‘Eleventh Hour’: When Good Television Dies Young
by Alicia ColonIn my last Big Hollywood column, I waxed nostalgic over old television series but there is one modern drama that I wish had not bitten the dust so soon after debuting. That it was cancelled was probably inevitable and I’m not so sure that poor ratings were the decisive factor for its cancellation by the TV programmers.
“Eleventh Hour” starring Rufus Sewell was a remake of the British series with the same name that starred Patrick Stewart. The protagonist is a brilliant government scientist who investigates the experimental perils of modern science. Sewell plays an American scientist working for the FBI and Stewart worked for the Home Office. I found Stewart’s character, Ian Hood, to be somewhat arrogant and dismissive while Sewell’s Dr. Jacob Hood was far more soft spoken and likable.
I also found that every episode led me to the Internet to see how accurate the premise was. Did you know that in some cases, heavy water reduces certain tumors? It can also be used to make things go boom-boom but this was just one of the many fascinating bits culled from the series.
What probably sealed the doom of the show, however, was the moral stance Dr. Hood took in many of the episodes that ran contrary to the liberal bent in Hollywood. In the episode, “Pinocchio,” written by Angel Dean Lopez, Dr. Hood and his FBI cohort tracks down the infamous cloning doctor known as Gepetto (played by Richard Burton’s daughter Kate Burton.)
I wrote an article for Human Life Review entitled: “Exposing the Lies about Stem Cell Research” and added some quotes from the episode:
Dr. Hood: Well, the problem is, cloned babies are people no matter what their origin and some organs can’t be removed without killing a person. If you remove the organ, in order to put it into someone else, the donor’s going to die and that, last time I checked, was murder.
Hood: When I was, am, holding that child, that cloned child, I had a feeling for a second what it must be like to be Gepetto, God-like, and it made me dizzy. I mean, if this is really where we’re headed, if, if we’re really going to be playing God, then I don’t want a part of it.
I had once been able to post a video clip for that show but found that they had all expired and disappeared from the ‘Net. Fortunately, one has surfaced.
Whenever I check my DVR series manager, “Eleventh Hour” is still on the list to be recorded. I should delete it but hope is a hard virtue to give up.
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59 Comments
Obviously scripted by one of those nutty right-to-lifers who believes in the sanctity of human life and wants to restrict a woman's right to choose death for her unborn child.
Wish I would've known that show was more than just the usual drivel.
I loved this show and was very upset when they cancelled it. I have a hard time starting to watch new shows because I know if they are brave enough to show some of the same beliefs and views that I have then they do not have long to live.
Its doom was sealed when not enough people watched it. Sometimes it's nothing more sinister than that. Besides–Lie to Me, House, The Mentalist, etc.–how many Brits-doing-American-accents-solving-stuff-shows do we need??
Written science fiction has been exploring the question of clones and who is a person or not for a very long time. Movies have tended toward superficial monster movie treatments of the issue. Written SF is generally more thoughtful. (Will you have memories or be telepathic or emerge adult sized and cogent after a few months in a pod? No.)
Various golden age SF clone appearances of the "monster" type morphed into something like Heinlein's _Friday_ that portrayed a world where lab-created people had no rights, but *should*, in 1982… and today it would be hard to get away with even that. An SF writer today who wanted to present a clone story where the clones are not considered people would have to explain "why not?" Another SF writer, Lois Bujold, writes about cloning and firmly comes down on the side of person-hood from the start, evil people want to gain immortality by cloning themselves and then having their brain put in the young body in the book _Mirror Dance_ (IIRC) and at least some of the clones are saved from being murdered. No question that they are people and that it would be murder.
What this doesn't equate to, though, is some implied unwillingness to take technology that far.
What books and movies and such give us is a chance to work through the implications and find the pitfalls without having to involve actual real people. It's a pity if fear of the wrong conclusions means that we avoid dealing with new ideas in such an effective way.
I enjoyed Eleventh Hour. I had hoped it would have been renewed.
Alicia, I hope a Big Television blog is in our future.
Echoing General Malaise above, I also wish I'd known about this show. A head's up on new shows would be great also ongoing updates to avoid formerly good shows that swerve left like "The Good Wife" — now off our DVR list.
I love a list of email addresses, so we can let TV producers what we think of their shows.
