Thursday, January 26, 2006

So farewell then, Piper, Paige, Phoebe and Billie. In order of preference.

Many Americans cannot get enough British TV shows; many Brits cannot get enough American TV shows. I'm not saying I fall into the latter camp but if it weren't for the news and weather I wouldn't watch anything homegrown at all.
Being a geek, it was of great interest to me to hear that the current season's killing spree, having already claimed 7th Heaven, Will & Grace, Alias, That '70s Show, Malcolm In The Middle - I can hear you cheering from here, MuffinMan - and most recently The West Wing, not to mention casualties among more recent shows both deserved (Night Stalker, Threshold, Killer Instinct - I couldn't get past the pilot of that one) and undeserved (Arrested Development), actually claimed two entire networks for the first time since the 1950s, with the CW Television Network rising from the impending ashes of the WB and UPN. (CW for CBS [owners of UPN] and Warner Bros. As CBS CEO Les Moonves pointed out, they obviously couldn't call it the WC.) Their announcement indicated that many of their biggest shows will be transferred intact to the new network, but in amongst Veronica Mars, Gilmore girls, Girlfriends, America's Next Top Beeyotch, Smackdown and the rest, conspicuously missing was Charmed.
Granted, the cancellation hasn't been announced at the time of typing, but given it's the WB's longest-running show still on air other than 7th Heaven, and given that both Rose McGowan and Alyssa Milano have indicated they're out of here after this current one, and given that showrunner Brad Kern is treating this like the final season (and it certainly seems like it, what with their different appearances and trying not to use magic and Billie being their surrogate so far and all - and Jen, don't try and tell me what happens like you did once before, otherwise I'll start calling you J***y...), its absence is telling. But if they do get a big finish, it'll have been fun. Plus it'll be the first genre show since Buffy the Vampire Slayer that I watched in its first run from first show to last.
And as irksome as Billie can be, it's not often that Kaley Cuoco is the fourth hottest person on a show.

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