Cool News
Carolyn ConfirmsCARNIVALE Cancellation!!
I am – Hercules!!
A lot of alliteration from anxious anchors!
"We feel the two seasons we had on the air told the story very well, and we're proud of what everyone associated with the show accomplished," HBO entertainment president Carolyn Strauss said Tuesday.
Read Joseph Adalian’s confirmation of what Ain’t It Cool reported way back on Saturday here.
Herc’s favorite HBO shows ever -
on season-box sets:
Carnivale
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Deadwood
The Larry Sanders Show
Oz
Six Feet Under
The Sopranos
The Wire
Looking for bumper stickers, plush toys and girls’ underwear covered with cute cartoon double-amputees? Visit The Herc Store!
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May 11, 2005 1:33:49 AM CDT
Oh well, and life goes on (more like SIX FEET UNDER life goes on
by drakeavenue
The final season of SIX FEET UNDER begins next month! Cannot wait!
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HBO can sick my dick for cancelling one of hte greatest shows on TV. Clancy Brown as Brother Justin is one of the best performances in the history of television. oh well onto the DVDs
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You can go to hell.
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This show seemed to go out of its way to be weird sometimes, but it wasn't bad. On the other hand, the Wire survived the axe and this didn't, which is the choice I would have made any day of the week.
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The series ended on a total cliffhanger. That bitch Carolyn Strauss is full of shit. They owe it to us to at least have some sort of wrap up film, even if they only produce a few episodes. HBO screwed over its viewers with this one. We're used to this kind of shit from the networks. But HBO has been consistent with letting is series play out to their logical finales. It's viewers gain a sense of comfort knowing that they can watch an HBO show without worrying that its immediately going to get cancelled. Now that Carnivale has been axed before its time HBO has demonstrated a big step back in its commitment to its viewers and to its quality as a source of entertainment that can be trusted.
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May 11, 2005 2:50:04 AM CDT
WTF is wrong with Carolyn Strauss? "We feel the two seasons we
by assking
It's fucking INCOMPLETE!!!!!! Bring Carniv
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Sure, you let Arli$$ fester for years, but Carnivale, the ONE show you have with a fanbase since Twats in the City left, you CANCEL.
Assjackets. -
May 11, 2005 4:11:24 AM CDT
Kids, remember: This is what you get when you dick around with a
by lordenigma
If the showrunners had not taken their sweet fucking time telling this story. It would probably still be on the air. Yet, they dicked around, and end the show with one of the worst cliffhangers ever. Total bollocks. Serves them right. Now bring on ROME.
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Great genre TV never stays on the air for long. First Millenium, then Buffy and Angel, now this... I can't win. I give up! I guess it's time join the establishment. Yep... I'll just stop eating carbs, buy a John Mayer CD, and give two shits what happens on American Idol.
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I had high hopes that Drama TV was coming back with Carnivale, but I blame Reality TV for this!
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damn, they sure took a long time to tell a story! It was over-done and drawn out. It...felt...like...they...were...milking...the...plot...a...little...bit. Too bad we don't get the ending; they should just do a special two hour movie wrap-up for the fans and to sweeten the DVD sales.
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Carnivale is one of my favorite shows ever, but I have to say I've seen this coming since midway through the second season. I totally understand how the suits looked at their options. This is an expensive, low-rated cult series that takes 13 full hours to explain anything. The show is incapable of drawing new viewers at this point, because in order for a given episode of Carnivale to be comprehensible, viewers are required to not only have watched every single preceding episode in order, but to have actually paid attention. It's too much to ask from today's viewing public. Throw in the fact that watching every episode means slogging through an admittedly glacially-paced second half of the first season, and the $70 DVD sets aren't going to do anything to boost the fanbase. Sad comment on our society that this show was essentially killed by Desperate Housewives.
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would be nice , if firefly can do it im sure carnivale could.
