TVSquad

In 1994, I was excited about My So-Called Life and Friends, but not much else on the TV schedule caught my eye. A friend of mine loved ABC's Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, so I would go over there to hang out and watch it.

Being sci-fi buffs, we decided we should check out Earth 2, a new show that aired an hour before L&C on NBC. I have this tendency to at least try out all the new science-fiction shows, knowing that even if I like them, the odds of them surviving beyond one season are slim. I quickly gave up on M.A.N.T.I.S. over on Fox, but found myself more intrigued by Earth 2.

What a fascinating and sophisticated look at a science fiction world. It was so much more realistic and grounded than the Star Trek series could ever be. The characters were horribly flawed and they felt much more human. As expected, the show failed, but not before I got 22 great episodes that still resonate in my memory.

(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.