One of the first shows canceled this television season was CBS’ Smith. As one of about a dozen viewers, I was disappointed when they decided to pull the plug on the weekly heist drama after only three episodes. But I can’t say I’m surprised… The show obviously had a big budget for actors, sets, and effects — so they need to find an audience quickly and they didn’t pull it off.
Their first obstacle was one they imposed upon themselves: the title. Whereas Lost evokes mystery and Heroes suggests adventure, Smith just seems dull, common. The other major challenge Smith faced was the pacing. It’s a pretty slow moving drama — quite an accomplishment when you consider the characters “execute high-stakes robberies.” Perhaps, it could have done better on HBO or Showtime where this sort of content has thrived (think The Wire, Sopranos).
So about a month after Smith’s demise, what’s CBS to do with the remaining four episodes that they filmed? Sell them for $2 a pop on iTunes and Amazon Unbox, of course! CBS is also kindly offering free streaming of the last episodes via their (advertising-supported) web site Innertube. But wait! There’s more! CBS.com has just posted a 5 page synopsis for each of the next five episodes (8-12) that were never shot.
So what am I going to do? I’ll let Smith rest in peace and rent The Score to satisfy any unfulfilled heist jones.
I liked Smith, I think?
The best thing I got out of TiVo’s announcements yesterday was stumbling on the fact there were more episodes available for streaming (FREE!!) :)
Maybe I will watch the unaired episodes, but it won’t be on my TiVo, will it? ;)
Thanks for telling us that there are summaries of more episodes.
But will consuming all this be like ending up at third base at the end of the evening?
Putting cancelled shows on the net for streaming is not new, and maybe something we should get in the habit of looking for…or maybe some enterprising company will make it simple for us…who’s listening?