You can give Glenn Close a shelf full of Emmys, but if the people don't support the show, what can you do as a programmer? Even critically acclaimed Emmy magnet "Damages" - the kind of series cable channels should strive for - goes begging for viewers.įX will have a real dilemma when it's time to renew that one. It loved bold premises - like how Irish Travelers tried to steal the American dream in "The Riches." Its earliest comedy, "Lucky," was an almost-unseen work of genius.Īnd "Thief," a miniseries that failed to draw a large enough audience to become a full series, will go down as one of those "if-only" or "what-if" shows that could have been truly great.įor FX, that's the rub - even great shows die lonely.
It took chances - the Iraq war drama "Over There" beat everybody else out of the gate. Until AMC came on the scene with "Mad Men" and "Breaking Bad," no other basic cable channel even came close to FX as it challenged both HBO and Showtime for quality programming. It has had few outright failures and many series - from "The Shield" to "Rescue Me," "Damages," "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and "Sons of Anarchy" - that set a new standard. In basic cable, FX has been the leader in quality programming. In the case of "Nip/Tuck," neither of those elements lends itself to pride.
What happened illustrates much about the fickle nature of the business and what people will passionately embrace. Ordinarily that might sound like a recipe that could be worked into something outstanding, but "Nip/Tuck" reached its creative height as a show that absolutely needed to be watched in the first season and then slowly, some might say sickly, petered out.
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