To Watch or Not To Watch, That Is The Question

Last week, in order to spread Christmas cheer to sci-fi geeks far and wide, the USA Network cancelled “4400” and “The Dead Zone”. I, being a sci-fi geek, knew of these shows but never watched them (minus the occasional “Dead Zone” episode). My buddy Seamus on the other hand was quite put off (and by put off, I mean belligerent). He went on to inform me that he had all of last years “4400” on DVR, and was questioning where to actually watch it or not, seeing as it ended with a cliffhanger. So, should he watch?

This is a very interesting debate. On one hand, you have a full season of a show you know you enjoy. On the other, you know at the end you’re going to get screwed by the network. But haven’t we all watched a show and just known that it was going to get screwed (or as I like to call it, “get FOX-ed”). When we all sat down and started watching “Firefly”, “Miracles”, “Wonderfalls”, “John Doe”, “Invasion”, and “Reunion”, didn’t you know it would be lucky to last one season? It wasn’t that the writing was poor; it was just that the slack-jawed viewing public is more in love with cookie cutter crap like CSI and reality shows than anything that might actually be new and fresh. Of course, the other issue is that shows are considered “sci-fi”. You can put a new and fresh spin on the same old crap, and people will think its gold (see “Grey’s Anatomy”). So why do we keep coming back? I think it’s the ingrained hope in all of us. We see something we really like and just hope that this time, it will survive. Unfortunately, most of the time, natural selection takes hold and the wounded gazelle is mauled by the lions. Hey, we can’t blame the networks for wanting to make money; I just wish I could have gotten some resolution to some things.

So, what do you do? Well, I was faced with the same dilemma last year when “Jericho” was cancelled. I went ahead and just deleted it off my DVR. However, I’m going to go against that and tell Seamus to watch it. If he enjoys the show then he should enjoy the final season of it. Who knows, maybe Sci-Fi Channel will pick it up. God knows their Sci-Fi Friday needs all the help it can get, but that’s a rant for another day.