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.

Brigette Watches Hindsight, And So Should You

Becca is 43. She's about to enter her second marriage to her childhood friend, Andy, but she's not so sure. He's great, but there's not much passion there, the opposite of her first marriage to Sean, which was a steamy train wreck. On the eve of her wedding, she calls her old friend Lolly--who she had a falling out with years before-- hoping for advice. Everything seems off: her relationships, her job, and her thankless boss. She wishes she could just go back and change something. But what?

Becca passes out and then wakes up... in 1995. She's still friends with Lolly. She hasn't yet married Sean. And she remembers everything-- she knows she's from the future.

Thus begins Hindsight, a new dramedy from VH-1. You may be tempted to hear this premise and write it off as cheesy or silly, but it's pure joy. Here's why:


1) Watching makes you feel like you time travelled yourself. Seriously.

Hindsight is authentically 1995, and they ain't messin' around. Most period pieces don't do the greatest job of capturing the truth of the time. They play the most popular music, not the songs you remember hearing every day driving around town. They over exaggerate one fashion trend-- like permed hair-- but then other fashion trends are tailored to today. Not on Hindsight. Everyone looks how you looked in 1995. Everything sounds how it sounded in 1995. All of the cultural references are 1995. (In the scene where Becca first enters Lolly's apartment, she's watching the OJ Simpson trial.) If you were flipping through channels and didn't know this was a new show, you'd think you were watching a rerun of an old show.  Which brings us to...

2) The Clothes.

You WILL watch Hindsight and recognize clothes that you once owned. You will recognize clothes that you didn't even know you could recognize. (Becca's bras are like my Mom's from the 90's. HOW did I remember that?) The wardrobe is unapologetically authentic, which means it's horrible. Everyone just looks awful, and Becca, being from 2015, knows it. Which brings us to…

3) The Jokes.

So much comedy comes from the fact that Becca is from the future, where things are so, so different. She tells a disbelieving Lolly that Patrick Dempsy gets cute. She accidentally spoils that Monica and Chandler start dating on Friends. She tries to explain to Lolly that you can watch anything at anytime on your phone, to which Lolly picks up the hand held and goes "What? Like on this little screen?" She also knows things that will happen, which gives her an advantage when looking for a new job, like how computers rule everything in the future. She just totally gets Windows '95. Must be a damn GENIUS!

4) The strong female friendship

From the first scene with Becca and Lolly, I believed that they were friends who loved each other. I believed it so much that I'm not convinced they aren't best friends in real life. The chemistry and comrodery is real, and I'm already feeling anxious about the fact that their friendship, as we know, is DOOMED. (Unless Becca can prevent it!!!)

5) Becca-- actress Laura Ramsey-- looks exactly like Christina Applegate

I'm not sure if this is a reason to watch so much as it is something that adds to the 90's vibe. Also, when you watch, you'll be like, "dang, she looks SO much like Christina Applegate" and then you'll start thinking about how much you love everything Christina Applegate has been a part of like Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead and then you'll be like, "I really like this actress."

6) The music

I never really thought that I liked 90's music that much until I watched this show, and now I realize that I do, apparently. Much like the clothes, you'll have flashbacks to moments from your own life when you hear these songs. It will make you crave a Hindsight soundtrack. The choices are superb.

Spacehog's "In the Meantime" is the theme song. Remember it?

7) The mystery

Because the world of 1995 has characters and plots in and of itself, every now and then, you forget that Becca was sent back in time-- WHY? And by whom? A mysterious man keeps popping up (who looks exactly like Lee Thompson Young, RIP.) Becca's pretty much figured out that he's connected (or has she?) but he's not talking. Is he some sort of angel? A guide? What is Becca "supposed" to do differently this time around?

It's that last part that's making me like the show just as much as I do for its nostalgia, because so far, the answer seems to be that there is no "supposed to." We all think that if we went back in time, we know exactly what we would do differently, but Becca is actually less certain than she was originally. She has no clue what she's supposed to do, just that nothing completely works out. Her response to this seems to be that she's taking more risks. This means something…some lesson… that I can't…quite grab at…

I'm not sure where all this is going or what the overall message will be in the end, but I'm excited to find out. I'm diggin' it.

So if you haven't watched Hindsight yet, you should. It will make you miss 1995 when you didn't even know you missed 1995.  If you have started watching it, what do you think? Let me know in the comments below!