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Is it a surprise that this got cancelled in light of HBO needing to back off some of the stranger programming because we live in a world that is getting a little too indecent...AND WE SHOULD ALL BE SHOCKED THAT HBO DARES TO PEDDLE ALL THIS SMUT IN FRONT OF OUR FACES!!!! WHAT'S NEXT??? BAD LANGUAGE AND BREASTS???? WHY DON'T THEY JUST GIVE SOME OF THOSE DAMN LIBERALS A SHOW OF THEIR OWN????? WE NEED TO MAKE SURE THAT WE AS AMERICANS ARE FREE TO HAVE OUR SOCIETY FREE OF ALL THIS SINNING AND MAKE SURE THAT WE ARE LEARNING THE REAL HISTORY OF THE CREATION AND MAKE SURE THAT NONE OF THEM FREE THINKERS POISON OUR CHILDREN WITH THEIR WEIRD MINDS!!!!!! WHAT DO YOU PEOPLE WANT???? YOU WANT TO LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE THE TERRORISTS WIN WITH FILIBUSTERS????? DO YOU???? DO YOU HATE AMERICA THAT MUCH??????...And thus, ooooh! simple life is on! - - - George, The 7th Chicken!!!!
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Really , The Sopranos is gone next year , Six feet under is gone after this next season , Deadwood while good so far is not nearly as good as season 1 , and now they cut this great show..poof there went my HBO subscription , will watch Deadwood and the other 2 shows finale seasons the old fashion way..leeeeeeeech off da net.HBO sux.
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The Wire is good but lol how many cop drama's does the world need? If I had my choice which i don't there is no way in hell The Wire stays while Carnivale go's..i am sure its a question of cost to them but they can just die..
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May 11, 2005 6:43:10 AM CDT
yeah, cuz the season, well i guess now the series finale didn't
by the_dude_77
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I mean c'mon, yea it had a few creepy characters, but it was dull and went no where. I won't miss it.
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...it was as much about the tone as it was the story. Lynchian? Sure...but if you don't dig Lynch you can go ahead and fuck off.
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HUGE MISTAKE! HANDS DOWN...BEST SHOW ON TV! I GUESS THIS PROVES FURTHER EVIDENCE THAT STUDIO EXECS HAVE THEIR HEADS SO FAR UP THEIR ASSES, THEY DON'T KNOW WHICH WAY IS SOUTH! BAD MOVE, HBO! AFTER THE SOPRANOS SWAN SONG, I'M CANCELLING MY SUBSCRIPTION! YOU GOT NOTHING FOR ME ANYMORE! I'LL CATCH DEADWOOD AND ENTOURAGE ON DVD!
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SATISFIED?! Did she even WATCH the show?! They closed one thread and opened up two dozen new ones!!!!! WTF?! This fight ain't over yet! DAMN! It's a good thing I work for a cable company and get HBO free anyway, otherwise this shit would be gone right now! Ku
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I tried to like Carnivale. I really, really tried. I would force myself to sit and watch episodes.:::::::::: But the problem would always come up: This Show Is Fucking Boring. It has the longest "previously on" prologue, it has the longest credits sequence, and the longest and most drawn-out scenes I think I've ever seen before on Television.::::::::::: I think it's great when a show sticks to its guns and tries to tell the story that it intended to tell from the beginning, but the problem with Carnivale was that the show was completely inaccessable to anybody who didn't see it from the beginning. And even then, as a coworker of mine has said, "To get through an episode, never mind the entire season, is a labor of love. You gonna eat that?" :::::::::::: So long Carnivale, you were shit. Six Feet Under, welcome back. I've missed you. Please let this final season kick serious ass.
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This was a no-brainer for HBO. Because the decision wasn't based on "ratings v Desperate Housewives" or "too slowwww" - it concerned quality, pure and simple. Bad, bad writing, people. Terrific concept, magnificent art direction - shocking scripts and execution. Clancy Brown and Amy Madigan shone despite this, but week in week out we watched this show hoping the performances, dialogue and plot mechanics would live up to the pitch idea. They rarely did. Therefore as a drama, it doesn't belong in the same stable as Deadwood, The Wire, Sopranos, etc. 6FU should have quit last season.
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I watched this show religiously from the first episode and felt every hour was rewarding in its own way. But, the cliffhanger left me angry. I mean, we loyal viewers supported the heck out of the show and what we got at the crescendo was really just a million more questions. Suddenly, I felt like my loyalty was taken for granted and I resolved not to care whether the show came back. Of course, if it did return, I'd be there like a $2 crack whore lapping it up.
