Analogue Leverage (Review: 'Mission: Impossible' 2.13, "The Astrologer")

Good morning, Mr. Smith. The man you are looking at is Bruce Geller. Geller was the creator of the Mission: Impossible TV series that eventually spawned an eight-movie franchise. He doesn't have any plans as, unfortunately, he died in a plane crash in 1978.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to review an episode from the second season of the original television show. As always, should you or any of your blogging force be caught or killed, Hayley Atwell will disavow any knowledge of your actions.

Please destroy this message in the usual manner. Good luck, Stephen.

The original Mission: Impossible is available on Amazon Video, which is rather like a video store in a way with an eclectic collision of movies and shows from as far back as the 1930s. There's the good, the bad and the just-plain-odd; some free with a Prime membership, some available for a relatively small fee.

The show, produced originally by Desilu until its acquisition by Paramount, ran on CBS from 1966 to 1973 and revolved around the Impossible Missions Force, an American covert operations unit that was tasked each week with a dangerous mission to bring down a hostile force planning to do something against the interests of the free world. Those forces could be a leader trying to rig an election, a secret police chief trying to bring down his leader, or a criminal syndicate that's fixing horse races. Sometimes these missions would take place in the USA, other times in (mostly fictional) foreign countries.

The IMF, not to be confused with the International Monetary Fund, would use gadgetry, disguises and general psychological manipulation to ensure the baddies were dealt with - frequently permanently. Shooting the villains was not the done thing - oh, no. No, the trick was to get the villain shot by another villain, often by framing the former as a traitor or genuinely exposing him as such. The team are highly competent at their jobs and have little personal life seen outside their work.

There's a formula to all this that was fairly rigidly followed:

• The title sequence showing flash frames of the action coming up in the episode - something copied in the film series.
• The tape scene: Jim Phelps (from Season 2 onwards) listens to a tape in an isolated location, the tape then self-destructing or having to be thrown in a fire, acid bath etc.
• The dossier scene: Jim picks his personnel via selecting a series of large photographs of them from a black folder. The cast largely stays the same between episodes, although occasionally an outsider would be brought in.
• The briefing scene: The personnel discuss some of the aspects of the mission and show off a gadget that they're going to use, generally while some of them smoke cigarettes.
• Then onto the mission itself. Gadgets, safecracking under tension, holding your cover when things go sideways... and more smoking of cigarettes. There is a lot of smoking in this show, including while assembling the gadgets.
• The mission concluding and the team driving off just as things go distinctly south for their target.

In "The Astrologer", first broadcast 3 December 1967, the IMF are tasked with rescuing a revolutionary from the Eastern European country of Vesca before he can be returned there by secret police chief Stahl and also retrieving a piece of microfilm containing the names of people who supporting him.

(For the Gen Z readers here, a microfilm is basically like taking a photograph of a document with a camera phone, but with an actual film camera, then using the film itself as the storage medium. You can conceal the film in lots of places, but make sure you don't put the trousers in the wash with the film still in it.)

To do this, they make their way to Orly Airport in Paris, where Cinnamon Carter (Barbara Bain) pretends to be a famous French astrologer, getting close to the Deputy Chancellor of Vesca, who "predicts" the death of the Chancellor... which then they then save... by having an IMF agent pretend to be the Chancellor.

The agent in question is Rollin Hand (Martin Landau, then married to Bain[1]) a master of disguise. We've not yet gotten to the magical face masks associated with the film franchise.... disguise here involves time-consuming facial prosthetics to make Rollin look like the man he's impersonating. But not here... Landau just operates on the end of a telephone, with effects literally added with a tape player by Barney Collier (Greg Morris). Barney is a black tech millionaire and from this white man's possibly incorrect POV, an even better case of representation than Uhura from Star Trek, literally made on the same studio lot. However, he does end up frequently stuck in the van because in most countries, a black man would stick out; if he has to do an in-field role, it usually involves a questionable accent, of which there are a few.

Fans of Leverage can see him as a 1960s Hardison... and the whole thing can come across as an analogue version of the show. We've got computers with lights indicating status instead of VDUs, a surprisingly lax attitude to airport security, a full-sized telephone literally carried to a table in a VIP lounge, ashtrays on planes with the "no smoking" light being off when in the air[2] and astrology via use of a reference almanac accompanied with a "manual computer" i.e. two bits of card/plastic attached by a pin[3].

You also got a lot of "assembling" sequences, where someone drills holes, solders etc. accompanied by the late Lalo Schriffin's distinctive score, one of the most memorable bits of the whole franchise. This can get rather tedious.

The action then takes us to a Vescian government plane, which looks like a Lockheed DC-4, but feel free to correct me on that. This basically involves Carter distracting the two officials with horoscopes so Rollin and Barney, snuck on via a steamer trunk, can swap the revolutionary for a dummy (who is then removed from the equation in a clever way) and the microfilm for a substitute containing the names of the Deputy Chancellor and some other officials who are actually loyal to the junta. The implication is that Stahl will end up getting himself killed when he tries to arrest all these people, but we don't see it, unlike in other episodes. The whole thing is fairly pedestrian in a way; and we don't even see any bumpiness during take-off or landing, when Rollin and Barney are free to move around.

