5-29th-2002:

DARK ANGEL R.I.P.?- Is DARK ANGEL dead for good? There are fans that are trying to get a third season for the show while James Cameron wants three TV movies to wrap up loose ends. FOX first renewed the show then canceled it within the same week and went with FIREFLY (and JOHN DOE). It was a rather confusing drama that happened a couple of weeks ago. I hear FX has picked up repeat rights to DA's first two seasons, but the general opinion among most people is that it would be too expensive for any network to produce a new season given the low ratings DA got in the second season and the expensive budget of $3 million per episode.

SUMMER SHOWS: There isn't much to offer this summer season by the networks. PBS stations start showing nine unshown episodes of MYSTERY! that were signed on for when PBS canceled the show last year. So beginning July 1st (check your local listings), MYSTERY! will be back for 13 weeks and new Mystery series including four new episodes of Murder Rooms (a fiction series about the exploits of Arthur Conan Doyle and the guy who inspired Sherlock Holmes- Professor Bell), a three part series starring Paul McGann, and a new British cop drama (two episodes), and all of that if followed by a repeat of the four episode series three of TOUCHING EVIL in September. This fall on PBS will show the first American series to be on MYSTREY!, SKINWALKERS. Skinwalkers is about Native American tribal police on a reservation. Sounds interesting.

Other offerings this summer include new episodes of Farscape all summer long as the fourth season kicks off an hour later on Fridays beginning June 7th. Stargate SG-1 begins what is probably the sixth and final season as it moves to it's new home on SCI-FI an hour before Farscape. Of course, SCI-FI's Friday Prime lineup is kicked off by the canceled FOX series Night Visions with four unaired episodes on the same day. A&E shows new episodes of Nero Wolfe this summer while USA starts the TV series THE DEAD ZONE at 10 pm ET on June 16th. Finally, there is the second season of WITCHBLADE which TNT will kick off with two episodes on June 16th at 8 pm ET and another new hourly episode on Monday June 17th, but it remains to be seen if TNT will show the other three episodes in the can of the 13 episode order in the weeks after or hold them back until Yancy Butler comes out of rehab to star in the seven episodes yet to be filmed when production resumes.

FALL TV:
CBS- It seems like CBS has the most new interesting shows this fall with CSI: Miami at 10 pm ET Monday starring David Caruso. This CSI spin-off I will watch. THE AGENCY moves to Saturday after THE DISTRICT. It doesn't feel like a good sign unless it can hold onto the viewers of THE DISTRICT. CSI is followed on Thursdays by WITHOUT A TRACE about the FBI Missing Persons unit. Friday is a mixed bag with the bland concept of HACK about an ex-cop who is a cabbie who solves crimes followed the interesting RHD/LA. RHD/LA is about the Robbery Homicide Division in Los Angeles and stars Tom Sizemore and Klea Scott. The show was co-created by Michael Mann (Miami Vice, Heat) and the show runner will be former X-Files writer/producer Frank Spotnitz. If this show is good, I hope it creams Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. Lastly BECKER moves to Sunday which is never a good sign for a high rated Monday night comedy and Terry Farrell not returning puts another nail into the show.

FOX- FOX has a bland line-up with the only good things being the return of 24 for a second season that follows Jack Bauer in another day of his life but months later and the premiere of Joss Whedon's new sci-fi show- FIREFLY. Now the bad news is FIREFLY is on Fridays and is a lead-in for a show with a been there/done that concept- JOHN DOE. JOHN DOE is about a guy who knows a lot about the world, but he doesn't know who he is. I think DARK ANGEL and FIREFLY would have been a better pairing. Wednesdays sees the debut of FAST LANE which is cross between Starsky and Hutch and Miami Vice. It is from the producers of The Fast and The Furious. Gimmee a break! Cancel it quick and move FIREFLY to Wednesdays please!

NBC- Nothing new and interesting. Law and Order: Criminal Intent looks like the only interesting show at the moment and the show after L&O:CI, BOOMTOWN, sounds like it will go bust. Expect L&O:CI or Third Watch to move into ER's slot on Thursday in the Fall of 2003 if this upcoming season is really ER's last. I hope CSI:Miami kicks Crossing Jordan's ass. Crossing Jordan started as an interesting show that quickly became uninteresting to me and I found it hard to watch through an entire episode.

ABC- THE PRACTICe still lives and ALIAS is back for a second season. New entries to the fall season include DINOTOPIA, PUSH,NEVADA, MEDS, and THAT WAS THEN. With MEDS going up against the CBS drama about HMO (PRESIDIO MED) and LAW and ORDER, expect both medical dramas to be DOA.
UPN: HAUNTED is a drama about a paranormal investigator and it airs after BUFY while ENTERPRISE is followed by a new series of the TWILIGHT ZONE on Wednesdays. Neither of these two new entries sound like they will last that long, but I could be wrong.

THE WB: CHARMED and ANGEL move to Sundays which is never a good scene since CHARMED feels so DOA at the moment and ANGEL going up against ALIAS. Yikes! SMALLVILLE keeps it's old slot and oddly enough DAWSON'S CREEK is still around. I like the first two seasons of the show, but it became too much of a bad soap opera after that. Retire this show please! BIRDS OF PREY I have mixed feelings about. If it is good, it might last. If I don't like, I will hope for it to be moved to another night and have ANGEL take it's time slot after DAWSON's CREEK.

What shows people like is always in the eye of the beholder and some of my predictions may be wrong. Stay Tuned and hope smarter minds prevail at the networks one of these days like offering a good summer slate to battle rerun blues more. Have a better one.

this article is (c)5-29-2002 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission