#themccarthys

Saturday, July 11th: "Shark Week" continues on Discovery.

highlights: The Millers (CBS, 60mins), Atlantis (BBCAm), The McCarthys (CBS, series finale, 60mins), Power (Starz), Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (BBCAm, 75mins), "7 Days in Hell" (HBO special, 45mins), The Graham Norton Show (BBCAm, season 17 finale), Conan (TBS, from Comic-Con), "Running of the Bulls" (ESQ, day 5 highlights)

The ax fell yesterday and fell hard as American TV networks trimmed the fat to prepare for upfronts. Some of the cuts were late and/or no surprise, some hurt, some shocked. 

So let’s talk about the ones which were already circling the drain. The McCarthys had a lot of things going for it, but where it failed was not making Laurie Metcalf the reason to watch. Tyler Ritter, who received much of the focus and did a large portion of the promo work, is a great actor. He has great timing and created a great character. But that forced a solid supporting cast to basically run around delivering or being the punchline. 

Maybe I had watched too much of Wahlburgers before seeing the pilot, but I would have preferred Metcalf and her role in the life of each of the four children be more of the focus. They would not have had to alter the scripts that much. There were great opportunities for her TV son Joey McIntyre to introduce her to the mother of all Boston mothers, Alma Walhberg, and I would have liked to have seen McIntyre and Jimmy Dunn give Ritter a proper Boston education. 

Poor Constantine. I felt so bad for Matt Ryan having to promote the struggling show during NBC’s Thanksgiving parade as I believe they had just pulled the show. So how do you back out of an advertised and live promotional event, especally if you go into it thinking it might get your project back on the air? Friday night is a hard night to get noticed. But it’s not impossible. Don Johnson’s Nash Bridges broke that curse I believe. 

Marketing and PR also could have helped here as well. While not a slam dunk ratings juggernaut, NBC has given Grimm four seasons and it had provided Hannibal with a strong lead in and should have worked for Constantine as well. 

The other not so shocking demise was State of Affairs, also on NBC. I don’t know what Katherine Heigl or her mother did to get that program on the air, but I don’t want to know. I knew the show would not last. Just to make sure I watched the pilot. And the second episode, which was 60 minutes more I didn’t need to give to that mess but you can’t always be sure based on a pilot.