Television Man by Aidan Morgan
“All your television are tune to me” —Bad translation of the official Television Man video game (Sega Genesis, 1994)
Bad news for people who like their television shows uncancelled: your favourite television show, whatever it is, is probably over. Fan of CW superhero shows? Cancelled. Looking forward to that second or third season of that quirky Netflix show? Too bad.
Reassured by the news that your show of choice was renewed for another season? Don’t be.
Axe Attack
Minx (HBO/Crave), the well-received series with Jake Johnson (New Girl) and Ophelia Lovibond (Guardians of the Galaxy) just wrapped filming on its second season when Warner Bros decided to cancel it anyway. At least HBO’s slate of reality shows, which are inexpensive to produce and draw in lots of viewers, are safe from nah, just kidding, they cancelled the incredibly popular FBoy Island.
It’s cancellation for mile after watery mile, with no plan in sight — just the ominous dorsal fin of David Zaslaf cutting through the surf to devour productions.
Meanwhile, axes have swung for The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself (Netflix), which you may know as that rarest of things: a supernatural YA Netflix joint that wasn’t half bad. How weird are things at Netflix right now? They just cancelled The Midnight Club from Mike Flanagan. If Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass) can’t secure a second season on Netflix, then nothing is sacred on that streaming site. Eventually it’s going to be nothing but Stranger Things, Wednesday and Manifest.
Mind you, Flanagan recently struck a deal with Amazon Prime to adapt Stephen King’s Black Towernovels into a series, so perhaps Netflix is in no mood to develop his flagging properties (for what it’s worth, Flanagan is adapting The Fall of the House of Usher into a Netflix mini-series, so there’s still an ongoing relationship).
Hope Rings Eternal
Amazon Prime seems like the only streaming service in the renewal business these days, what with series like The Rings of Power and The Wheel of Time yawning up the collective bandwidth for a second season.
2023 isn’t all gloom though. The Last of Us (HBO) airs on January 15, which will definitely delight or enrage fans of the video game. Another season of Yellowjackets (Showtime) will spill onto our screens this March. And let’s not forget Netflix’s creepy but compulsive You, back for its fourth season on March 9. Nothing’s certain, but we all live in hope.
Happy holidays and see you in January, when TV Man will look back at the best, worst and weirdest television of 2022. Assuming this column isn’t cancelled. ■