TVSquad

The name "Max Headroom" comes from the last thing TV reporter Edison Carter saw before he was knocked out and hacker extraordinaire Bryce Lynch dumped his memories into a computer: a sign reading "Max. Headroom: 2.3 meters" as a warning for low clearance. The program came alive and an '80s icon was born. Most people today remember Max Headroom for his pervasive commercial association with New Coke.

Yet it was in the Max Headroom series that he was truly groundbreaking. The show was developed from a UK telefilm: Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into the Future. And that film was only created to give back-story to a talking head they wanted to use in a music video show.

Unfortunately, the popularity of this show and the character lasted about as long as New Coke. And for those of you who have no idea what New Coke is ... exactly!

(S02E13) Will is off this week, headed to Talladega to cheer on his beloved Earnhardt Jr and the #8 Budweiser Chevrolet, or something like that. He asked that I take over Eureka, so here I am. Before we get to the actual episode though, I wanted to bring up a comment that TV Squad reader Derek made on last week's post.

He mentioned his growing annoyance with the formula of Eureka. I think it's a fair criticism. It hasn't worn on me yet, but we all react differently to these things, which is part of what makes it all so fun. I bring it up though, because I think it highlights what is a difficult balancing act for a show like this. If a show gets too wrapped up in an ongoing story, it runs the risk of alienating viewers who think it's all a big stall game. Please see every Lost post on the internet for an example. On the other hand, not enough serialization, and it gets formulaic, annoying an entirely different group. It's something that I think team Eureka has balanced well this season, but your mileage may vary. Anyway, after the jump, a look at the big season finale.

Good news everyone. SciFi has announced that Eureka will be coming back for a second season. They have ordered 13 more episodes which are set to begin production in the spring. The series will return with all new episodes next summer. Based on the numbers, this was a slam dunk decision for the network. According to the press release, Eureka is SciFi's highest rated, most watched show of 2006. Not only that, it outperformed the previous year's time slot average by +175%. The detail that really surprised me though... Tuesday's Eureka finale beat the CW's Veronica Mars premiere in males 18-49 and males 25-54. Confirmed to be returning for the second season are Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Joe Morton, Jordan Hinson, Ed Quinn, Debrah Farentino and Matt Frewer. I'm a little disturbed that they didn't mention Erica Cerra there, but hopefully that's just an over-site.

Here's my little secret. Remember Data from The Goonies? The little Asian kid with the spring loaded teeth up his sleeves? He was my first mad scientist/inventor hero. I tried to build a few of my own wearable gadgets after watching that movie. I actually cut up a pair of converse sneakers so I could build secret gadgets into them.

Eureka attempts to answer a question. What could possibly go wrong if you give a bunch of scientists nearly unlimited funding to develop cutting edge technologies. Well, lets just say that little things like the laws of physics might get a little bent out of shape.