Then the episode ends with Jim Phelps and team muscle Willie Armitage (Peter Lupus, a genuinely big chap who was also a bodybuilder) picking up Carter in the guise of two military officers[4], with the revolutionary rescued and the real microfilm safely destroyed.

Then the credits roll. Mission completed, although they still need to leave the country, something occurring off-screen. It's actually a fairly easy one too; none of the team is in any serious peril during this.

Conclusion

Like the team itself, this is competent, but unspectacular.

7/10

[1]Juliet Landau was a product of this union; best known for playing Drusilla in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

[2]We should also mention "Gellerese", the Eastern-European style language designed to be understandable to an audience who can't read Cyrillic or most Slavic languages. One example here being "Belten Atachin", which should be self-explanatory.

[3]I have an astronomical example from the 1990s used for working out what stars are visible in the sky and versions are still used in aviation as a backup.

[4]Soviet-style uniforms feature a lot in this show.

Olivia's no longer in Kansas (Review: 'Fringe' 1.20, "There's More Than One of Everything")

Not that she was ever exactly in Kansas in the first place. The Fringe Division is largely confined to the NE United States, it seems.

It's a D from me (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.16, "The Mark of Gideon")

Star Trek can frequently be a case of "great idea, shame about the execution" and this episode is clearly a case, clearly a cheapie to pad out the episode order.

Because the execution is very bad.

What's black and white and illogical all over? (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.15, "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield")

I take notes when I'm watching this episode of things that stand out to me when I'm watching it. My ones for this episode extend to over 2 1/2 pages. A5 pages, that is.

In this case, the stuff standing out is not necessary good. Quite the opposite.

• The bi-coloured skin was the director's idea. It should have been rejected.
• Seriously, Starfleet needs better defences against mental ship hijacking. Also, how on earth do you hijack an electronic system using your mind anyway.
• An invisible spaceship of course saves you a lot of money. As well as reusing effects footage from a previous episode as they did for the original; the Netflix version uses the remastered CGI stuff.
• Kirk is a great poker player when he activates the self-destruct. He'll of course eventually self-destruct the Enterprise for real in The Search for Spock... with the same codes being used.
• One wonders how the crew of the Cerritos would have handled this. It may well have been a lot more enjoyable too.
• Alas, persecution did not end in the 20th century, as my own country demonstrates.
• There's a reference to the Vietnam War here, with an implicit comment about African-Americans being drafted to go and fight there - a reason why Muhammad Ali refused to serve, getting (among other things) banned from sanctioned boxing bouts for over three years. However, this is also a series that did "A Little Private War".
• Today's racists are a good deal less erudite.
• How do you spray something from orbit? Liquids don't stay liquid in a vacuum.
• "Proceeding without incident"... then there's a pretty big incident.
• Lokai is wearing some very tight trousers in this; he has a noticeable bulge.
• There's some stupidly fast repairing and travelling in this.
• For a species with little real contact with the Federation, they seem to know an awful lot about operating its technology.
• Piles of unburied corpses... yet vegetation is reclaiming the cities. That doesn't really make sense.
• By the end, it feels rather padded - by Fred Freiberger's admission, the chase scene was because they were running under-length.. There's also the use of stock footage from the Second World War of burning cities, also for padding.

Conclusion

This could have been an interesting story about racism and hate... with a page-one rewrite. Instead it's got less subtlety than the Doctor Who episode "Orphan 55", which is saying something.

It's really just awful.

2/10

Bottle Episode of Ham (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.9, "The Tholian Web")

• Star Trek had two dedicated studios for its use at Desilu's studios - Stage 9 and Stage 10, now Paramount Stages 31 and 32. Stage 9 was used for the Enterprise sets, with Stage 10 used for off-ship scenes. This one used Stage 9 pretty much entirely entirely.
• This is very clearly a budget-saving episode, albeit one with a fairly large number of extras - the most ship personnel in one scene in fact for TOS. The Defiant is clearly a redressed Enterprise bridge, the interior only seen in one scene.
• They seem to have missed a bit explaining why the transporter went down in the first place.
• Chekov's screaming is particularly memorable, that's for sure.
• DeForest Kelley does very good anger.
• Why did they not believe Uhura when she saw Kirk? Are they stupid?
• As Memory Alpha has pointed out, this is not Starfleet's first mutiny. It's not even the first TOS mutiny.
• The environment suits from this actually look pretty decent, although were apparently a real problem when it came to bodily functions. But "MC COY" with a space in the middle.
• The effects on this episode got the show an Emmy nomination. That rather shows how far the VFX industry has come since 1968.
• The Tholian ship comes in rather too slowly for something flying at half the speed of light.
• Injecting someone through a spacesuit? That doesn't seem like it would work.

