Too Good for TV, Part I

‘Goshers, Big Buddy! Where do TV shows go when they die?’

Sorry for invoking the grating voice of Dondi (Google it), but it’s a quandary for the creators of TV series that fail to get picked up for a second season or just get axed by a network no longer interested, due to low ratings or some snotty bean counter named Bartholomy Quellston-Fundrew III.

So do continue with Dondi’s (I said look it up) wide-eyed query: If a series has been wiped off the broadcast schedule, where does it go?

In most cases, to that bottomless pit where it rots, save in the memories of a scant few fans still wishing that favoured series might get picked up for a DVD release, even on the over-priced MOD format.

 

My personal favourite? Live Shot (1995-1996), which ran on UPN during its maiden voyage as a new network.

Never heard of it? Well, I’d loan you my VHS copies, but they’re buried so deep in storage, not even I can access them.

Synapse has just released Chiller [M], a supernatural series that many genre fans have probably never heard of because it spans a whopping 5 episodes. Not a wholly successful mix of twisted tales, but above average, especially for the cast (Martin Clunes, with hair!) and budgets thrown at each episode.

I’ve uploaded the review in tandem with another dead series  – Ultraviolet [M] (1998) that’s technically still available as a U.S. import. Palm Pictures released the series on DVD, and it was unofficially billed as a U.K. variant of The X-Files, but it’s quite different (and less muddy in its conspiracy stance).

Star Jack Davenport is best known for the comedy series Coupling (2000-2004) and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise as slimy Norrington, while co-star Susannah Harker had previously applied her stern brow and pouty lips in the nasally snooty Pride and Prejudice (1995). The surprise co-star among the cast however, is Idris Elba, he of Luther (2010-2013) fame, and guilty pleasure pic The Losers (2010).

Read the reviews, and be annoyed Chiller never went beyond its 5 episodes, and irked you’ve been denied further adventures of Ultraviolet.

Coming next: a quick review of Christian Petzold’s Barbara (2012), now playing at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.

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Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com ( Main Site / Mobile Site )

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