I was going to spend plenty of time today talking about how I don't really "get" Viva Laughlin. I think that having the actual vocal tracks play so loudly along with people singing sounds terrible. Also, if I counted correctly, last night's episode only featured two and a half songs, one of which wasn't even sung by anyone in the cast at all, though it is never a mistake to play "Fat Bottom Girls."
But, I don't have to do that as CBS has pulled the series in order to start airing The Amazing Race. Wow. That was fast. The first scripted series of the season is down, and only days after its first episode. Take that, pundits who said that scripted shows wouldn't be canceled so quickly this year due to the possible writers' strike (mark your calendars kiddies, the contract is up in less then two weeks). Shows what we know.
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the show's cancellation. I didn't think that either of the episodes I watched were terribly good, but they had some potential. There were some huge problems with the way in which the story was told, but it was still a moderately interesting tale. I was really perturbed watching the two cops last night. Did they really have to, in their first scene in the second episode, explain to the audience each of the murder suspects' motives? Unless they share a brain, both cops knew the motives, so it was completely unnatural (on screen anyway) for them to go through them. But, I promised not to complain about the show as it's a moot point anyway, didn't I?
The real problem is that the cancellation doesn't make my life any easier. I thought that once new series started to die off I'd have more free time on my hands. I was assuming that they would be replaced by stuff I wasn't interested in, but there's no way I'm not going to watch The Amazing Race, talk about good reality TV (keep your fingers crossed for a lack of bottlenecks this season).
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Article comments
1 - Ray Ellis
Even though I was probably the only person on earth who praised Viva Laughlin's pilot, and hoped it would expand on its absurdity, the second episode dashed all my dreams. There are only so many karoake versions of "Money (That's What I Want)" that even I can take. Maybe, just maybe, someday American networks will will get the moxie to pull out all the stops. Ah well, I'm glad they put this one to sleep before they sank any lower.