We just got this show in NZ a couple of months back, it was my must see on Thursday night show here. Then gone!!! Our TV Guide noted that the series had been cancelled and that all available episodes had been aired here. Going by the number of "letters to the editor" of the TV Guide here it was a very very popular show. We get most American series here eventially, unfortunately, it appears that the really good ones get cancelled in America and we end up with reruns of the Simpsons to fill in the airspace
I always enjoyed the show "Eleventh Hour". The show discussed current events and science in a way that made sense and was plausible, but still in the Sci-fi story mode. I miss that show and really had hoped it would be picked up for a Summer replacement type show on cable for new episodes. How about the idea of a limited run of six to eight episodes? That has often been done on cable.
Rufus Sewell is severely underrated in America.
PS: One series that was yanked off-air before its time was "Firefly." Eight years later – I'm STILL sore about that!
Simon Baker's an Aussie.
This was a show I watched and enjoyed and was sorry to see end so quickly. The acting was not the greatest, but, hey it was network television for heaven's sake. In addition to some interesting plot lines, I always like to see if chemistry develops between the leads (Seward and Shelton.) It was clear not many were watching. As an older guy, CBS has always had the rep of having the oldest audience, and most shows I do watch are on that network. I think the next generation is much less interested in network television as a general rule.
And you know, I don't think Tim Roth does an accent on his show, either! ;-D
I enjoyed what I saw of it. Sorry it went away so quickly. I really like Rufus Sewell – ever since I saw him in Cold Comfort Farm. He also did a modern version of The Taming of the Shrew with Shirley Henderson (aka Moaning Myrtle) for British TV – it's freakin' hilarious!
It was on free-to-air TV here in Australia a while back but was pulled after two or three episodes and moved to digital TV, which I don't have.
Another series which was cancelled after receiving awards was "Life." We never missed it.
Question, erp…
When a show swerves left, do you instantly take it off the DVR? I only ask because, while a movie is singular, a TV show is like 22 mini-movies in one year and one left-leaning episode may or may not indicate a trend (I said this about NCIS as well).
Just curious. I mean, a TV show would almost have to go out of its way to be like Law and Order.
I am still dumbfounded as to why they cancelled Eleventh Hour and still really pissed off that they canceled The Unit. How about killing off some of that god-awful "reality tv" and bringing em back.
I am still missing The Unusuals. Anyone else?
It stayed on free to air here until they took it off.
We've mentioned the too-soon-gone Firefly a number of times in the past few weeks. It's very interesting that so many of us on this side of the political spectrum have such affection for it; creator/showrunner Joss Whedon is such a flaming lib, and yet to me it seemed that Firefly captain Malcolm Reynolds was sort of the ultimate never-give-up patriot, still trying to fight the good fight long after his side had lost.
Heck, what do I know? Even with Joss's crazy politics, I'm the hugest "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" fan you'll ever meet. You know what we should do? Maybe we can get Adam Baldwin to write an article or two for us about his work with Joss on Angel and Firefly–did his obvious political disagreements with Joss Whedon ever present a problem on the set?
Read an article within the past few days that says ultrasound is responsible for the growing disapproval of abortion in the US. I seem to remember a LIFE magazine from when I was an adolescent that had amazing in-utero photos of a developing baby. Am I the only one who remembers this?
You are not the only one sore about the way Fox Entertainment treated Firefly.
Scott, we didn't used to immediately delete a show for a minor snark, but I'm getting very touchy.
If you saw "The Good Wife" episode in question, you'll recall that it wasn't a passing remark, but a complete conversation among all the good guys about not doing what Bush/Cheney/Libby did trying to limit freedom of the press by putting reporters in jail because they won't reveal their sources.
In other words, they repeated all the lies and spin on the Scooter Libby debacle, which as you probably know, turned out to be a leak from Colin Powell's underling Richard Armitage to Robert Novak for the purpose of making Bush look bad. Libby was only guilty of kissing up to the press and trying to get in their good graces — as if that could ever be possible for a non-RINO Republican.
Writing lies into the script of a television program is deliberate and even though it won't make a bit of difference to the show's producers if we stop watching it, it makes a big difference to me. My husband can ignore this kind of stuff if the show is entertaining, but I can't.
IMO the NCIS Christmas show stopped just short of deletion from the DVR. The episode wasn't as smoothly constructed as usual. In fact, it didn't make much sense the way it was presented, so I assume there were "artistic" differences about it and the good guys won, but just barely.
I didn't see the episode in question but I understand. And thank-you for your reply.
