I’ve fallen rather behind both in my television viewing and in my blogging, so I thought I’d catch up with a few things today, seeing as I don’t have access to HBO this weekend and can’t watch True Blood until tomorrow, at the earliest.

First up: Reaper.

I did so love this show.

I’ve said about 8 gazillion times how perfectly cast Ray Wise was as Satan, so I’ll try to keep that to a minimum today.

But I absolutely am going to miss seeing him with those piercing blue eyes, impeccably combed hair and blinding white smile, making mischief in people’s lives now that Reaper‘s off the air.

Like most of the shows I watch these days, I caught up with most of Season 2 in marathon viewings on my DVR. Over three, maybe four nights, I watched the entire season and enjoyed it as much as ever.

Ben’s relationship with Nina the demon was terribly sweet, on both their parts. Satan’s other son Morgan was a lot more like dear old dad, but man did he have no work ethic. Whatever you might be able to say of Beelzebub, he sure does work for a living. And he does appreciate Sam’s ability and drive to get the job done. Which, of course, is ironic considering he’s been a slacker his entire life and works as a clerk in some nameless conglomerate.

And how could we forget Sock’s stint as Wrenchy Bench, culiminating in him beating the crap out of his rival, who turns out to be an old woman? Ah, good times.

The whole storyline of Sam’s dad being undead (yet not a zombie, dammit!) and living in a freezer in their garage was, admittedly, rather odd. And Sock’s storyline of lust and love with his stepsister was … OK, it was downright weird and justalittlebit icky, though I can’t truly say why.

The dead end of Sam being able to get out of hell when Satan recaptures the one soul who managed to get out of his deal with the devil, then Sam’s dad going to the 8th circle and then Gladys (wait, why the hell didn’t they use her a lot more this season? That chick is FUNNY.) helping to translate and the demon who managed to make his way back to heaven having mistranslated it and then breaking Sam’s hand so he can’t win his bet with the very vain Satan. Sorry, it made me a little dizzy. Those sorts of storyline are always a little troublesome, as they would spell the end of a series if they ever came true.

But the series came to an end anyhow, sadly, though the very last few minutes made me scratch my head and say out loud, “WTF?” Except that I didn’t use the initials. I said the three words.

When Steve’s wings come out and he ascends to heaven, but first bringing a whole angel light show, I really didn’t know what to think. Was that really how they wanted to end it? Did they have something in mind? WHAT WERE THEY DOING? WTF????

Still, sad to see the show go. I totally enjoyed it and laughed out loud at least a couple times each episode.

OK, then we have Kings:

I still get angry when I think about the show’s cancellation. It’s a fascinating look at power and what it takes to be in power and Ian McShane could read a phone book and I’d be enthralled (I know I’ve said that previously, but it’s still true).

It’s only gotten more interesting as it’s gone on. We know that the king and his queen aren’t quite the happy couple they appear to be. The royal brother-in-law is a bad guy, mostly, but not totally. The princess is one of those do-gooder types, but seems to truly have her heart in what she does. The prince is actually gay, but he can’t be if he wants to be king, which he does more than anything else on the entire planet it seems.

And then we have our David, who somehow, just somehow, always manages to make the right decision, even in the midst of making the wrong decision. His belief in what he does and says is so pervasive and overwhelming that no one can really disagree with him, even when they totally disagree with him.

He is also the one anointed, it seems, by God to follow in the king’s footsteps. A footsoldier who managed to work his way up to the highest office in the land. And why? Because of the butterflies.

OK, I’ll admit, the butterflies are a bit … weird. Except that they are also a metaphor for transformation.

So what might have happened if Kings had continued?

I can’t even imagine that it wouldn’t have continued to be utterly enthralling. See my comment about McShane, above. And all the characters have so many layers, that it could have been so many things to so many people: a period piece on the price of power, an allegory for David & Goliath, a nighttime soap. A little bit for everyone.

Instead, NBC canned it and is giving us 5 primetime hours a week of Jay Leno, 3 of one of the Law & Orders, 2 of The Biggest Loser and a fourth season of Heroes, which is TOTALLY past its prime.

Sigh. At least there’s still The Office and 30 Rock on Thursdays, but c’mon, NBC.

And then there’s Harper’s Island:

I put it on my “to watch” list solely on the pedigree: It came from the good folks who brought us Jericho, and that made me want to give it a chance.

You know what? It was a heckuva lot of fun, lots of thrills and chills and suspense. The music was great, the casting well-done (virtually all new folks, only a couple of faces I even recognized, including Harry Hamlin – who, by the way, has aged quite a lot since LA Law).

I’m not sure what they would have done had it been renewed; my understanding was that it might have been another locale with a different backstory, but then I’m not sure how it would have still been called Harper’s Island.

But various Jericho folks have shows on the fall schedule: Human Target, written by Jon Steinberg, and The Forgotten, starring my favorite deputy, Bob Stephenson. The Jericho team is far too talented to be left behind for long, and each new show they create will have a built-in audience to start. Not every showrunner can boast that.

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I was chatting with a friend on Twitter yesterday about the crime that is the all-but-certain cancellation of Kings.

I first met Dan during the (partly successful) fan uprising to keep Jericho on the air.

