WTF NBC!!!

Sometimes, I think I should start a new blog, Taffy’s Stuff I Hate, since it seems that there’s a lot out there these days that is pissing me off like:

1. Gourmet magazine folding
2. Southland gets cancelled right before the second season premiere
3. X-Men Origins-Wolverine (Oh my lord! Don’t get me started, will blog later…) So, back to the Southland cancellation. I have a university degree in which I majored in television production and I worked at a television station for 6 years, so I’m not completely ignorant as to what’s involved in getting a television show on the air and if I know anything at all, that is you don’t waste good money on shooting half a season of episodes of a really good show and then pull the plug on it to promote what you think is a cheaper programming option that is not even performing to expectations. This means you Jay Leno:

"Who, Me?" If NBC executives knew how hard it is to get someone like me, who really mostly watches genre shows (Supernatural, Buffy, Angel, True Blood…) and the ones that are straight drama that I do like (Mad Men, Breaking Bad) should tell you that my standards for that kind of programming is extraordinarily high. Southland getting cancelled pisses me off for so many reasons, including: 1) The Loss Of A Great Black, Female Character

Regina King as Detective Lydia Adams was what drew me to the show in the first place. black women are the most underused of all actresses and that is especially true of genre shows and films (plenty of white girls, asian girls, green girls, girls with lumpy foreheads and so on. And don’t even say “Uhura is black” and “What about Storm?” Name another black woman, come on I dare you!)

Lydia was kick-ass! When a pack of uzi-welding gang-bangers busted into her house where she was guarding a teenage murder witness, she blew almost all of them away just with her shotgun.

Now get off my lawn, Bitches! Compare that with what her partner does during his time on the show, which was pretty much summed up as “he flirted with some chick and then got shot by his neighbour” and that makes it more than a crying shame that I won’t be seeing more of Lydia. 2) This Character Is Gay

What a great change it is that he doesn’t have one iota of fey and doesn’t qualify as a bear.

3) This Guy, In a Police Uniform

I will do anything not to get a ticket officer...

The cancellation also shows how little confidence NBC has in foreign distribution profits. Southland often made Canada’s listing of top 20 shows when the first season aired. This is remarkable when you consider that it was shown on A Channel, CTV’s poorly performing regional stations. Yes that’s right, regional. The show wasn’t even broadcast nationally and it still made Top 20.

There is some talk that the show maybe be picked up by another broadcaster but I’m not holding my breath.