It's always been the case: anti-war sentiment is simply unpopular. McGovern tried that road and was smeared all over the campaign trail by Nixon. John Kerry didn't exactly try it, but he certainly implied it, and the Swiftboat Vets made it very clear to the American people where the other JFK stands regarding war.
And now the anti-war movement has turned to the airwaves with Steven Bochco's colossal failure, "Over There". Airing on FX, the season premiere brought the cable network an astounding 4.1 million viewers. Nevertheless, it only takes one dose of negativity to leave a bad taste in viewers' mouths. The season has recently wrapped up with an average of 2.1 million viewers over the 13-episode run.
The poor numbers were just too low for network brass who wasted no time in pulling the plug on the series after just one season. Nevertheless, the executives at FX maintained that the series was "arguably the most critically acclaimed new television show of the year". Well, I guess it's only logical that the so-called "best new show" would have to be canned. Or maybe this just further proves that critics are completely detached from what the public thinks.
If critics' opinions represented the beliefs of the viewing public, then why would the president of FX claim that the critics' raving reviews made "the decision not to renew [the show] all the more difficult." Well a dropoff of two million viewers per episode (average) following the opener certainly implies that the show wasn't all it was cracked up to be.
War is and always has been a touchy subject. There are simply two sides: those who understand its necessity in promoting freedom (not those for it) and those against it. We saw what happened when we tried their route in the thirties and were provoked into WWII, yet they never cease in their attempts to keep the United States out of all foreign conflicts. Well unfortunately our enemies don't just sit on their asses waiting for us to come to them. They will use any means necessary to strike a blow at us, so it's up to us to stop them when they present a threat to our way of life.
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I don't buy it. There are plenty of critically-acclaimed shows - Family Guy and Futurama spring to mind - that have been cancelled. There are a lot of dynamics that go into the cancellation of a show, and sometimes it's just stupidity.
Incidentally, I just caught an episode tonight, and really enjoyed the show.
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