My Own Worst Enemy - season 1 (1 Viewer)

[Joe_H]

Basically what most speculated, that Edward knew that he was never going to be able to have a real relationship and that it sort of takes care of his needs.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Another good episode. Stupid Nielsen famblys.

 

[McPaul]

I was really starting to like this show, although I think they should have played out the idea that he didn't know what was happening to him when he flashed for a few more episodes before having Edward bring him in for "fixing"

Perhaps this is NBC thinking the show wouldn't last long in the first place.

I don't get it. They advertised the hell out of this thing in the summer.

 

[Jason Seaver]

As to the first question, one of the great things about network TV is that it hits everybody at the same time, and you can talk on fora like this or at the water cooler and, if you're enthusiastic enough, maybe turn someone else onto it. Even if you're not directly counted in the Nielsens, you can still exert some influence to make a show you like a success and get that sort of enjoyment out of it. It's also how these things are designed to work, as a serial.

As to the second question, I suspect producers want the resources a network gives them. $2M+/hour productions don't go direct to video except by accident, and the combination of DVD and online doesn't yet offer the sort of revenue streams ad-supported networks do. Even a guy like Whedon is likely going to have a hard time making something with the production values of Firefly or Dollhouse for video - after all, Sci-Fi basically threw out the original 15-minute episodes of Sanctuary before airing their version.

 

[Matt^Brown]

Wow, I was behind on this show and just got caught up. Now I read this thread and realize that it is cancelled. I guess I should have not spent 3 hours last night getting up to speed. LOL

 

[Greg_S_H]

How you gonna hire John Heard and then kill him off?

 

[NeilO]

If you had watched the episodes the nights they originally aired it wouldn't be getting canceled That is, if you were a Nielsen family (which you can't tell us, so we can blame you anyway).

When the cancellation news came last month, they were filming the final episode. I'm hoping that they were able to add some coda to it. In any case the final episode is this coming Monday. It seems that they at least resolved the Tom/Raymond and his marriage plot line this past week.

 

[todd s]

Neil, I also hope they were able to resolve some things. Even a new ending where Edward lets the company mindwipe him. Thus allowing Henry to live out his life without Edward. But, they will probably have no ending.

 

[NeilO]

I misread the schedule I was reading. This past Monday was not the final one, but this coming Monday (the 15th) will be. Thinking that it was the final episode I thought they were just going to leave things up in the air this past Monday, but then they had a promo for another episode which may wrap things up.

 

[todd s]

Well I guess they didn't wrap anything up. Just left us with some big cliffhangers. :frowning:

 

[Joe_H]

Would it really have been that hard for them to cut out the last 30 seconds and show some sort of old footage of Henry going home to his wife or something, just to give closure? I mean, that's absolutely ridiculous the way they ended that when it'd have been so simple to prevent a cliffhanger.

 

[NeilO]

I was surprised there as well. There really was no reason for them to end it that way, except to get the audience upset. Still, it could have been a more dramatic cliffhanger, so maybe we should count ourselves lucky in that respect.

 

[todd s]

They could have easily shown a scene where they do the procedure and it works...But, he is stuck as Henry.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

But when they made that episode, did they know it would be the last one?

I'm sad to see this show end. Thought it was a pretty good spy show, like a series version of True Lies. I didn't care much about the dual personalities one way or the other - if they had just gone the True Lies route of a spy who also has a family who thinks he works a regular job, that would have been just as good. I wonder if it would have done better in the ratings like that- maybe the personality thing confused the audience.

In fact, despite seeing all the episodes, I still have trouble remembering if Edward is the spy or the family guy. And once both personalities knew about each other, to the point where they were leaving videos for the other, what was the purpose of that part of the storyline?

Wonder what NBC will end up airing in that timeslot after the holidays- I'm guessing it won't do any better.

 

[NeilO]

In February, Medium will be in that timeslot again.

 

[todd s]

Actually Tom's storyline last night showed why the idea of a dual identity is a bad idea. What happens if an agent gets into trouble when in joe shmoe mode?? Tom and his family could have killed because he didn't recognize an old crime boss (Demone from Fast Times). It could have easily have been an enemy agent.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I think if the show had run longer than it did, the personalities would have learned from one another. As we saw last night, Henry was already becoming more of a survivor than he was at the start. Henry's humanity didn't rub off on Edward so much, but I think that would have happened eventually. By season seven (much earlier than that, really), I'm sure the personalities would have been blended completely, with it becoming more like the True Lies example.


I thought that's who that was!

 

[Jason Seaver]

I guess it's fitting that this show goes out as it came in - nice cast, but really not thought through very well at all.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I agree it never really made sense that the Docile Personality would forget all the Agency stuff, yet the Agent Personalities seem to remember all the Home stuff.. it just was very confusing...

 

[Jason Seaver]

They don't remember it, but they are, I suspect, regularly briefed on it.

Of course, the dual personalities don't make a damn bit of sense. With Henry/Edward, we see a potential point of failure, and Tom/Raymond has spent the series demonstrating just exactly how many ways this can go wrong.

This show really needed to show at least one tangible benefit to the whole Janus program, but I suspect that there aren't any. The closest thing to an actual use I can think of is that maybe they could switch personae out in order to prevent the agent from giving anything up under torture, or acknowledging that Edward and Raymond are sociopaths who can only be allowed out when the government needs a sociopath, but they didn't seem willing to go quite that far.