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then fuck Carnivale. It had a shot to fulfill its ingriguing potential, but took too long to get rolling - thus losing the patience of a large portion of the audience. The Wire, on the other hand, had the implicit support of a small but rabidly enthusiastic audience that recognizes that a slow build-up has to lead to some kind of payoff. David Simon and co. at the Wire rewarded the audience's patience with satisfying, albeit often tragic, finales for each of The Wire's three outstanding seasons. Daniel Knauf squandered Carnivale's potential by dicking around too much in the first season, then tried to hard to recover in the second. Too bad. Michael J. Anderson was phenomonal as Samson in the best role he'll ever get. That's the biggest waste.
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Deadwood, Sopranos, The Wire, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Ali G, Yeah, FUCK HBO for giving us such shitty shows. You dumb fuckin twits.
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Don't get involved with a series that is most likely going nowhere and never going to give you satisafaction. Say you just want to be "Friends". After starting several entertaining soaps that simply disapeared (like "Passadena"), I stopped getting involved. That's how I missed out on the OC, and why I won't start watching Gray's Anatomy. As for Desperate Housewives, it's a good show and deserves it's slot. You can always watch HBO on Monday or Tuesday.
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This was a cool show.
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May 11, 2005 10:22:41 AM CDT
That's what happens when you have a chick in charge of a studio.
by computerguy68
Most of my favorite shows were axed by women execs.
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what else does hbo have? lisa kudrow?
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...is focus on swearing cowboys more. Really, that's where the future of entertainment is: Reality TV and dirty-mouthed dudes." Fuck all. Seriously, I've tried to get into Deadwood and I'm hardly a Puritan, but the show's first season seemed like it was written by a thirteen year old who just discovered the compound-cuss-word. It was over the top in its efforts to show us what pay cable can do that regular cable shows like the Shield and Rescue Me and Nip Tuck can't (or won't). Well, all it showed me was that those shows are more interesting and better written because they don't rely purely on verbal shock value to simulate a "realism" nobody could possibly verify (anyone out there ever frequent an old west brothel? I thought not). Deadwood is weak and Carnivale was thoughtful, carefully structured storytelling. So naturally they fucking killed it in favor of the new flavor of the "weak." Fucking dumbasses.
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May 11, 2005 11:32:46 AM CDT
The problem with Deadwood is that after you show a man fucking a
by cookylamoo
Deadwood has found new territory by going where no TV show has gone before, straight to the bottom of the human barrel. However, if it ever tries to elevate itself, people will cry that it's "lost its magic."
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What's worse is that the general criticism seems to be "It's too slow, show some more magic". That wasn't the point of this show. Carnivale was one of the few shows on television that had the structure and pacing of a really good book. Unfortunately on TV the ADD attention span types couldn't just skip ahead to the "cool" parts. This show was written EXCELLENTLY and the performances were amazing, unfortunately most people dont enjoy investing time in a deliberately paced show with lots of nuance.
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weak? Yeah, lol. Right.
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What about Sofie? What does every prophet in her house mean, exactly? What about the coming nuclear holocaust foreshadowed in every episode since the start of season 1? What about the omega baby? What happens to Jonesy? What about the return of Lodz? What ends the age of magic and wonder? Are you a fucking retard? The story was NEVER about Ben trying stab Brother Justin. It was about the characters - about the rolls they played in bringing about the end of the age of wonder. We know DK wrote and sold Carnivale as a 3-season story arc so give us that damage-control bullshit. A 3-act story has THREE ACTS. YOU GAVE US ONLY TWO. I already cancelled your fucking channel when I heard the first rumors - and I SWEAR TO GOD I will never buy another HBO product so long as I live, including goddamned expensive box sets. There's no reason to buy Carnivale Season 2 since the story never finishes. Fuck you HBO. If you don't finish what you start, you should never start it at all. It's not like anything else you put on will have close to the number of viewers as Carnivale had.
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But when you consider how long
And we will forever thank them for the Sopranos,Six feet Under, The Wire , Oz, Dream on BUT
They also gave us Arliss and Mind of the Married Man , HBO owes us a third season for Carnivale as payback.
Hell they owe us just for having to sit through 5 minutes of Avenue K. -
I'M PISSED OFF! HBO is stupid.