Conclusion

It's a bottle episode, sure, but sometimes those can be among the best a show does. I wouldn't say it's one of the best Star Trek episodes, but it's still pretty good.

8/10

 

In which Kirk and McCoy get Dalek-zapped (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.8, "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky")

• Straight into the action here, that's good. Although it's odd that there aren't further attacks on the ship after the initial missile barrage.
• That's an exceedingly long episode title!
• I believe this was still a time when cancer was a very taboo subject. However, any tension is lost because I've seen the TOS movies and know McCoy survives. He also doesn't show any physical deterioration, which would have added to the peril.
• I am sure those rocks have turned up already. Definitely some props were reused. Unfortunately, the fact this is clearly a studio is obvious on modern screens. They should have a 1960s mode on streaming platforms.
• Some pretty decent camerawork in some scenes, especially when they come down the staircase.
• The zapping effect reminds me very much of the one used for Dalek exterminations in Doctor Who at this time - with some modifications i.e. visible skeletons, it's still used today.
• We get another William Ware Theiss skimpy outfit - and a female lead with a ridiculous hairdo. It's 1960s Star Trek, I should really expect that.
• A romance plot for McCoy is an interesting one. It would have worked better had Natira been better acted; it's a very stilted performance and I wrote "Show me more of this Earth thing called kissing" in my notes before crossing it out. At least she survives, unlike some of Kirk's previous love interests.
• How does Spock know the language of a species dead for 10,000 years and where the planet was destroyed?
• The ending is a bit rushed; this might have worked a lot better as a two-parter, to be frank.
• Is that Jan-Michael Vincent as an extra in this? IMDB doesn't list it as one of his early credits, but he was acting at this time.
• The whole concept could make for an interesting mini-series; I'm reminded of Silo myself.
• I noticed the IATSE logo at the end - they've been around since 1893, but I hadn't realised their logo has been around on TV credits for that long. The AMPTP logo is also there.

Conclusion

There's a lot of interesting ideas here, but they're bogged down in a rather sappy romance plot with a poorly acted female lead.

6/10

SAG-AFTRA and WGA Strikes

I support the unions in the States who are striking for better pay and conditions for jobbing actors, who won't earn anywhere near as much as the big $100,000+ an episode stars. AI is a concern, but it's not good enough yet to supplant a decent writer and may never be.

But sadly, even giving them everything they want won't fix the serious issues in the industry. It has become bloated, with too high salaries at the top, too many content providers and a dearth of decent ideas.

We are going to see a major contraction in content creation over the next few years and that will make things even harder for many.

US Upfronts 2023

The writers' strike in the States has severely hampered the television scene there and a lot of series will not start their new runs until next year as a result. We are 27 days into this strike, the actors' union is balloting its members for industrial action and we could see a near complete shutdown of Hollywood as a result.

After the boom, this is very much the bust. The 'main' networks are commissioning a fraction of what they were doing even a few years ago.

Some series of note:

• NCIS: LA was cancelled after 14 seasons - I had lost interest in it a while back.
• CSI: Vegas has gotten a third season and will likely get a fourth. While still rather good, it isn't frankly up to the original series.
• The Arrowverse is dead as the CW refocuses its efforts on an older audience. This includes a spinoff for The Librarians, which was a TNT show and will likely be set in Europe, as North America isn't known for its castles.
• The Blacklist will wrap its final season in July; as I predicted some years back, the grand finale will be called "Raymond Reddington". I have still to watch all of Season 9 and there is no firm UK date for Season 10.
• Star Trek: Discovery will be cancelled after its fifth season. It's frankly run its course now but did the job of re-establishing TV Trek. The announced Academy series will likely act as something of a continuation, reusing its physical and digital assets.
• Star Trek: Picard finished its three-season run in fine form, providing an excellent concluding chapter for the TNG-era crew.
• CBS were boasting about having five 11-million viewer shows. I remember they used to get 20 million viewers for NCIS.
• The new series announced for the networks look uninteresting - do we really need a cop show spinoff from The Good Wife?

US Upfronts 2020-2021

Normally I'd be writing an annual review of the US television renewal and cancellation decisions, as well as views on the new shows, but this isn't a normal time.

The Covid-19 pandemic struck right in the middle of pilot season, with only one of them actually being finished before the stay-at-home orders put production on hold. Production on a lot of shows will not fully resume for a while and the summer season is likely to be pretty dead this year. This saved a number of shows that probably would have been cancelled.

Also, with the closure of TV by the Numbers, I'd lost a major source of TV news and ratings analysis. I've now added The Futon Critic and TV Grim Reaper to my subscriptions.

