things get made and even popular, they scramble to write the second season, which is usually OK since it can carry the themes from the first.
After that the downhill slide starts because the writing process becomes very "ad-hoc".
BSG was a unfortunate example of this - the cylons didn't really have a plan - they made it up as they went - It started sliding after the first two seasons..and finished with a big mehh.
I've been watching the show since the beginning, and the past couple seasons have been a bad (but still watchable) mix of directionless soap opera and overly broad goofball comedy. I still like the characters, and the show manages some good emotional AND comedic moments. It could have been put back on track, but I guess it's not in the cards. It's been the only SyFy show I watch regularly, even though I tried hard with all the others. Oh well, I look forward to its time slot being filled with another show shot in night vision video with lots of people yelling, "Wh..what was that!?!?! What was that??? Oh, looks like it was the wind. But NEXT time..."
I liked Eureka for its light touch and sense of humor. The leads were good actors and were believable in their roles.The "reboot" seemed as much a cost cutting move as anything else, they were able to cut down on the size of the cast. I would like to see more of this story, but since SyFy parent NBC Universal is also the producer, I am not holding my breath.
The only thing I have left to watch is "Haven", which isn't really SciFi, but is good - unlike "Low-light camera effects and shaky-cam ghost hunting" or whatever else they show on there now.
Tamahome wrote: "The Syfy channel should be cancelled."I've been saying that since they deep-sixed Farscape.
Sean wrote: "Tamahome wrote: "The Syfy channel should be cancelled."I've been saying that since they deep-sixed Farscape."
When I found out that the cliffhanger Season 4 final episode of Farscape was to be the last episode of the series I nearly lost it. I'm glad they did finally get the okay for "The PeaceKeeper Wars" but I would have preferred to watch it as the final fifth season it was meant to be. "The PeaceKeeper Wars" was too rushed in the pacing. I really wish that syfy would start another show with Rockne S. O'Bannon and Henson Creature shop. Farscape was just awesome.
Eureka lost me after the first season, I'm not sure why.SyFy pissed me off when they canceled SGU. The best Stargate series out of the bunch and they cancel it after only two seasons!
SGU was balls'd up from the beginning. 90% of the characters were assholes, and the only good character presumably sacrifices himself to die in the cold embrace of the void. But it is a horrible shame about Eureka. One less good show is now being filmed in Vancouver. *tear*
I used to see the Cafe Diem stage driving by the studios from the highway.
I think the only thing of note being filmed here now, is Fringe.
[Toro] Sad see go [/Toro]
Colin wrote: "SGU was balls'd up from the beginning. 90% of the characters were assholes, and the only good character presumably sacrifices himself to die in the cold embrace of the void. "Assholes are people too!
Tero wrote: "I don't think it would be impossible to write a good, intriguing 10+ season show if the writers knew they really could produce whole 10 seasons without getting cancelled mid-second season.The way..."
If they can pull off the whole run of Game of Thrones, which would be 9-10 seasons, I expect, I think you'd see this proven.
That might be why the most successful epic movie/TV series are based on books. It's a lot easier to commit to a known property, and the story's already there.
Watching the beginning of Season 4. I have not watched the show in the past.The show is god awful. Terrible acting. Inane storylines. Annoying, annoying characters.
It's some kind of PG-rated, family-friendly X-Files/SGA.
If I had to point out a structural problem with the show, it's the ensemble cast.
It deserves a swift death in my estimation.
James Callis (Baltar on the new BSG) being associated with this show is so, so sad. He created an amazing character on BSG. To be relegated to this, whatever the pay, is certainly lamentable.
I have a feeling Eureka was cancelled because a) yeah, Syfy isn't that much into scifi anymore and b) they moved the timeslot. Heck, one problem the network had was having split seasons, where you had months of no new content. I know I always missed an episode or two of most series specifically because of that lull period.As most people here, I am sad this show got cancelled. It my not had always had the best storylines, but it was the characters and acting for those characters that made this a likable show. That's made more true this year with the inclusion of Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton. Heck, I've been liking just how geeky this show has turned this season.
Re Lepton: that's like, just your opinion, man. I have been watching from the beginning and I love it.
Seriously, people, I am most of the way through season 4 and even the effervescent Felicia Day cannot save this season.The dialogue is just so bad. The situations are absurd and the science ridiculous.
Joe climbs into some reactor meltdown tube to release manually some kind of banana slug water and is neither irradiated to death nor scalded horribly as the slug water cools off this nutty quantum horse hockey reactor at the last second.
The show is ridiculous. It lampoons real science and scientists. It's unbelievably nonsensical to the degree that the show attempts to normalize that absurdity by going out of its way to remind one continually that "this is Eureka so crazy and absurd stuff happens all the time".
