Where good shows go to die

My TiVo is like a cancelled TV show cemetery. It's a dusty archive of shows with great potential, interesting plots and characters with depth, but never got to realize their potential. Last night I found put that "Alcatraz" and "Finder" will bite the dust. Two new shows I enjoyed and the latter I particularly loved - it was lighthearted and quirky, and the characters were three dimensional. " In plain sight" and "Eureka" are disappearing too, despite the latter having geek royalty in the cast (Felicia Day and Will Wheaton). But at least both got a few seasons under their belts.

It seems that most of many favorite shows are slain tragically too young.

But the wound is deepest still for one show that was never given a chance - episodes show out of order, pre-empted by sports events, time slots shifted - it was lucky that anyone actually found it. Cancelled without even showing all 13 episodes. Any d20-carrying geek knows which show I'm talking about .... Firefly. How can someone not love a show with lines like "by my pretty floral bonnet I will end you". To the Fox executive who cancelled the show I say you are a ching-wah tsao duh liou mahng and I wish you da-shiang bao-tza shr duh lah doo-tze!

The movie Serenity gave us hope that the crew of the firefly class spaceship would continue, but it was just a short remission, and the dream died again. Maybe Joss Whedon's new god-like status in Hollywood after "the Avengers" performed so well at the box office will earn him the clout to resurrect Mal's discontents and  that Whedon will take us back into the black. Anyway, enough sobbing into the fabric of my Browncoat. There are still some plucky little shows in my Tivo, clinging onto for dear life: Fringe, Lost Girl and Supernatural to name three, but for how much longer?

But no matter the slings and arrows of outrageous TV execs, two cable channels are fortresses against the dark forces of cancellation:  thank you HBO and BBC America. There I can be assured of finding the likes of Aria Stark and Tyrion Lannister, the Doctor and Amy Pond. Please keep these shows safe because it seems that on regular channels, if I get invested in a show's plot and it's characters, if I start rooting for the next episode, then it's doomed for sure.