Good points. I sometimes wonder whether Firefly actually had any sort of liberal slant. The only aspect I can think of is the evil Blue Sun Corporation and its "hands of blue" agents. It and the Alliance government seem to be the "military-industrial complex" of the Firefly universe, doing experiments on people like River to create human weapons.
Or a liberal might see the Alliance, with its wealth, high-tech everything, vast military power and mega-corporations as…the United States. Rebels like Mal and his crew could represent the rest of the world – who presumably don't want any part of our way of life.
Lots of possibilities, I guess. But if Whedon intended to send any leftist "messages," he certainly didn't beat us over the head with them. Firefly and Serenity flow along nicely. And I think that's what I require from a movie or TV show – flow. When the characters start making little political speeches that sound exactly like something I read on a blog yesterday – almost word for word in some cases – it kind of breaks the spell. Brings the action to a screeching halt. Intrudes. I don't see that happening in Whedon's shows.
I don't watch CSI. I did watch "eleventh hour." What does that say about me? (That any show I pick as a favorite gets cancelled? Yeah. I know that already.)
The early seasons of CSI were really good. Then it got really creepy, nothing but blood and guts. We stopped it a couple of season's back.
Nobody watches 30 Rock, either and it's doom has yet to be sealed.
I don't care about Brits with American accents if the show is good quality, and it sounds like it was well researched and well made. What it obviously wasn't was well marketed. This is the first time I've heard of it.
Nope, I remember it well. I was not and adolescent and I recall the upset caused in the abortion advocate community. They were so upset that the 'tiny mass of cells' looked human and might cause someone to make the 'wrong choice'.
Do YOU remember when the 3-D ultrasounds were available at shops in malls for a short time? They'd have huge, poster-sized prints of these in-utero babies in their windows and it was breathtaking. I think the AMA decided those shops were not sufficiently regulated by the establishment, or some such and put the kibosh on the whole thing. But I remember many articles about how it gave people the 'wrong impression' about that 'tiny mass of cells'.
Hey!! _I_ watch 30 Rock!!
(and I wish more people did)
As erp points out, what it may lack in viewers it makes up for in awards prestige. I bet it squeaks out at least one more season while NBC eats itself.
Actually, 30 Rock is a pretty funny show. It deserves awards on its artistic merits, IMO. But nobody watches it. I remember watching Tina Fey get an award and she said "I want to thank our dozens of viewers …" They know nobody watches it. And yet it's marketed like crazy. So if it only boils down to audience numbers … what's going on?
So, if a show is well researched and well made, does it deserve to be on the air for a while in order to draw an audience through word of mouth? Certainly, as I said, they weren't marketing it well enough for anyone to know about it any other way.
And there are several non-American actors that have taken me by surprise at how well they do an American accent. You can always tell if you listen closely. I thought Heath Ledger did the best job of it.
"The Eleventh Hour" was my favorite show last year. I had it TIVO's but always watched it because I didn't want to wait. I don't know if producers/directors haunt "Big Hollywood", but I'd bet if someone would commission a GOOD script using the premises of this TV show, cast Rufus Sewell in the lead (as Hood) and find another actress to play opposite him (the girl who did it was weak and had no charisma. I'd suggest the girl in "Fringe" or Evangeline Lily or perhaps even the lovely blonde on CSI Miami — they all have "a presence"). Film it as a theatrical release movie with no "liberal tell", sucker punches and/or politics of any kind and I think it would be a hit. Anybody listening?
I caught a couple episodes of EH online and it was boring. It got cancelled because it didn't make the numbers CBS wants. I was initially interested because of Sewell. That show certainly didn't show off his talents. His character spent too much time sitting in front of a computer–it needed more action/movement. There was him and his assistant–it needed a team–most of CBS' successful shows are comprised of teams see for example NCIS. There was zero character development and no back story–he explained he got his job because of a friend. Much more intriguing would have been to reveal over time something more interesting–like someone close to him died from some weird disease and he vowed to find the killer who fled to the US.
I don't think it was cancelled because it was too conservative, it wasn't that good. Say what you like about CSI Miami but there have been several shows where a pregnant woman figured into the story and they always referred to ther baby as a baby and not a fetus. I think that's significant because on every other show they would have said fetus.
Alas, it's not on Netflix (just has option to "Save" instead of add to my queue). However, the original British miniseries starring Patrick Stewart is available, will have to check it out.
maatkare, you only watch for reasons of research. Right?
