Fairly Legal

phrelin said:

I see a troublesome change in USA's trends as it has been a cash cow for NBCU. They're ordering up original "reality" shows in their pilot orders...

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That is troublesome. If so, you'll find me over at TNT or FX. I can't imagine why if things are going so well that they would change course. 54% of the electorate proved that theory correct last Tuesday.

mreposter said:

I enjoyed the first season of Fairly Legal, but was disappointed by the changes (and the annoying new male foil they introduced) in season 2. All the "fixes" they tried in season 2 only seemed to make the show worse, not better. The comments I read in the press were that NBC liked her, but didn't like the show, which I'd tend to agree with.

Adding to what phrelin said, USA hasn't had a solid hit since White Collar. Political Animals was funny, but they're not extending that one either. And many of their other shows are getting long in the tooth.

Suits is pretty good, and coming back for a 3rd season, but they could really use another solid show or two. Maybe they tried to hard with the "Characters Welcome" idea and cranked out too many shows using the same basic formula.

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I think these shows all have a more-limited shelf life than non "Blue-Sky"-oriented shows, simply because they are a little simplified and unrealistic (which is actually much of their original appeal). All of the polyanna stuff gets tiring after a while. Suits and White Collar are great and are somewhat exceptions to the rule, and that is due to great casts and great writing, which is somewhat of a fluke. USA isn't about to budget for top-shelf proven writers; if they get good writing, that's by accident and due to young talented writers taking low pay because they just haven't established themselves yet. Once they do, buh-bye. As an example, Royal Pains started out with a great concept and went nowhere fast. The writers just weren't good enough. I made it through season 2, but I am baffled that people still watch it.

Whoever was writing Common Law or Psych would never get past the first interview on a show like The Good Wife or Homeland, because they just would never be good enough. Hacks by comparison. The best writers and actors typically gravitate to the shows with the largest budgets, and if you are a cut-rate cable outlet (or even the top cable outlet but still nursing a cut-rate mindset), really, good luck with that, because you will need it. HBO spent $13 million just on the pilot for Boardwalk Empire; USA likely never spent anywhere nearly that much for a full season of anything. That's HBO, and that's USA.

But I have to agree on the downfall of Fairly Legal, the lead actors were great (and included two of the hottest babes on TV -- Ever see Sara Shahi on The Sopranos? Not to be missed). I think the addition of the office "tool" character killed it, even though he seemed to eventually become almost likable at least up to the point where the lead actress, completely inexplicably, hooked up with him. Nobody bought that as genuine for a minute and nobody needed him in this milieu, and he ended up adding nothing -- I got to the point where I fast-forwarded over his lines. Again, not to diss the actor, the writers had nothing left in the tank.

What intrigues me about White Collar is that the flashy, too-good-looking supposedly-exciting caviar-slurping top criminal guy turns out to be the boring one, while the straight-laced buttoned-up ham-sandwich-eating FBI drone turns out to be the interesting one. Probably due to the actors' relative charisma more than anything else (Tim Dekay has it; Matt Bohmer doesn't), but still a bit ironic, and I think it helps the show by making that relationship less-predictable. Good writing and more concentration on Willie Garson's character in later eps (also more interesting than "Neal") helps a lot, too. Tiffani Theissen still cute, even after she hit the wall.