Anyway, some thoughts:

• Madam Secretary's shortened final season on CBS was the best way to end it; it was clear that ratings were falling and the best thing a show can get is warning that the end is coming.
• Legends of Tomorrow, having cycled out more cast members and brought new ones in, is proving to still be a lot of fun. It's the only one of the Arrowverse shows I watch and so whenever the crossovers come about, I have to look up various things.
• Ruby Rose walking out on Batwoman suggests something was seriously wrong on production there. The recast will be interesting; I wasn't keen on the character when I saw her in a crossover.
• The Blacklist is still going strong. I've said it before and I'll say it again; I don't know where they get their ideas from, but they must be some seriously disturbing places.
• Have finally caught on Stranger Things and it is brilliant. I will most definitely be watching Season 4.
• Time will tell if we start losing networks or streaming services due to the recession that this pandemic has caused.

I'd add some more here, but the pandemic has been massively distracting for me to the point I'm not following TV as much as I have.

I'd like to speak to the manager (Review: 'Star Trek' 2.14, "Wolf in the Fold")

It's been a massive while since I last did one of these - been preoccupied with the Picard series for one thing. But I now plan to try to do one every fortnight, other things depending and complete the whole lot by sometime in 2021 or 2022...

So, here we resume... and to be honest, it's not a good one.

****

On the planet Argelis II, Kirk, McCoy and Scotty are in a nightclub watching a belly dancer do her thing with grins on their faces more akin to teenage boys. Basically McCoy has decided that the best treatment for Scotty after a recent head injury is for him to get some action. Scotty goes off for a late night walk for the belly dancer, there's a scream... and she's found murdered with Scotty holding the knife...

****

So, Scotty at a strip club looking for a casual hookup. Now, there's something that definitely needs some eyebleach. I can imagine Kirk doing it, or Sulu. Chekov at a pinch. Scotty, though... that just seems wrong.

After Scotty is accused of murder and doesn't remember anything about what happens, Kirk has a Lieutenant Karen Tracy brought down to conduct a memory analysis on him. She doesn't even get a line before she gets murdered.

It's pretty obvious whodunnit from the get-go; the actual revelation of the full circumstances of the murders then leads to a rather preposterous denouement where Kirk decides that the best idea to deal with a dangerous situation is to tranquilise the whole crew at a time when they should be pretty sharp. Also, a piece of technology introduced here for one episode never gets mentioned again, because it's too much of a 'game-breaker' in any plot.

Star Trek isn't exactly the most feminist show out there - the successors are much better - but this is particularly bad and critics have noted it as such over the years. After opening with an egregious example of the male gaze, the female characters generally just serve to be victims, with little real agency at all. Spock also gets an offensive line about women being more easily terrified.

The guest cast are pretty dire with some major overacting, there's a fight scene that's ridiculous even by Kirk Fu standards and the 'laugh at the end' seems very forced.

Finally, there's some awful handling of crime scene evidence.

Conclusion

A frank waste of 50 minutes; this episode is pretty bad all around and I can't think of much that can save it.

2/10

US TV Upfronts 2019

It's time for my annual post on the state of the US television industry. I haven't been paying as much attention to this during the course of the year for various reasons. In any event, there was barely anything new that really excited me. OK, that's not entirely true.

So, here's some points:

AMC

• Into the Badlands' 16-episode third season proved to be its last. While the story was wrapped up, it could have gone on longer had AMC treated it better than they did. A revival in some form would be nice.
  

CBS

• Blue Bloods will go into its tenth season. The show has remained consistently good, but is a police commissioner in his 70s really realistic?
• I stopped watching Bull after Michael Weatherley's vile behaviour to Eliza Dushku (who seems to have had a lot of men mistreat her over the years) was revealed. Spielberg jumped ship at the end of the season. The fourth season was required by CBS for syndication purposes, but they could have made an example of this guy and fired him.
• The Good Fight... has kind of lost something. The musical number in each episode got tiring, the Trump stuff drags and Michael Sheen's Roland Blum outstayed his welcome.
• Madam Secretary's move towards issue-based episodes with a more liberal slant, while needing to be done in this time, probably cost it a lot of audience. A ten-episode final season in autumn will allow the story to wrap up.
• Star Trek: Discovery grew the literal beard for Spock and proved a highly enjoyable show in its second run. Michael Burnham is rather uninspiring, but the rest of the cast more than make up for it. Christopher Pike was brilliant. In any event, we're going to be swimming in spin-offs.
  

The CW

• The Outpost was the best new show that I watched. Rather enjoyable and I particularly identify with one of the characters for reasons I won't go into here.

FOX

• The Orville is at its most enjoyable when it isn't being a domestic drama. Its lighter-hearted approach stands as a useful counterpart to Discovery and I'd like it to stay around for a while.

HBO

• Chernobyl is going to be nominated for a lot of awards; it's near perfect in acting, design, sound editing, you name it.
• Game of Thrones arguably rushed its final series; some characters developed too quickly to make their decisions make overall sense. It will still go down as a genre-defining show, although some of its tropes ('sexposition', characters developing via rape) won't hold up well over time.

