Despite the critical acclaim, The Wire's ratings were so low, even for cable, that it didn't get a full fifth season. Babylon 5 basically was canceled twice, and getting a full five seasons compelled JMS to babble about how faith will find a way. And Lost may have had a relatively large fan base that made it all the way (as well as people like me who came back for the finale,) but it started with many dedicated fans it drove away. Open ended serials are all about delaying resolution to bring an audience back. This is intrinsically weak writing. Worse, over the course of time, characters get rewritten just to have something "happen" then must be rewritten back, favorite stories are repeated but more weakly each time, and whatever thematic content the show had is subverted making the whole rather pointless. Like soap operas, those who invest in the characters can be entertained, even gripped. But love for the actors/characters (in this kind of writing, the difference is moot,) is more of a psychological phenomenon in the viewer's head and has only a tenuous connection with what's on screen. That's why fans can put up with the bad writing, seemingly oblivious: They're watching the people they love on their own, internal screen. I never thought Rush was the kind of man to recruit anyone, but especially not using The Last Starfighter ploy. Couldn't believe in Rush, ergo couldn't watch the show. Sorry you fans didn't get your years of angst, though.
Whoa, looks like I pick the wrong week to stay away from the Stargate forum. This thread was the first I had heard that the show was cancelled. I have mixed feelings about this cancellation. SGU has been largely disappointing, but I have really enjoyed the last 4 - 5 episodes and felt the show was picking up steam. It's too bad they didn't start the series this way. I never really warmed up to any of the main characters, but the secondary characters (Brody, Park, Volker, James) were the most enjoyable part of the show. In my opinion, the move to Tuesday was the show's death knell.
Had they announced this at the end of season 1, I wouldn't have minded nearly as much. But season 2 was gradually getting better, showing more promise and after Resurgance, well now I 'am' disappointed. MGM better get a fucking move on and get a trilogy of DVD movies to follow all this up, one SG-1, one SG:A and one Universe.
I hope the showrunners have learned from all this that stringing your audience along for 1.5 seasons is a sure way to lose them. All this cool shit should've been happening before the first midseason break. Then, maybe the show would've gotten some buzz or something.
The cancellation was well deserved. Poor ratings and poor writing, acting and premise equals cancellation. I won't miss it. And before I am being labelled as a basher, I own all seasons of SG-1 and Atlantis on DVD and I enjoyed them greatly. SGU blatantly tried to copy the infinitely superior BSG and failed completely.
What a shame. I think SGU was an interesting direction for the franchise. All we'll see now is a continuation/reboot in a couple of years that would just try to copy SG1.
Maybe we can see that the claim doesn't hold water. They thought they were doing riveting character drama rather than plot-driven storytelling. The viewing public disagreed.
Seriously, if you wait one entire season and six episodes until you actually reveal what the fuck the story is probably about, you deserved cancellation.
I notice people keep saying "it was getting better" or "it's finally starting to get good" or variations there upon. While I admit episode 2x10 was somewhat decent, that doesn't excuse the 29 previous episodes which were largely crap, nor does it guarantee that the remaining 10 will be any good.
I've been looking back, and I think there are 5 episodes that I would ever bother to watch again. Time, Justice, The Greater Good, Malice, and Visitation. I could leave the rest. That's really not a good ratio.
I'd label you as a basher only on the accusation of poor acting. I've seen nothing in this show to indicate that any of the acting is poor and especially not compared to some of the over-the-top hammy performances in the show's predecessors!
Not much of a surprise. It showed glimmers of improvement but too little, too late. A good long rest is probably what the franchise needs. In the end, there's no excuse for taking so long to get things going. Mr Awe
the show was getting better. i'll add my voice to that group of people. i guess to me its like if they canceled TNG after its second season.
Pierre Pernard from Pierre Bernard's Recliner of Rage was on Conan last night, but I didn't hear any mention of SGU's cancellation.
Well, they had a potential Tau'ri-Lucian Alliance War brewing back home. Fought with primitive ballistic and atomic weapons, no doubt.
Good riddance SGU was an awful, forced attempt to make "another Battlestar" by shoehorning a BSG ripoff onto the Stargate franchise I'm tired of news outlets pretending that this is news, and the "newness" wore off. Time to move forward. Both BSG and Stargate are over, looks like Skiffy/SyFy just lost their flagships. Well, until "Blood & Chrome"...which is what a BSG prequel SHOULD have been like, instead of "Jane Espenson bores us with slow plot threads going nowhere until she gets booted off too late to save the show" But at this point I'm just tired of BSG in general; what's the point of a prequel like B&C when we know how it ends? Time to move on to other stuff. I'm getting hyped for Game of Thrones.