Better to have loved and lost?

We're coming up on that time of year again, that time when wailing, heartbroken fans find out that the network has chosen to not renew their favorite TV show. While this is slightly less traumatic than having your favorite show cancelled mid-season (or, in some cases these days, after only two or three episodes have aired at all), it's still a big metal spike through the heart.

And then the mourning process begins.

Stage 1 (Denial): Come on, everyone! There's still time! Let's start a letter-writing campaign, and take out a full-page ad in Variety! We'll show them there's a lot more of us fans out there than they know! They'll see how serious we are and will HAVE to change their mind! Right?

Stage 2 (Anger): Stupid greedy ignorant networks! They wouldn't know a good show if...if...they just wouldn't know a good show! And America is stupid! Bunch of reality-show-worshipping mouth-breathers who don't know anything about good writing and good directing and good performances. They all just want to watch "When Celebrity Animals Attack" reruns. They didn't DESERVE to have a show as good as mine on the air! If they'd have just been smart enough to watch it like me, we would have had the ratings and it would have come back!

Stage 3 (Bargaining): Okay...look. What if, say, you just gave us HALF a season? Just give us another chance to find an audience. If you do that, we'll do everything we can to get the word out and get all our friends to watch it...and then you, the network, will get better ratings and can charge more for advertising! EVERYbody wins!

Stage 4 (Depression): That's it. It's not coming back. There'll never be another show like it. Ever. TV is dead. No one cares about making good shows anymore. I give up on TV completely. I'm just going to read books now. See how the networks like THAT. (Sniffle). I hope all those actors get new jobs soon. They were the best actors ever on any TV show ever. I wish them all well. I know they're all thinking about how I feel about all this, too, because of the close connection I feel we share. I hate you, network television.

Stage 5 (Acceptance): What?! They're doing a remake of Simon & Simon next season?! Dude, I am SO there! Woo hoo!

With the varying schedules between networks (with cable networks now included), some of us are getting our bad news early. I had the season finale of "Trust Me" on my DVR, finally got around to watching it tonight. And, having a suspicious feeling (as in, why was TNT showing two episodes a night for the last month or so, if not just to hurry up and use them all up and get it off the air?), I did a little internet search and found out that, no surprise, my favorite new show of this year is a goner. I'd be more devastated if I wasn't so used to it. These days, best you can do is shrug and move on. I will own this thing a.s.a.p. on DVD when it comes out, just so I can add it to my growing collection of single-season sets of shows I loved that got the ax.

Those of us actually watching "Dollhouse" on Fox pretty much agree, even if we don't want to say it out loud, that there's no way this thing's coming back after this season. I just caught some comments from creator Joss Whedon at a recent appearance, and even he's talking about it like it's already gone. No official word on that yet, but I'm sure it'll be coming as sweeps approaches next month, so I'm just enjoying while I can. Terminator fans are also waiting to hear if "Sarah Conner Chronicles" will be renewed for the third season, but things aren't looking great there, either. Those of us hip to "Castle" are feeling good about it, but I'm hearing that the ratings are slowly dropping, so it's not a definite shoe-in for next season. Note that if anyone's out there trying "Better Off Ted"? I wouldn't bother at this point. Per what I'm reading, the ratings say ZERO chance of that seeing more action.

I think there should be some kind of common courtesy rule involved in every contract for every new show: if you've put the show on your network, where it's drawn in fans (even if it's not as many as you wanted), you owe those fans an ending if you cancel it. Some closure. This just happened recently with ABC's "Life On Mars", the remake of the British show of the same name. They knew they weren't coming back, so they got to make their final episode. I saw, quite by accident, the final minutes of that final episode, and believe me, it was definitely closure (points for giving a show one of the more unexpected endings I've ever seen...). Leaving the fans hanging not only leaves that lingering feeling of loss for years to come, but worse, it opens the door to really horrible fan fiction that spreads across the web, stories that either continue the series or, more often, just envision key characters getting it on. I say every show, no matter how few episodes make it to screen, deserves the same chance to have its own confusing and violent-debate-inspiring finale as the Sopranos.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go (1) email TNT (2) (the bastards) and (3) convince them that my blog alone can convince people people to give "Trust Me" a second chance (4) though I'm sure it won't do any good since this always happens to me and God hates me and I'm worthless and life is unfair (5) and close by letting them know how excited I am that they're bringing back "Leverage" for a second season. Yay!