NBC

• No UK airing for The Blacklist at present, so I can't really comment on that.
• Moving to NBC proved good for Brooklyn Nine-Nine, whose standards continued to hold up. However, the ratings did not and the seventh run of 13 episodes may well be its last.

US 2016/17 upfronts thoughts

Renewals

• CBS did their usual bulk early renewal.
• Designated Survivor, a superb show, was a natural candidate (no pun intended) for renewal. Agents of SHIELD less so, but it must have its fans in the upper management.
• Timeless getting axed was sad, but no surprise as it had middling ratings. Getting reprieved three days later was a huge surprise. The show will almost certainly be a summer one and hopefully it will get two or three more runs - it's a fun show, even if a bit silly at times. Hey, so is Doctor Who.
• The CW's DC based shows continue to do well - Legends of Tomorrow is great and the episodes of the other shows that I've watched relating to crossovers are fun as well.

Cancellations

• Conviction failed and failed big time. Hayley Atwell will probably be moving back to the UK soon; you don't really get a third chance to crack the US. I think the 10pm slot on Mondays for ABC may become a "cursed one", but we shall see.
• Powerless didn't even get to conclude its run before being yanked, which is a huge failure for a DC based show.

New shows

• A major drop in the number of new shows this year; the pilots may have been really bad...
• Star Trek: Discovery looks visually epic and I definitely plan to watch it, but the proof of the pudding remains in the eating.
• The Orville, Seth MacFarlane's spoof space drama looks like it could be a lot of silly fun and I definitely plan to do that.
• Think I'll pass on The Gifted. Amy Acker is a brilliant actor, but she alone does not a series make and I prefer my comic book shows with some good jokes.
• Also Valor looks too 'angsty' for my taste. 
• NBC have again geo-blocked their trailers... Sarah Shahi has got her own show with Dennis Haysbert, but it remains to be clear whether it will be a Shaw-fire hit or if it will be time to Palmer off in May... with that awful pun, I'm done.

The bear and the reaper - US TV season 2015-16 in review

• A lot more early renewals this year; pretty much all of the safe candidates got their new orders in March.
• The CW surprised everyone by renewing all their scripted series in one go; even the less likely prospects with the exception of Containment that had yet to air at that point. That didn't do well enough to survive; unlike the Belgian show it was based on, Cordon, which has been renewed.
• Castle botched the wedding last year... and then did a rather stupid break-up plot. The audience started heading for the exit. Castle and Beckett got back together and audiences stabilised, but the departure of Stana Katic was the final straw for me, along with much of the fanbase. A Beckett-less ninth season would have come in for considerable negative publicity and I'm not surprised that ABC decided not to go ahead with it.
• Of Prophets and Kings became another member of the 'two and axed' club, the most ignominious fate a TV show can suffer; those gone after one will at least attract some notoriety.
• I really don't know what made CBS take such an exception to Person of Interest. One of the best shows I've ever seen.
• The Blacklist was always going to get a fourth season; it's still very good indeed if you realise that Liz Keen is fundamentally unsuited for the life she has ended up in. Of course the show did have to work around Megan Boone's pregnancy and did so in a very interesting manner... It has also got a spinoff starring Famke Janssen, who is best known to me for playing Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye.
• There were the usual batch of bad ideas that got ordered and didn't last long; Rush Hour for example.
• Agent Carter was a surprise renewal last year, but the axe this year was no surprise. Good show, but never got decent ratings. At least Atwell's Conviction pilot got ordered to series and I may well check that out.
• The CSI franchise has finally died; Cyber was a silly idea for a spinoff.

Mystery Science Theater 3000

In the not too distant future, somewhere in the US, a new series of Mystery Science Theater 3000, funded by fans to the tune of over $6 million, will go into production and I for one am very much looking forward to it.

The show can be summarised simply as "guy and two robots watch bad movies while making jokes about them"... but they're very good jokes. Indeed, it's influenced the whole way that people watch regular TV (including me) and the original remains a cult classic.

While you're waiting for the new lot, an array of episodes from across the eleven seasons can be watched here with others available for a small fee on the Rifftrax website (which of course was set up by former host Mike Nelson).

Now if you excuse me, I've got movie sign.

Crow: Hey, isn't he supposed to put his own riffs in here?

Person of Interest

I've not mentioned it on this blog previously - at least not in any real depth - but I'm going to quickly post about it here.

If you've definitely not seen it, you should definitely check it out. Start at the beginning - it's a bit slow to get started but by Season 2, it becomes truly excellent.

The TLDR summary is that it's a series about a guy who developed a supercomputer to use comprehensive surveillance predict acts of terrorism and found it was also predicting regular crimes. As the government aren't that interested in the latter, he hires a former CIA operative to work with him to stop the crimes. Every week, "The Machine" gives them the Social Security number of someone about to be involved in a violent crime. They don't know what it is - or whether the person involved is a perpetrator or a victim. It's their job to find out and hopefully stop it.

