The Inside

You see, I'm a TV jinx. Any show I like, no matter what the network, is sure to be canceled abruptly with no explanation. I liked this show from the first episode, and after the second episode it went on "hiatus", and then was abruptly canceled. The same thing happened with "Nowhere Man" (FOX), "Now and Then" (CBS?), "John Doe" (FOX), "The Fugitive" (the remake series, I forget the network), and many, many other shows that I grew to like. I'll try not to let it happen again. Maybe I'll try liking really bad shows like "So You Think You Can Dance", or "Survivor" or any one of those other insipid reality shows. Maybe then the networks will cancel them and leave the good shows on the air. Only problem is, what will I watch then?

What is the matter with FOX? And what was wrong with The Inside? Too gory for the eyes of puritans? This is just like "Millenium." Remember that? Great show, but people complained. I wonder if the big shots consider the opinions of people outside the U.S.. We are watching the same shows, too, and paying to watch them. It is amazing how the rest of the world that watches cable TV is not even taken in consideration when canceling shows. Same thing happened to "Bones." What is the point of showing it if you know that in the States it has already been canceled. I mean, we are seen the previews here in Panama cause it will air in March, but we already know it won't last long. What's the point in even starting to watch it. It's like giving a lollipop to a child, and then, take it away. WAY TO GO GUYS!!! LET'S KEEP THE STUPID SHOWS ON AIR. THEY MAKE AUDIENCE BUT ARE TOTALLY BRAINLESS. IS THIS TELLING US SOMETHING?

This series has just finished its UK run on ITV4, a minor satellite channel. I thought it was really good but, just as others have commented on the rotten support by Fox Network, the scheduling on ITV4 was also unhelpful. Halfway through the series, it got demoted from prime time to a graveyard slot post midnight. Still, we all have video timers . . . And the good news for UK viewers who missed an episode is that the series will be repeated from October. I wouldn't really compare The Inside to The Shield or CSI or Law & Order; those shows are similarly violent but less involving I think. The obvious comparison is with Criminal Minds - FBI specialist team, IT expert, damaged/socially inept team member, aspiring to high mindedness - but the scripts on Criminal Minds do tend towards an unpleasant didactic ism. Maybe that's why that show continues to run . .

Fox is, I gather, legendary for canceling shows. This one where all the episodes were not even sent is at present doing its second complete run over here, first TV3 and now TV6 – Sundays at 9 pm. Although the plots with a captured Rebecca Locke were a bit repetitive, they were nevertheless well executed and played with a peculiar somewhat alienated intensity by Ms. Nichols, who is not only beautiful but obviously has considerable acting potential, as she also showed in Alias. The rest of the cast were quite good also, and the show should have been given at least two full seasons to develop such things as the relationships within the group of investigators including their weird leader. For the series was developing, and the last episodes had a greater directness and also better scripting. The series might well have made better in the ratings had it been aired in the autumn, for example. As it is, one suspects Fox to have a very strange policy of producing shows they don't believe in and then doing their damnedest to ensure their non-success. It can't be a good business strategy.

I thought that the first episode was very promising. Kind of a cross between CSI and Without a Trace. There was also a small trivia bit when Adam Baldwin's character said he was in the marines and tried to give himself a tattoo. Baldwin of course played Animal Mother in Full Metal Jacket and was a Marine. There are way too many shows of this variety out, but this one in my opinion is the better of them. It is also somewhat like Silence of the Lambs without Hannibal Lector. Rebecca Locke is very much like special Agent Starling, and the killers are much like Buffalo Bob. Fans of the Lector movies will like this show. In all, the show should hold it's own during the summer, but it might get hard during the fall, if it lasts that long.