And I'm sorry, despite the geek cred that Wil Wheaton may have, he is pretty terrible on the show as well. I think his appearances on Big Bang Theory and The Guild were more credible than those on Eureka.
I'm not sure why you got as far as you did into the show, if you're not enjoying it at all. As for those of us who like it... it's fun, nonsensical, and I like the characters.
I can turn it on and be entertained. If you can't, find something else.
(As I write this, I realize that when I do write it's often in response to Lepton. Hey, as Aristotle wanted to say, "The un-polemicized life is not worth living." But read on, Lepton...)Lepton has a very good point, and is correct. In spite of that, and in spite of my complete agreement with him, I enjoy Eureka (in small doses) -- mainly the interaction of the characters and their arcs. I just got disk 4.0 in the mail, so I might well be disappointed, of course.
The science, on the other hand, has swerved out of any science fiction track and into complete fantasy. If Lepton is wrong about anything, it is about judging the show as within the ambit of science fiction. As a magical land with a (poorly worked out) magical system, it's not so bad. Well, maybe... Some "entertainments" challenge you and dig into you and make you grow in order to comprehend them or to survive them. Others are more like potato chips. Eureka? Potato chip. Singular.
(Still waiting for a place and a beer and pizza so Lepton and I can finish discussing the City and the City.)
Ala wrote: "As for those of us who like it..."I see what you mean, Ala - you're absolutely right.
I'll miss Eureka.
What disappoints me most about the show, at least what I have seen of it, is that on its face the show would seem to be a science geek's paradise: a secret, high-end research facility with putatively some of the greatest minds. However, what the show ends up being is more like science comedy. Nearly every staff scientist is a stereotype either of the arrogant but untalented variety or of the absent-minded/crazy professor type. Nearly every invention ends up being a kind of Frankenstein's monster that stands to either destroy Eureka or kill everyone in Eureka or some larger set of the world or space-time itself.
The entire show seems to be a commentary on the unintended consequences of science and technology. The show seems to suggest that scientists cannot be trusted, that they are vain, crazy, and/or exceedingly incautious.
Now, if you take series like Star Trek (any of them) or even any of the Stargate series, science and technology is well-regarded, well-understood, and most often well-controlled with respect to its consequence to the health and well-being of its users. It's not as if these series haven't also been critical of science and technology, but most often these shows are human stories.
I realize that there are some character arcs and stories in Eureka, but these are marginalized by the absurd and overblown threats to Eureka that seem to happen every single week. It's not as if the Enterprise were under threat of exploding every single episode, but one could certainly seem to say that of Eureka, at least where season 4 is concerned.
In many ways I find the show to be detrimental in actuality to the cause of science and technology whereas most hard-ish science fiction shows are most often quite positive about those things. Moreover, I would say that Eureka trivializes science and technology to such a degree that it is dismissive of the effort required for the great leaps that seem to occur weekly in Eureka.
A faster-than-light drive the size of bread box? You got it. A brain imaging and cognition recorder the size of a headband? You got it.
At least with Star Trek and Stargate, the amazing technologies have the weight and credibility of being either far in the future or of alien origin. In Eureka, people who seem barely competent enough to ensure proper safety protocols are weekly inventing and implementing technologies out of whole cloth. The show does not earn its innovations and technologies in any meaningful way and in effect it does end up seeming like magic and thereby largely meaningless to me.
The show is more like science-fantasy than science fiction and for that and many other reason I find it crappy.
At least with Star Trek and Stargate, the amazing technologies have the weight and credibility of being either far in the future or of alien origin.Yes, and Kirk fashioning a bazooka out of bamboo, homemade gunpowder and a diamond to kill a Gorn is the height of scientific credibility?
Don't get me wrong, that was awesome and all...but that is neither credible, nor futuristic technology.
Back to you, Leppy.
I think Lepton's right. Eureka almost seems to come across as anti-science/technology (maybe that's why I lost interest), unlike shows like Star Trek and Stargate that are almost certainly pro-science/technology.Colin wrote: "Yes, and Kirk fashioning a bazooka out of bamboo, homemade gunpowder and a diamond to kill a Gorn is the height of scientific credibility?
Don't get me wrong, that was awesome and all...but that is neither credible, nor futuristic technology."
It may not be credible but it shows science and technology in a positive light and it shows that knowledge of these things can help you solve problems.
With Eureka it seemed to be the opposite, every episode seemed to be some science or technology experiment gone wrong wreaking havoc on the town, leaving the village idiot [sheriff] to save the town using decidedly non-scientific means. At least those were what the episodes I saw were like before I stopped watching.
It's like the writers were from the Micheal Crichton school of sci-fi, all science and technology is bad and will potentially destroy the world. Book sales and ratings will follow, or in this case, not.
There will still be 12 episodes in 2012 that wrap up season 5.
Original posting on io9