It's a lot more fun - and also pretty funny - then it sounds; as well as thought-provoking. Also, I will say Amy Acker's character, when she turns up, is the most deliciously crazy and unpredictable one I've seen in my life. She also has brilliant entrances... consistently brilliant entrances.

Bearchow 2015 - US upfronts

No long post this year: just some quick points.

• The Cancellation Bear had an above average number of misses this year, I believe.
• Revenge should have been axed last year, but economics always meant it would get a fourth season.
• CSI's treatment by CBS (graveyard slot, order cut, sticking out the finale against NBC's 40th anniversary of Saturday Night Live show) made it clear that it was for the chopping block. The two hour movie to wrap the show up is the least the network can do for a franchise that has made it billions. CSI: Cyber has taken its graveyard slot and will probably get axed next year as well.
• Person of Interest was always likely to be renewed; what was the surprise was the order for only 13 episodes for Season 5, which now means the Machine is generating itself as in danger of a violent death.
• Castle (which we didn't even see here until May) has peaked in terms of ratings, is now on its way down and probably won't be around for too much longer, regardless of ABC comments to the contrary. The apparent 13 ep order seems to confirm problems - there were major issues getting the leads signed up for Season 8.
• Agents of SHIELD's performance means I don't have to write anything about Whedon's lack of success in network television, but I doubt it goes beyond four seasons.
• The Mindy Project getting axed after three seasons (although it was picked up by Hulu for tow more) broke a seven-year trend of "a third getting you a fourth". Fans of a number of shows, especially Agents of SHIELD, will be a bit more nervous next season.
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine was renewed early; it's a great show.
• NCIS has dropped from its Season 10 peak a great deal, but is still a strong performer. I wouldn't rule out a ratings stunt involving Cote de Pablo at some point in the next couple of seasons.
• Empire wasn't just a juggernaut, it was a full-blown Death Star for FOX. Unfortunately the rest of their line up didn't do that well.
• Minority Report looks interesting, but I can't help thinking that it's covering areas already done by Person of Interest

The Meals of the Bear: US 2013/14 season in review and the 2014/15 orders

 Updated 31 May to fix minor typos.

The US television market has changed considerably in the last few years, as the proliferation of media outlets and the increasing use of DVR technology have reduced levels of live watching on the main English-language networks still further. Ratings that would have gotten you cancelled 10 years ago are now getting you renewed.

So, as I did last year, I will break this down by network and look at some particular shows of interest i.e. ones that I watch myself or that were particularly notable for other reason. Pretty much all of my shows got another season.

I will also look at the new shows that I've seen trailers for.

ABC

Not a great year for their new shows at all (four of them aired 15 episodes between them)... they did not issue any early renewals. Their pilot pickups include Selfie starring Karen Gillan; I will point that the US television market can be merciless and there is a chance she could just as easily be heading home next year.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Renewed in May

The ratings for this show's first half were frankly rollercoaster - it burned off over half its audience before settling and getting good. However, it never sunk to cancellation levels and was always a certainty for a second run. It will move to 9pm on Tuesday next year, a better slot against NCIS: New Orleans instead of NCIS.

If it had gone, the superhero boom on TV would likely have petered out in short order - instead we'll get a pretty big batch this year.

Castle - Renewed in May

Having escaped the Moonlighting Curse (the two main characters hooked up at the end of Season 4), the sixth season of this dramedy cop show starring Nathan Fillion and the superb Stana Katic has retained most of its quality, but not so much its audience - it clocked a series low during this run, although it is frequently reliant on a good lead-in from Dancing with the Stars. My feeling is that the series is nearing its natural end and won't last too much longer before a decision is made to wrap it.

(Then again, I thought it would end with the wedding)

Next season it's also up against NCIS: Los Angeles... but as it weathered the assault from The Blacklist last year, it probably won't face too many problems.

Lucky 7 - Cancelled after two episodes

I was right, it was a remake of the syndicate... and considering how badly it did, it probably would have been better for the network just to buy the British show. Canned in two is becoming increasingly common in the US. 

Revenge - Renewed in May

Syndication economics mean this show is being dragged out far far more than it should have been. Got a fourth season despite low ratings; I suspect that will be its last.

Selfie - ordered for Fall 2014

Karen Gillan gets her own show... but her accent leaves a lot to be desired from the trailer, which doesn't really appeal to me. This could go badly pear-shaped.

CBS

Best performer in overall viewers, it renewed most of its shows early. However, the new shows it ordered did not do at all well; five of them did not get second seasons.  They've ordered six new dramas for 2014-15, including spinoffs from both NCIS and CSI (I though the former would get an order, but the latter is a pleasant surprise).

The Big Bang Theory - Renewed in March, until 2016-17!