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To one of the best TV shows in a long, long while. Th e show ended with so many unanswered question that I hope Daniel Knauf finds a new home on another network, Film, well if the show was canceled I don't expect a feature length film to follow, but that's just my $.02
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I won't write anything rash like, "I'm cancelling HBO." However the next season of the Sopranos ends up will make that decision for me. Not too happy with HBO getting all MTVish with their 'original programming'. Feels like they never air movies at convenient times, so you're out of luck if you don't like any of their soap operas. Scrivener makes a good point. I had put off buying both DVD box sets based upon them renewing the show. No sense in owning a copy of something that is incomplete.
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"ROME" looks like it has potential. A feather anyone...?
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May 11, 2005 1:12:24 PM CDT
as long as adrianne barbeau will appear naked somewhere else unt
by duanejones
gilf!
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May 11, 2005 1:38:13 PM CDT
Carnivale sure did take place in the "Depression" era. It was li
by chickychow
To be fair, I'd rather have Carnivale on than most everything you find on network t.v., but it had its chance and ultimately failed. I watched the entire first season of Carnivale, and the first couple eps of season 2, and just said Enough... (I did watch the Finale, and it seemed to make no difference that I had missed about 10 eps) Though I wanted desperately for it to pick up steam, it was just too boring, too sullen, whenever it seemed to go off on an interesting tangent, it botched it, and the "big" questions it raised weren't that compelling... Top notch acting and cinematography though. (p.s.: Deadwood and The Wire are the best shows on television)
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Perhaps if the writers had made the main character likeable or even noticeable this show would have made a third season. But, in their infinite wisdom, they did not.
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Go screw yourselves.
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Carnivale was great at build-up, but sucked rocks at payoff. All of the mystery that S1 worked so hard to create got explained away in 15 minutes of painful expository dialogue in the first episode of S2. Took the show another 5 episodes to (sorta, kinda) recover, and by that time they'd lost half their audience. And then, of course, they end S2 with a complete cop-out. Everyone compared it to Lynch, but that's a two-edged sword: Twin Peaks' second season also sucked, and it was also cancelled with extreme prejudice. Moral? Know how you're going to end a story before you start it, otherwise the audience WILL sniff out that you're faking it.
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As far as 'shock value' language, perhaps you should understand that the writer of this series did extensive research on what happened, when, to whom, and exactly how it was said. As a matter of fact, he had to defend his scripts to HBO staffers by showing letters, newspapers, deeds, and other recorded talk back to justify the script. Dont think the language of Deadwood is for shock value - that is how they talked in a backwoods, lawless, old west town. I am proud of how really well researched Deadwood actually is compared to so much other shite out there.
And Carnivale was just too damn smart for your average viewer. Thus end all good shows. -
What idiot does?
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email hbo,they brought back Wire after it was canned...so there is some hope. season 2 was amazing,we must have more.
Send your comments to HBO by sending an e-mail here: chris.albrecht@hbo.com and here: carolyn.strauss@hbo.com
http://savecarnivale.blogspot.com/ -
Several people on the HBO Carnivale forums have already proven that emails containing Carnivale content are being automatically deleted without being read. I can't help but feel that there is something else going on behind the scenes that we don't know about. Despite what some of these braindead assholes on here say, Carnivale was still a very popular show - bringing in close to 2 million viewers in a time slot that faces off against Deperate Housewives while also being a premium-only channel (which further narrows the possible audience). That is pretty fucking incredible. Imagine how much better it would do with a reasonable ammount of support. If HBO wants to keep the stick in their ass, maybe SciFi or FX will snatch up the rights and do us right with one more season. Failing that, Knauff could always bless us with a proper book of the whole story. Still, I subscribed to HBO this year exclusively for Carnivale Season 2, and I feel cheated, scammed, and lied to. HBO will no longer be getting any buisness from my friends or family.
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Well, they brought back Family Guy... maybe we can bring back CARNIVALE...
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In order for someone to appreciate Carnivale, they must also possess the capability to appreciate Watchmen. Please also consider the opposite. Your thoughts?
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I don't think he boned the horse. He jerked off on its leg.
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Have you considered a journalist position for CNN?
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Immortal_Fish is right - not many people appreciate storys as thought provoking as Watchmen or Carnivale. I'm also one of those guys screaming "Dammit, Paramount. Do Watchmen right or don't do it at all." Still, after reading Daniel Knauf's letter to the fans this morning I actually feel grateful that we got what we did. Apparently Carnivale was one of the most expensive series, per episode, in television history. I wish HBO would have just come out and said that, instead of giving us bullshit about 'natural conclusions' while sitting on the synopsis for the third and final season. Maybe, someday, if we're lucky, we'll get a proper conclusion for the series. It can happen. It has happened. And it's still happening. If Farscape and Firefly can make a comeback, so can Carnivale. There is hope yet - just... not with the bastards at HBO.
