CANCELLATION ALERT: Revenge

In an unsurprising move, ABC has cancelled Revenge after four seasons. The series finale will air on Sunday, May 10. This move has been coming for awhile now and the writers either saw the writing on the wall or got an idea from ABC that this would be it as the season finale reportedly has a series finale feel to it and it would have required a reboot of sorts if it had been renewed.

I usually use this space to talk about where the network stands with cancellations and renewals but that's all coming anyway in other posts related to Upfronts. I'd like to instead reflect on Revenge for a moment. I loved Revenge in its first season, it was one of my favorite new shows in a year that was full of them. But I stopped watching in early season two. The limited concept caught up with it quickly and it never recaptured the magic of the first season and especially those first 13 episodes set in the summer at the Hamptons. The show was perhaps ahead of its time because it really should have been a limited series. Networks are full of them now but they ween't as keen on them back in 2011 and Revenge was a show that rushed through stories too quickly and had nothing left to tell without repeating itself or getting overly convoluted.

I still regret the fact that they didn't kill of Daniel Grayson (Josh Bowman) in the middle of season one as they clearly seemed to be planning to with the first flash forward that opened the entire series. They may deny that was the plan but I think it's pretty clear that it was until Daniel became popular with fans and they copped out. That showed me that this show wasn't going to take chances. Too many characters died and revived themselves. Too many showdowns with Emily and Victoria (Emily VanCamp and Madeleine Stowe) that just went in circles. And that was only in the first season and a half. I'm not feeling sad about this news but I'll always remember how gleefully delightful and twisted this show was in its first season and what it could have been if it had been limited or more carefully thought out.

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