VH1 Cancels Hindsight: An American Tragedy

When I heard that VH1 cancelled Hindsight-- after they had previously renewed it-- my first thought was "is this legal?" And my second thought was "of course they did." That doesn't mean that they SHOULD have.

The thing that I sometimes hate about watching TV on the actual TV is how quickly shows are given the boot. If they don't find their audience immediately, if they don't turn over that profit right away, they're gone. It's a frustrating world that doesn't make sense to me, mostly because it doesn't always reflect quality. "This show got cancelled because it sucked" is not something that you can really say anymore. In the age of binge-watching online, broadcast television is more impatient now than it's ever been for what will provide viewers, aka consumers, aka advertising money, in the here and now.

I'm mad that they cancelled Hindsight for the reasons everyone else is-- it ended on a cliffhanger, there's so much mystery left to be solved, etc. etc.,-- but I'm also mad because of the type of show it was. It took place in 1995, and it also kind of felt like 1995. It carried that fun, dramedy, character-driven, soapy-esque type of story telling that used to dominate primetime when I was a youngster. And I loved how focused it was on the music and culture of the 90's. It felt so appropriate for VH1, which to me always seemed like a classier version of MTV. (Or MTV for "old" people? Whatever.)

So VH1 released a statement about the landscape of their programing, how Hindsight didn't fit with what they were trying to achieve, or something like that. Here's what's on VH1 tonight:

Love & Hip Hop Atlanta
Black Ink Crew
She's Got Game

Oh, there's also a preview on their website for Dating Naked!

So basically, instead of quality scripted TV that calls back to the root of what VH1 used to be (a channel about music) they want their channel to not be about music at all, but shitty reality shows that are probably a lot cheaper to make.

And this is a trend on so many channels. Remember why TLC is called TLC? Because it's supposed to be The Learning Channel, but now it's all reality as well. And of course we all know MTV stopped being about music a long time ago.

It's no wonder that so many people are canceling cable and going with Netflix and Hulu and Amazon, considering almost everything on broadcast TV is all the same, just an empty vortex of blackness that's wasting our lives and benefiting from our mindlessness.

THE GOOD NEWS

It's not 1995-- it's 2015, and if you're going to be cancelled in any time period, this is the one. There are so many options for where Hindsight can find a new home--on the internet--regardless of whether or not network TV sees dollar signs in their eyes. My fear is that VH1 has the rights and won't let the show be taken over by someone else, an "I don't want you, but no one else is allowed to date you" type of thing. I hope I'm wrong. It's seems the least they could do is let the show find a new home after renewing it and then changing their minds. Why would anyone ever want to work with VH1 again otherwise?

The other good news is that it's okay if finding a new home takes a while. Today, "finished" shows are able to come back years later as long as there's fans-- like The Comeback, as a matter of fact. Is it right that the show was off the air for ten years? Where did I hear that? It can't be right. I'm not that old. And also Arrested Development, anyone?

So, I'm optimistic. We'll see where all this lands. But if it never get picks up, I really hope creator Emily Fox does what she joked about on Twitter, because I have to know what happens next.

All I know is that I now have no reason to watch VH1 today, tomorrow, or anytime soon, and that maybe it's time to change that cable plan.