Never watched this myself, but a lot of 18-49s do in the US... it's basically the top in that demo in the entire of primetime and the c.18 million viewers a week doesn't hurt either.

Blue Bloods - Renewed in March

Sold by Sky Atlantic as a lot grittier than it actually is, this is the strongest performing Friday show on any network.

The Crazy Ones - Cancelled in May

A freshman dud for CBS; the trailer I saw looked a bit dodgy i.e. like a McDonalds ad. I don't know who comes out of this looking worse - Robbie Williams or Sarah Michelle Gellar, the latter of which is 0 for 2 on renewals since she came back to television. I doubt she'll get another show now.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Renewed in March

Still going strong (it's changed out nearly all its leads now, which has helped keep it fresh) and may well be looking at Law & Order's record, but it's got five seasons to go before that. I just want Channel 5 to schedule this current run.

The Good Wife - Renewed in March

A missed call by Bubble Watch, who thought the critical darling was getting too old, this fifth season has seen a major uptick in writing quality, with the surprise death of a major character helping the ratings.

Hostages - Cancelled in May

Taking an Israeli concept good for one episode of Person of Interest into a 15-episode "limited series" is called over-stretching. Up against Castle and The Blacklist, it stood little chance even with a better plot.

Intelligence  - Cancelled in May

Trailer looked interesting, but the reviews from ComicCon were bad and nearly every Gally Base reader jumped ship quickly. Ratings were poor.

The Mentalist - Renewed in May

A significant omission from the March renewals, lowish ratings and not being owned by CBS did not help this veteran... but the foreign sales clearly did. Deadline reports the renewal is for a 13 episode final season.

NCIS - Renewed in March

The ratings have taken a noticeable dent this year possibly due to the short-notice change of female lead (for one thing, Ellie Bishop is a poor replacement for Ziva David); while still a very popular show, it is arguably past its peak... but could still go on a while.

NCIS: Los Angeles - Renewed in March

Definitely a "switch your brain off" kind of show, but the characters are engaging (my favourite is Nell) and some of the stuff is actually pretty good. Always expected to be renewed and will nowe be moved to Monday at 10pm.

NCIS: New Orleans - ordered for Fall 2014

Can't say I'm too impressed with the trailer for this (which seems to be mostly from the 'backdoor pilot' this season)... I'll probably pass on this one.

Person of Interest - Renewed in March 

It got its third, it was always going to get its fourth... this is a good show with a wonderful title sequence and a rare case of someone not using the Cold Open these days.

Scorpion - ordered for Fall 2014

I was impressed by the trailer for Intelligence, but lasted ninety seconds of this one... it's bear chow.

The CW

A network frequently beaten by repeats on other networks and Spanish-language shows, the youth-skewing channel was basically admitted to operate at a loss.


Arrow - Renewed in February

An enjoyable show in its first year, I didn't have time to watch the second. It will now get at least two more seasons.

Beauty and the Beast - Renewed in May

The biggest shock of the year; both Cancellation Bear and Bubble Watch thought this was certain for the axe... 

The Carrie Diaries - Cancelled in May

Dire ratings meant it was always like Freema Agyeman would be looking for another gig. 

Reign - Renewed in February

People on Gallifrey Base wondered if a CW show about Mary Queen of Scots could actually work. Turns out, it did, just about.

The Tomorrow People - Cancelled in May

No tomorrow for this show based on two British shows from the 1970s and 1990s, the ratings just weren't good enough. 

FOX 

A pretty poor season ratings wise all round - they no wonder they brought back 24. In addition, Kevin Reilly, head of entertainment, lost his job.

Almost Human - cancelled in April after 13 episodes

Abrams learns what it is like to be taken for a ride by FOX; FOX aired episodes out of order (that may be quality issues), moved the timeslot, declined a further episode order and then ordered so many new shows, as well as renewing The Following that there just wasn't space for it.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Renewed in March

A highly enjoyable cop comedy that I was hesitant about committing to initially on the grounds that it was yet another show featuring the NYPD. Ratings were only so-so, but FOX gave it a big vote of confidence and it was one of four given an early renewal.

Enlisted - pulled from schedule in March and 'formally' cancelled in May

Guess the US isn't ready for a military sitcom after all.

Gotham - ordered to series for 2014-15

The trailer suggests grit with an extra slice of grit... combined with supers when they were children. While the DC pantheon is a rich one, this show will need to provide quality storytelling if it is to do well.

Gracepoint - 10-part "event series" for Fall 2014

David Tennant's role in Broadchurch was superb... and he now deploys a surprisingly good American accent in the US remake.

The Mindy Project - Renewed in March

A big miss for the Cancellation Bear; he predicted that the show would be cancelled up until the point FOX gave it an early renewal, based on the scheduling.

Rake - Cancelled in May

Ratings fell about two-thirds from the première. Note to US networks: please stop trying to remake English-language dramas, because you just don't do it very well.