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Cause really, its not like they didn't give the show a chance, any other network that had a series decline in viewership like this one did would have pulled it midway through the first season, HBO not only ran the entire season, but gave it a second chance with another full season. Yea it sucks that they cancelled it, but there is no place in the world of tv where it would have gotten the shot HBO gave it, the problem isn't HBO but that viewers didn't reward HBO week in and week out. And 2 million viewers isn't a big deal, even for a premium station like HBO, its lower rated series pull in 4-5 million, while its better watched series like Sex in the City and Sopranos averaged 7 and 11 million viewers, respectively, so the 1.7 average for Carnivale (especially considering the budget the previous poster noted) is a pretty big bullet for HBO to bite.
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May 12, 2005 8:03:27 AM CDT
Well they should have allowed a wrap up movie at the very least.
by computerguy68
Fuckers
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would be nice. Brother Justin is the first character in a long time to have appeared in one of my dreams/nightmares. at the end of the dream he was all rotting and Blue and Sophie had to chop chunks of flesh off him to feed to his followers who turned into evil eyed Justinesque Zombies. It freaked me out and proves that at the underlying belly of Carnivale was some great fucking material that will be missed... But Lynch has a new film coming out so it's not the end of the world.
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May 12, 2005 10:00:54 AM CDT
As a matter of fact, he had to defend his scripts (for DEADWOOD)
by cookylamoo
I'd like to see one of those deeds....Forty fucking acres of land is hereby sold to that cocksucker of the second part, Seth Bullock.
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Froget my previous comments
FUCK YOU HBO. I had toput up with my wife watching SATS every fucking week (and now she's watching it on TBS).
You owe us males for having to watch that shit -
It seems like as soon as I find a show that really seems interesting and I want to catch up on, it goes and gets canceled. Thanks HBO, new fans just will have nothing but DVD.
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Carnivale was just too weird...it was a depressing freak show.
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the man was slighted by the sheriff, and couldnt get the nerve to actually bone the horse. so he just jerked off on its leg. back then, a horse was a mans livleyhood. which would explain the "Steal a horse = hung" law. touching a mans horse is just as bad as touching his wife.
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i look at carnivale and think of that story "The Emperors New Clothes".
'ha ha this show is fuckin cool' at first, then 'ha ha...wait this is sad, drawn out, and boring' -
A great show and great characters, doomed to a purgatory of poorly written fanfics. Thanks a lot HBO. A truly original show is dead.
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That's right, I knew Carnivale would be cancelled over ten years before it was even conceived, that's how fucking brilliant I am. But seriously, you had to know the writing was on the wall as soon as the ADHD types started complaining about how "nuthin's happening!" If you want to have a successful show these days, you have to pander to the Adderall crowd, it's just a fact of life.
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Hey Cali Split, the Wire had more of a chance to fufill its potential, but it the end, it's yet another cop show. The whole point of HBO shows to me is that they typically aren't cop, doctor or lawyer shows. I don't know anybody who likes cops or lawyers (and no one likes going to the doctor), why are they the only shows on network TV (aside from reality and sitcom clones)? And you other people who think Deadwood is nothing but swearing probably couldn't tell me what happened in an episode after watching it. It has some of the most complex, dense dialog I've ever seen in a TV show and all you hear are the "fucks." But I suppose, it does take a little effort to get into it. I've heard that said about the wire too, but the effort never got me there. I felt Carnivale was a great show. Just the fact it was set in the depression era was enough for me. That gave it a nice feel and something to connect to as our economy continues to collapse. I couldn't give a damn about the Sopranos anymore, but that'll change as it comes back on the air. There's too much spacing between the (short) seasons for me to maintain any excitement about it. I watch Six Feet Under, but I won't care a bit when it's off the air. It had a decent first season, but I don't know why I've continued to watch it since. I am really looking forward to Rome though. A television show, based in Roman times, is ridiculously long overdue. "I, Claudius" is about as close as we've come. I need at least two HBO shows to maintain my subscription. If they can't maintain that, it's Netflix or the net for me.
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