You might remember my posts about the summer replacement on CBS titled Reckless. It debuted around the same time as the Halle Berry vehicle Extant pictured above. The first season of the sci-fi/cyborg Extant had a few fans but the consensus declared it "boring" (and it was), but CBS chose to renew it over Reckless (which they failed to adequately promote and moved around to different nights with little warning). The second season of Extant was equally bad, a melding of The Body Snatchers, Alien, and any other sci-fi idea which sets one or two people against a bunch of alien invaders impregnating human women to further their brood with full knowledge by certain areas of government. Ho hum. Guess what? Canceled after two short seasons.
Secondly, with the full use of Stephen King's initial concept and writing, Under the Dome (lower picture) survived the ratings for three short seasons and was cancelled.
I watched a few episodes of Extant to see if it was a worthy effort. The writing was sub-par, the characters mostly unlikable, and the concept tired. It shouldn't have lasted for a second season where it became even more cliché. Under the Dome never got my attention so I can't speculate on its durability. To me, it seemed like the stories would run out of gas and apparently it also ran out of enough viewers.
Reckless had great writers with perfectly cast intriguing characters, both good and evil and in between, superb direction and production. The sound tracks were amazing and neatly adapted to each scene. The overall storyline contained it all: corruption where good was expected, a turning from evil ways in unexpected characters, tremendous romantic chemistry, fascinating court cases, and a shocking conclusion which unfortunately ended in a cliffhanger with expectations of being renewed. Instead CBS went with the big names and failed miserably. Viewership is supposed to be the determiner of successes and failures, but the two shows shown above received much heavier marketing and promotion and stayed with a steady schedule. Reckless received "evening soap opera" type promotion and CBS moved the show around to the little watched Saturday nights. Many viewers never found Reckless until it appeared on Netflix and then they began to write CBS and ask for more, but it had been a throwaway for them.
In the end the creator and producers of Reckless encouraged fans to write CBS and then pursue the Netflix possibility but to no avail. Such quality at every level of production, it was difficult to see it end after just getting started.
Father, there is a purpose in all you do and allow. Too big for me to understand. I thank you for your endless creativity shared with your creation. Every good and perfect gift is from you - whether we know it or not. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.