Red Band Society - ordered for Fall 2014

This adaptation of a Spanish show set in a children's ward and starring Octavia Spencer (who won an Oscar for The Help) definitely goes on the drama side of comedy drama. In fact, the trailer was fairly impressive (after a while) and if the rest of the run is like this, it might get some awards. 

Us and Them - Hasn't even aired!

This remake of British cult hit Gavin & Stacey got its order cut from 13 episodes to merely seven... and still has not appeared on FOX. 

NBC

NBC entered the upfronts season with a good number of bubble shows. They ordered two spy shows and a thriller with espionage elements to series... that will make four with The Blacklist and I would say two of those go to 2015/16. While they did OK in the ratings front (they improved in 18-49s), they axed over half their line-up and two of their shows will air final seasons next year.

A to Z - Ordered for Fall 2014

Lasted twenty seconds of the trailer. Nope, not for me.

Bad Judge - Ordered for Fall 2014

Well, I laughed. This oddball comedy about a distinctly unusual judge could be a hit for NBC... or it could crash and burn. 



The Blacklist - Renewed in December

A big hit for NBC; it set DVR records and regularly swept the 10pm Monday timeslot by a comfortable margin. An excellent show as well - James Spader is very, very watchable and utterly chilling. 

This will be moving to Thursdays in February - NBC have also given it the coveted post-Super Bowl slot, which will set a series high for it.

Community - Cancelled in May

Instead of  "six seasons and a movie", the devoted fans got five seasons and a cancellation; the show's ratings were middling, although actually above Parks and Rec; this toss-up was miscalled by TV By The Numbers who narrowly predicted renewal. Someone may pick up this for another run. 

Ironside - Cancelled in October

Another remake that went quickly sour for the network; the trailer I saw did not appeal to me at all.

Hannibal - Renewed in May

This bubble show arguably got saved by the co-production money.

Law and Order: SVU - Renewed in May

While I suspect some people's reaction to this would be "is this still on?", for a show chucked into the Fridays nine episodes in its first season to escape that and last for fifteen seasons is a major achievement. Now it has its sixteenth; the record held jointly by the 'mothership' i.e. the original Law and Order and Gunsmoke.

The Mysteries of Laura - Ordered for Fall 2014

Does New York's finest have some kind of sponsorship deal with the US networks? I count seven shows with the NYPD in a major role for 2014-15 - and that's not counting Unforgettable. This comedic drama about a homicide detective with a crazy family life and the sort of attitude to perps shared with the lead from Happy Valley (i.e. give it your best shot, I've had a bad day) might work... or it might not.

I doubt I'll watch this.

Parks and Recreation - Renewed in April for a final season

Just watched the third season in the UK; a quirky but entertaining half hour comedy that was arguably on borrowed time. This will not launch the seventh and final season until midseason.

State of Affairs - ordered for fall 2014.

I got bored half-way into the trailer for this new espionage political thriller starring Katherine Heigl. Heigl's film career has flopped recently (she got a Razzie nomination for One for the Money) and she didn't impress me her. Won't be bothering and I doubt this gets a backorder.

"Network cable" (AMC, TNT, USA etc.)

Angie Tribeca - ordered by TBS

A satire on cop shows... and I believe the only one featuring the LAPD at all on US TV. Rashida Jones was superb in Parks and Rec. I can't think of any other US shows like this except for Police Squad! back in 1982, although this seems to have fewer sight gags.

Rizzoli & Isles - renewed by TNT for fifth season

This quirky 'girl buddy' cop show is one of my personal favourites, but the suicide of Lee Thompson Young tinged the second half of the run, which aired after a big gap, with sadness. Probably past its peak now.

Suits - renewed by USA for fifth season

This verbally sparky drama set in a New York law firm (albeit filmed in Toronto) is one of my regular watches when it airs on Dave... there are some great pop culture jokes in there. Was always likely to come back.

Those Who Kill - pulled from AMC after two episodes, sent to LMN for burnoff

Note to US networks, if you're going to remake a foreign show, don't remake one that was canned after one season in its own country!


"Premium cable" (HBO, Showtime, Starz etc.) 

Game of Thrones - renewed by HBO for fifth and sixth seasons

This epic fantasy drama sets the internet ablaze every Sunday evening when it's on and the "Purple Wedding" in particular get Twitter abuzzing. This two-season order will allow the fourth novel to be filmed.

The Newsroom - renewed by HBO for third and final season

While an enjoyable show, its rather preachy nature and definite pro-Democrat bias would have probably caused advertiser issues on any other network. 

US Upfronts

The renewals and cancellations for the 2012-13 season have now been announced. Most of my regular shows were renewed, many early. However, CSI:Miami was cancelled after 10 seasons - it was well past its prime and it appears the economics went against it. Ringer and Unforgettable both had concept problems and they couldn't have lasted.

I was surprised that Body of Proof and CSI:NY were renewed - I'd expected them to go.