At the conclusion of each television season, there comes a time to mourn those -- usually plentiful -- genre series that have posed their last mystery, resolved their last sexual tension and hung their last cliff. It can be a time of great sadness or of mass rejoicing; one of relief, or anger, or even disgust at typical network misguidedness.

Here, we see off the good, the bad, the venerable and the merely forgettable entries that populated our 2010-2011 TV schedules -- and will perhaps never be heard from again…

---

CAPRICA
Created by Ronald D. Moore
18 Episodes (1 Season)
Aired January 22, 2010 – November 30, 2010 (Space)
Highest Rating: “Pilot” (01.01), 1.602 million US viewers
Lowest Rating: “Things We Lock Away” (01.12), 718, 000 US viewers
Syfy

Ah, prequels. What can one say about them? For every good one (The Hobbit, X-Men: First Class… wait, there must be more) there are a dozen simply awful attempts, and this one falls squarely into the latter camp. Of course, Battlestar Galactica’s final, fucked up season should have already convinced us that creator Ronald D. Moore -- also known for running the Star Trek franchise into the ground -- was suffering from some form of undiagnosed psychosis, but if it had not, then surely his planet-bound, deathly-dull and aggressively-metaphorical dynastical drama detailing the already-established rise of the Cylons did the trick.

Despite a quality cast and an existing, quite devoted, fan base, Caprica just never really got going, and the final episode of the truncated series saw the Cylons integrated into human society while surreptitiously being taught religion and told of a prophecy that will see them overthrow their creators. (Wow! Did anyone see that stunning development coming? Just… staggering.) Meanwhile, a two-hour pilot for a bridging series, Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome, set to take place during the First Cylon War, has been greenlit by Syfy and is already in production. Caprica actually premiered not on TV but on DVD, with its two-hour pilot available for purchase in April of 2009, months before the series proper began. Can we assume that BSG: BaC will follow suit?

Oh, joy.

VERDICT: Even the presence of the ever-delightful Eric Stoltz couldn’t save this one from utter tedium… and its cancelation freed him up to direct episodes of Glee.

DVD RELEASE: It’s Syfy, so… natch. Caprica, Seasons 1.0 and 1.5 both came out last year; no sign yet of a Caprica: The Complete Series, but it is surely only a matter of time.

CHAOS
Created by Tom Spezialy
13 Episodes
Aired April 1, 2011 – July 16, 2011
Highest Rating (so far): “Pilot” (01.01), 6.53 million US viewers
Lowest Rating (so far): “Eaten by Wolves” (01.06), 3.12 million US viewers
CBS

The three of you who watched, or are still watching, this show will know that it deals with CIA novice Rick Martinez (Freddy Rodriguez), an earnest youngster and Internal Affairs mole sent in to audit the elite operatives of the Office of Disruptive Services. Bright spots were provided here by the eternally handsome Eric Close and a charmingly laddish Scotsman, but from the get-go no one was very likeable, the situation was untenable, and it was all just kind of cringe-worthy. Basically, an unfunny version of The Office, but with spies.

VERDICT: Yeah, this one pretty much sucked from the outset.

DVD RELEASE: None forthcoming.

HUMAN TARGET
Created by Jonathan E. Steinberg
25 Episodes (2 Seasons)
Aired January 15, 2010 – February 9, 2011
Highest Rating: “Rewind” (01.02), 10.46 million US viewers
Lowest Rating: “Imbroglio” (02.09), 4.69 million US viewers
FOX

This series of Human Target is the second of the same name, both based on the cult DC comic character. In print form, our hero, Christopher Chance is a bodyguard so dedicated and so adept at disguise than he not only protects his clients, he becomes them. Here, the handsome face, winning smile and twinkling eyes (not to mention great hair) of star Mark Valley are not put through such rigorous paces; instead, this iteration of Chance guards those all-important bodies by somehow inveigling himself into their lives.

Okay, look, it’s kind of a silly premise, and the first season stretched believability to its very limits, but it was also a hell of a lot of fun, offered up some of the best damn fight sequences anywhere on TV, and it made some interesting choices, character-wise, in having a very testosterone-heavy cast with nary a love interest in sight. Season 2 tried to balance out this gender bias and this remained a largely entertaining and often kickass show -- despite its cancelation, a late ratings resurgence saw the boys pulling in almost 9 million viewers for the series finale, coming so close to their debut figures that it surely gave the FOX brains trust (if such there is) pause.

VERDICT: A solid show featuring some terrific performances and some outlandish plots… and vice versa. It never lit the world on fire, but it was always a fun time and will be missed.

DVD RELEASE: Season 1 is available, though Season 2 has yet to be announced.

MEDIUM
Created by Glenn Gordon Caron
129 episodes (7 Seasons)
Aired January 3, 2005 – January 21, 2011
Highest Rating: ''Pilot'' (01.01), 16.13 million viewers.
Lowest Rating: Around the 7 million mark during its final season, not too shabby.
NBC (Seasons 1-5), CBS (Seasons 6 and 7)

Medium has always been a rather successful series that has struggled to catch the attention of Sci-Fi/Fantasy geeks. Perhaps it had something to do with the network constantly shuffling the series around while it was finding its footing (and, indeed, its core audience); or perhaps it had more to do with its central familial premise, deterring thrill seekers looking for more fireworks and obvious supernatural obstacles to face off against. It's a pity, because there's plenty of supernatural spookiness on offer, excellent writing, and terrific acting from the entire main cast.

