NBC had the dishonor to make the first cancellation of the new season today as it pulled its controversial new series The Playboy Club from its schedule effectively immediately after only airing three episodes. The cast and crew are currently working on the sixth episode after which production will be suspended. It's worth to note that the show lasted a whole week longer than last season's Lone Star."It was a place where anything could happen to anybody. Or, any Bunny."
Am I happy or sad about this cancellation? Shockingly, a little bit of both. I was relatively unimpressed by the pilot and from its very first ratings, it seemed that many weren't even interested in checking it out and the ratings just kept tumbling after that. Here's the thing though, I actually started caring about some of the characters as I kept forcing myself to watch episode after episode. The show was slowly focusing on the bunnies and the homosexual characters which were far more interesting than anything else the show was doing. Plus having Sean Maher back on TV was a big factor of me keeping up with the show, especially after the actor came out publicly, giving his character's storyline added dimensions. Too bad we'll never see how that whole thing plays out. In a related note, is this the only new show this year that featured a relatively prominent gay storyline? If so, that's another reason to feel just a little bit sad about the cancellation.
Overall, the consensus seemed to be that the show was not good and that most of its cast deserved better (with the exception of Eddie Cibrian, of course). Already people are clamoring for the wonderful Tony winner Laura Benanti to make her way to NBC's midseason new show Smash, which I'm all for. Along with Maher and Benanti, I also wish better things for Amber Heard and Leah Renee Cudmore.
I've got the exact same sentiment as you--I didn't watch more than maybe bits and pieces of episodes, but I'm a big Sean Maher fan since Firefly and I was a) so glad to see him back on TV and b) so happy for him that this was the show he used to finally come out publicly. So while I normally wouldn't care less about the show's demise...I do kind of wish it'd at least held out a proper season so Sean Maher could've gotten some good screen time. Alas! Great post.
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