Only way I'd watch is if Baldwin and Frey were killed off on screen for the error of their vile politics and the producers apologized for all their smears of Bush, Palin, Cheney … Even then, I'd have to think about it.
Nope. Unashamed fan. I work in entertainment and the show gets a lot of the behind the scenes stuff spot on. I think Alec Baldwin gets better each season. (I defy you to watch the "Kidney Now" episode with Alan Alda and not laugh) And, truth be told, My love life is a lot more like Liz Lemon's than I want to admit.
Why do you think so few people watch it?
Shame – we liked it. Well, that'll open a spot for another brain dead lawyer show.
I loved the first season of CSI, which was smart, science-y, thoughtful, procedural, dramatic, and Grissom was hot in his odd aspergerish way.
The 2nd season, every episode was about hookers or druggies or whatnot. End of the interest for me, sorry.
I don't know…maybe TOO insider-y? Too "east-coast-elite?" People don't care for Tina Fey even _before_ her Palin impersonation? There's a quirkiness to it that may just rub people the wrong way. It's sort of like a lot of people's feeling about British humor: either you think it's hysterical, or it all falls flat. But buried inside what can sometimes be shameless mugging there's some good razor-sharp commentary.
30 Rock gets all the awards anyway.
I find it interesting when a Brit speaks with an American accent. It's like, is that how they think we talk? No different, I expect, than when an American sports a British accent. To them it probably sounds false, while to us, it sounds realistic.
It actually had good ratings, usually placing on the top twenty list when it aired. The problem was it had a poor demographic. Too old, apparently.
"Too old, apparently. "
I've never understood why TV people don't seem to want older viewers – who are usually the ones with disposable income (kids are out of the house – hopefully).
It's not the TV people who don't want us geezers, it's the advertisers. We may have disposable income, but we don't spend it on the things being advertised on TV — fast food, electronic gadgets, beer, new cars.
Even "Murder She Wrote" which was one of the top shows for years was taken off the air because the older demographics didn't bring in the revenue.
I stopped watching The Good Wife also. I get episodes mixed up because I usually watch TV while doing other things so I don't always get all the of nuances. However, the episode which turned me from the show featured a loud-mouthed right-wing talk show host who caused a mother to commit suicide because he accused her unjustly of killing her baby. The host was way over the top and showed absolutley no compassion for the husband even after it was proven that the mother was innocent. The two senior partners were foaming at the mouth with righteous indignation, which would perhaps be justifiable if the indignation had been turned on ALL reporters/hosts who skew the news as political clout. Instead, of course, the person was a right-winger. Irritatintg as all get out!
I believe that was the same episode that caused us to delete TGW from our DVR and as outrageous as the riff on right wing talk show hosts was, IMO, it isn't as bad as actually lying about things about which there are real facts in evidence.
Scooter Libby didn't trash the first amendment by putting "reporter" Judith Miller in jail, it was Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald who did that — he wasn't mentioned because now he's on the side of the angels prosecuting Obama's former pals in Chicago.
You are absolutely correct! I probably didn't catch that particular reference. It is a shame, too, because I really liked the show and the acting is fairly good.
AMEN to that, Henchman! I abhor reality TV. Give us a break, PLEASE!
You know, I really don't mind when a story is presented from the left's point of view. The author/producer thinks socialism will work. Okay. The show might be boring because, it doesn't work as has been proven numerous times over the past 100 years, but if it's not snarky and conservative bashing with lies and spin on events, I wouldn't delete it from the DVR.
What I can't tolerate is lying.
Loved the show. Sewell is wonderful. Sad, as always, when a good show doesn't get a break.
"Rufus Sewell is severely underrated in America."
Not by me, he's not.
You are correct again. I guess I am just getting tired of the smuggness (sp?) in which these ideas are presented. It just grates on my nerves. We get it already! We know you think Libs–good! Conservatives–bad! The fact that they lied to get the point across is unconscionable. I wish I had paid more attention to that particular dialogue.
You can watch episodes of almost any CBS show on your computer and Bright House cable also has Prime Time On Demand and many CBS shows are available to watch anytime., but it's hardly worth the effort.
Again, I wish there was a reliable outlet like a Big Television website where knowledgeable people wrote on the goings on in television. We wouldn't miss good shows like Eleventh Hour and we'd be kept up-to-date on what left wing snarks to avoid.
No pommies on The Mentalist! Baker is Australian and Yeoman is Welsh.
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