Patricia Arquette stars as Allison DuBois, a mother of three little darlings, and wife to hubby Joe DuBois (Jake Weber, always hilarious), who discovers that she has the ability to interact with spirits, see past and future events through her dreams and read people's minds. She soon finds herself working for the District Attorney solving crimes as a consultant, while dealing with a skeptical husband and three very demanding little ones.

This show could have easily fallen into familiar syrupy trappings, a la The Ghost Whisperer, but Medium quickly expanded into some wildly entertaining territories and made full use of its storytelling opportunities, from a supernatural standpoint and as a criminal procedural. And when the series aimed for dark, it was as creepy as they come.

Spanning seven impressive seasons, Medium somehow always managed to stay fresh. Even after it jumped from NBC to CBS, the show rarely faltered, and the books of real-life psychic Allison Dubois, upon whose exploits the show was based, are now widely read... and even, it seems, respected.

VERDICT: Give this show a chance if you happened to skip over it. It's got the smarts and the spooks to keep you glued.

DVD RELEASE: Oh, yes. Medium: The Final Season came out in June, as did a Medium: Complete the Vision seven season value pack.

-- Mark Ritchie

NO ORDINARY FAMILY
Created by Greg Berlanti and Jon Harmon Feldman
20 Episodes (1 Season)
Aired September 28, 2010 – April 5, 2011
Highest Rating: “No Ordinary Pilot” (01.01), 10.69 million US viewers
Lowest Rating: “No Ordinary Future” (01.19) 3.52 million US viewers

No Ordinary Family suffered mainly from its truly puzzling casting. Burly Michael Chikliss, late of The Shield, was married here to petite, piping-voiced Julie Benz, of Buffy, Angel and Dexter. They played the Powells, whose family vacation joy flight ended in a crash that, not incidentally, gave them all superpowers. Patriarch Jim ended up with indestructibility; Mom Stephanie got really, really fast; pouty teen girl Daphne (Kay Panabaker) became a telepath; and young screw-up son JJ (Jimmy Bennett) became a Math whiz. (As superpowers go, that one’s pretty lame. Not Aquaman lame, but still.)

At its inception, this was a fairly clever and engaging dramedy, and it certainly had its moments going forward. Highlights included Panabaker’s flawless sulkiness, Christina Chang as perky lab tech Katie, the arrival of Xena’s Lucy Lawless as a crisp-accented sociopath, and an action-packed series finale that ended with the Powells recruited by the NSA to aid in tracking down eighty newly-super criminals… a development that almost made a Season 2 desirable. But all in all, an ambitious conspiracy plotline, some truly tedious outings (“No Ordinary Valentine”, for example) and an abrupt lack of the funny led this series to an unceremonious cancelation that could hardly be wondered at.

VERDICT: After a promising beginning, it just all got very… ordinary.

DVD RELEASE: No Ordinary Family: Season One is due out on September 6. But don’t they mean No Ordinary Family: The Complete Series? Clearly someone had already printed the DVD covers before the show’s ratings tanked and made a Season 2 impossible.

SMALLVILLE
Created by Alfred Geoff and Miles Miller
218 episodes (10 Seasons)
Aired October 16, 2001 – May 13, 2011
Highest Rating: ''Vortex'' (02.01), 8.40 millions viewers.
Lowest Rating: Season 9 averaged about 2.50 million viewers.
CW

After ten long years, Smallville finally hangs up its cape. It surely has been a topsy turvy ride with Clark and co., with plenty of ups, and many many downs. The most surprising thing to note is that the series found its footing again in later seasons, after faltering during a lag period (otherwise referred to as Seasons 6 and 7) and embraced its superhero origins, despite a considerably reduced budget.

Smallville followed Clark Kent (Tom Welling) on his journey from Boy Scout to the Blur, and eventually to The Man of Steel. We encountered many familiar faces from the DC Universe -- some more faithful adaptations than others -- and it was genuinely thrilling, upon the show's initial release, to watch Clark fumble through his teen-hood and then fully embrace the hero he was destined to become.

Critical to the show's success was the equal amount of screen-time allowed for Lex Luthor and his budding relationship with Clark, a unique spin on a well worn dynamic that definitely energized the first three seasons.

While the series never had the best writing, or enough backbone to truly take its DC license and really run with it, it boasted some spectacular set-pieces at times, and was a mindless, harmless way to spend an hour of your evening. And, at the end of the day, during its final moments, Smallville went out in true superhero fashion, and gave fans that had been waiting ten years an ending that was, well, super.

VERDICT: It often played out like a daytime soap opera with superpowers, but especially during its final stretch, the show hit the geek meter more often than it missed.

DVD RELEASE: And how! There’ll be the Season 10 release, of course. Then there’ll be the 10 Season Smallville Complete Box Set. Plus there’ll be a Season 10 Episode Guide and Script Book, and a Complete Episode Guide, and some kind of Behind the Scenes Pictorial Tour or some such, and way more besides. Never let it be said that The CW doesn’t know how to milk their pretty people for all they’re worth.

-- Mark Ritchie

Read Mark’s Smallville reviews here!

Ahead: SGU, V and other letters...

NEXT >
1  2