For those of  you unfamiliar with the late, lamented CBS show, here’s the basics in a nutshell:

A tale of a small Kansas town and its residents in the aftermath of a nuclear attack on most of America’s major cities, Jericho debuted in September 2006 to decent ratings, which it held onto through the fall before going on an unannounced winter hiatus.

By the time CBS brought it back in the spring, many people had forgotten about it; some thought it had been canceled. The network didn’t really publicize its return, either, leaving some fans happily surprised to stumble upon it.

It ended its season with OK, if not stellar ratings, but a very passionate fanbase, who were stunned when CBS announced, after the finale aired, that the show would not get a second season.

Harkening to a line spoken by Skeet Ulrich, who played the lead character Jake, in the finale, fans started sending peanuts by the truckload to CBS headquarters.

After receiving enough peanuts to feed every elephant in the world for the rest of their lives, CBS relented, somewhat and greenlit a short second season as a midseason replacement.

Again, the network stumbled, and waited to put it on the air until after the writer’s strike was over and new programming was once again finding its way to the airwaves. In the end, Jericho was canceled a second and final time, though it has found an extended life on The CW and Sci Fi (now SyFy) networks and its creators are still pursuing the possibility of a movie.

An undercurrent to the entire ordeal was this: Jericho did great on DVR ratings and online viewing. The regular old Nielsen ratings weren’t measuring the show’s true viewership, fans argued. The network didn’t listen.

What does any of this have to do with Kings?

Once again, a network has to realize that the regular way of measuring viewership is dead. Ratings will never be as high as they once were and perhaps the networks have to start looking at shows with smaller ratings, but high quality and a passionate viewership.

Kings might not have ratings that traditionally would be considered strong enough to stay on a broadcast network, but the thing is NBC Universal owns USA, SyFy and other cable networks. Why not just shift it to there?

The show stars Ian McShane, for goodness sakes! The man is basically incapable of performing poorly. I think he could read the phone book and I’d watch, mesmerized.

NBC gave the OK to the Kings pilot at the last minute before the writer’s strike at the end of 2007, and it started airing in March (2009). On Sunday nights at first, long the venue for HBO’s top-shelf shows and Fox’s Animation Domination, it was moved to Saturdays a couple weeks ago. Then it was put on hiatus until June.

Look, folks, if you want to build up an audience for a high-concept show — a modern-day allegory for David and Goliath, where a young farm boy becomes enmeshed in high society and the royal court after all but single-handedly defeating the huge, militaristic neighbor to the north — don’t start moving it all over the map and then putting it on haitus.

In some ways, it’s not the worst thing; there’s less new programming on during June, when most shows have ended, but the “summer season” hasn’t really begun. But if you move a show around enough times, you make it harder for the audience to find it. Especially when the primary news about its moves and changes comes out in the trade press and then blogs – and not from the horse’s mouth.

Kings is superbly written and acted and has a beautiful, CGI-altered New York standing in for Shiloh, the capital of McShane’s beloved Gilboa. It has enough soap opera elements (the king has a son by his mistress, whom he truly loves, and a son and daughter by his wife, whom he married for the political connections; our contemporary David is in love with the king’s daughter; the crown prince is secretly gay but must give up his love if he wants the crown – plus, he’s jealous of O.C.D.) to appeal to those who don’t like the deeper Biblical paralells, but deep enough for those who like a little meat on their nighttime soaps without the silliness of, say, Dirty Sexy Money.

I have no illusions that this blog post – or any other, for that matter – will save Kings from cancellation.

Unless someone has access to a huge supply of cocoons about to open into beautiful butterflies that we could send by the truckload to 30 Rockefeller Center in New York.

Anyone?

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When I first heard the premise for Kings – a modern-day interpretation of the David v. Goliath tale from that old chestnut, The Bible – I was intrigued.

I love it, frankly, when there’s a modern-day take on a classic tale – biblical or not.

One could argue, of course, that almost everything is a modern-day take on a classic tale if you look at it hard enough. But that’s an issue for another blog post entirely.

Beyond that, however, was the opportunity to see the great Ian McShane in another role. McShane was the incredible Al Swearingen on the late, great, truly lamented Deadwood.

Hell, if he were in a car commercial, I’d watch it.

McShane as King Silas is brilliant; every time you think you hate him (much like Swearingen), he does or says something that makes you realize he’s more or less a product of his circumstances and is pretty much an alright kinda guy, for what he is.

Add to that you have a hotshot supporting cast – note Miguel Ferrer as the general from Gath? Macaulay Culkin as the king’s nephew-in-law? Maqua from Last of the Mohicans (known in real life as Wes Studi) as the Gilboan general?

So of course it was with no surprise that I read that Kings was kinda sorta canceled. It wasn’t really; just moved from Sunday night to Satuday night.

That’s pretty much the death knell, of course, seeing as no one watches television on Saturday nights. Of course, you’d think that a show wouldn’t have to get good ratings to survive on a Saturday night.

As I’ve said in the past, however, a short run of the show might not be such a bad thing.

But one season for Kings? That seems almost criminal.

I think the powers that be at NBC should be banished to Port Prosperity, just before the turnover to Gath.

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