What does it say about me when three of the five (non-comedy) TV shows I watch are at serious risk of being cancelled?

Life is the best show on television.  Say what you will about BSG, The Wire, Rescue Me, Lost, or whatever the hell else the critics jerk themselves off to, but there is no doubt in my mind that Life is the best of the best, and NBC would be making a serious mistake by not extending the show for a third season, at least.  The characters are engaging, the stories are intricate and intriguing, and the acting is second to none.  There is no better actor on TV than Damian Lewis playing Charlie Crews.  Sarah Shahi as Dani Reese is a beautiful yang to Damian’s yin.  The depth of the writing, the chemistry between the actors, the subplots within subplots… all of it adds up to the best show on TV.

Chuck isn’t going to win any awards for groundbreaking television, but it’s entertaining.  Maybe it’s the nerd in me that’s so attracted to the so-close-you-can-feel-it love between Chuck and Sarah.  He scores an 11 out of 10 on the nerd scale, she scores a 15 out of 10 on the gorgeous, intelligent, and ass-kicking scales.  If it can work out for Chuck and Sarah, the why not for me and SOMEONE?  I just can’t comprehend how a show that shit the bed as epicly as Heroes can survive another season without any question while a show like Chuck, that has been flooded with critical acclaim since the pilot episode, has to struggle to even get picked up.  NBC has done the show no favors by putting it up against powerhouse shows like Dancing With The Stars and House.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is one of those shows that was always right on the fringe of being awesome, but never truly crossed the line.  That is, until the last 5 or so episodes of season 2, during which time they delivered some of the emotional and engaging stories and acting on TV this spring.  Whereas the first season and the first half of season 2 had suspect acting, particularly with Thomas Dekker as John Connor, the end of the current season took things up a notch into what I consider truly groundbreaking territory.  The show was trapped by having to bridge the stories that people already knew about the Terminator series - from past movies, comics, and games - yet offer a story that fit well in a weekly television drama format.  When they finally broke out of their shell, the show inherited a voice of its own within the Terminator franchise, and proceeded to set the stage for upcoming movies by filling in gaps in the overall story arc.  The season finale that aired last Friday was truly a great hour of television with an ending that created as many new questions as it did answer old ones.  I can only hope that if FOX doesn’t pick up a third season, that some other network will.  Perhaps Sci-Fi, Spike, CW, or some other second-tier network would be willing to take a gamble on a show of such quality that already has a built-in fanbase and a story that is nearing it’s peak.

My other two favorites are House and Lost, both of which are secured for 1 more season.  House has been grasping at straws this season, seemingly running directionless while not advancing any of the overall arcs that make the show interesting, while Lost has been steadily improving since it’s January debut, clearly benefitting from having an official kill-date at the end of season 6.  To be honest, I would trade House for Life, or I would trade House for both Chuck and T:TSCC.

One other interesting note is that there is an actor shared by two of these shows on the verge of cancellation.  Garret Dillahunt plays both the cyborg John Henry on T:TSCC and Roman Nevikov on Life.  I sure hope he doesn’t ever show up on The Office, 30 Rock, or even House.

Of course, there is that small voice inside of me that says “It’s better for you if all these shows get cancelled."  I’d gain three hours a week - or close to three full days a year - if they were to go away, but the truth is that I enjoy watching TV and being engrossed in stories.  I like being transported, albeit temporarily, out of my own life and into the lives of interesting characters.  Dear NBC, please renew Life and Chuck.  Dear FOX, please renew T:TSCC.  Don’t let your best shows vanish, only to be replaced with more reality rubbish.