Ask Matt: Canceling ‘Todd,’ Resurrecting Flower on ‘Ghosts,’ Life After ‘Blue Bloods’
Welcome to the Q&A with TV critic — also known to some TV fans as their “TV therapist” — Matt Roush, who’ll try to address whatever you love, loathe, are confused or frustrated or thrilled by in today’s vast TV landscape. (We know background music is too loud, but there’s always closed-captioning.)
One caution: This is a spoiler-free zone, so we won’t be addressing upcoming storylines or developments here unless it’s already common knowledge. Please send your questions and comments to [email protected]. Look for Ask Matt columns on most Tuesdays.
[Note: This week’s column is, by happenstance, all about CBS programming, which has made an unusually noisy amount of news lately. Not all of it good. And this doesn’t even include the embarrassment surrounding the Billy Joel concert.]
Is There Any Help for Todd?
Question: Why did CBS cancel So Help Me Todd?!! It’s hard to find a whodunit show with a solid cast that is capable of doing both comedy and drama. Do you think there’s any chance CBS might reverse that decision? — Laurie
Matt Roush: Doubtful. Some cancellations hurt more than others, and judging from my e-mail bag over the last few days, this one really stings. And I get it. So Help Me Todd falls under the category of pure entertainment. It’s not part of a larger franchise, its only aim is to amuse, and it was part of an enjoyable Thursday experiment in genre comedy, starting with Young Sheldon and Ghosts and continuing in hour form with So Help Me Todd and the new Elsbeth. The “why” of Todd’s cancellation is both simple and complicated. Simply put, Todd’s ratings, while not terrible, weren’t as strong as much of the rest of CBS’s schedule, most of which is returning next season. With limited shelf space for new programming designated for this fall, something had to give. (CSI: Vegas also got the boot.) It seems unlikely CBS will pull another S.W.A.T. and cancel this cancellation, and there’s no industry talk about moving it to streaming or seeking another outlet, given that this is produced by CBS Studios. More angles on this sad situation follow.
Was Todd Too Different to Succeed?
Question: I only discovered So Help Me Todd over the last month and binged through all of Season 1 and got myself up to date with Season 2. Such a unique, quirky and original show — every episode felt different, like an homage to Murder She Wrote, USA Network dramas of the 2010s and other mystery dramas. I also thought since it’s on CBS it has a long life ahead of it. Silly me. It got canned last week. Nothing against the FBI shows, but they are just copy-and-paste formulaic clones from the factory assembly line, yet they are the priority. I am guessing that Kathy Bates’ variation of Matlock was one enough female-led detective programs. I know it won’t happen, but didn’t CBS kind of create their streaming platform Paramount for more edgier programming, so wouldn’t this suit better there? The TV landscape is a mess. It’s a shame that a program like So Help Me Todd couldn’t survive.
On another note, I took glee to see CSI Unnecessary Vegas got mercifully booted. Leave the legacy alone — it had its 500,000-episode glory in the 2000s. — Sean
Matt Roush: I’ve learned from long experience not to gloat over any show going dark. (Well, maybe a few real stinkers.) There are surely longtime CSI fans sorry to see the last remnant of that franchise shut down. But the point of these reactions is that So Help Me Todd was something different, which tends to be fatal, especially on CBS, where nearly anything that isn’t a formula crime/action drama is punished with an early exit. Sean might be right that the new Matlock with Kathy Bates, delayed a season by the strikes, might have sealed its doom, also the critical reception for its new (and just renewed) companion piece, Elsbeth, which I like a lot. But even that show so far adheres to a fairly strict formula, while Todd mixed it up from week to week, sometimes too silly for words but also sometimes quite clever. Cancellation aside, Todd is in many ways a very commercial, mainstream show, and thus not a great candidate for an exclusive streaming window on Paramount+, unlike such other CBS transfers as Evil and SEAL Team. I agree with Sean on one point: The TV landscape is a mess when an enjoyable show like this can’t earn a long run.
Should Fans Stick with a Canceled Series?
Question: I love So Help Me Todd, but with it being canceled and hearing there is going to be a giant cliffhanger that will not have a resolution, I have to wonder if it’s better to stop watching the show now. Is there any chance of it continuing elsewhere or at least CBS picking up a two-hour wrap-up movie? — Scott S
Matt Roush: This is very much a personal choice, but to broaden out this answer beyond the series in question, whenever I’ve been in a situation where a show I adore has been given its pink slip before the run has finished, I choose to savor every moment I can get with the show, even if that final episode leaves me bereft—or, worse, hanging. (I fault the producers whenever this happens, because unless you get an early renewal, no showrunner should assume they’ll get another season and ought to plan accordingly, because thinking a cliffhanger will somehow force the hands of the powers-that-be often backfires.) The best-case scenario would be for CBS to order a movie follow-up for closure, but they’re just not in that business anymore. Anything beyond this season would be a surprise.
Returning to Todd, we’ll let this next comment be the final word for now, a reminder that one should never regret one’s allegiance to a show, regardless of how long it stays on the air.
Why Fans Should Stick with a Canceled Series
Comment: I will miss So Help Me Todd and the lighter touch it brought to the CBS schedule. For lack of a better term, it just feels like a warm and inviting show, and the characters are pleasant company for an hour every week. I’ve always liked it going back to the pilot, but Season 2 has demonstrated a lot of growth creatively and is even better than last year. It is a shame that CBS does not have room on the schedule for something like this that is a little bit more different. It’s also too bad that the strikes, necessary though they were, stalled its momentum after what I was under the impression had been a successful first season ratings-wise. Young Sheldon and Ghosts have been on longer and are probably more of a habit for viewers by now. This reminds me of the 2007-8 strike, after which long-delayed shows like Pushing Daisies struggled to regain viewer attention.
I’m sure I’ll be mad when the finale ends with a cliffhanger, as fans have heard. But one thing I will not be is mad that I watched the show. Like any TV fan, I’ve been disappointed by cancellations in the past and I’m sure I’ll be disappointed by another cancellation in the future. That’s just how it works. But I’ve never understood people who regret investing in something that is canceled or think they shouldn’t try new shows out of fear of cancellation. I have enjoyed Todd, and the fact that it is coming to a premature conclusion does not change the value of the time I’ve spent with it or will spend with it over the next few weeks with the handful of episodes we have remaining. — Jake
Matt Roush: Well said. Words to keep in mind as we go through the next few weeks when it’s possible other tough calls will be made by other networks regarding their shows that are perilously on the bubble.
Flower’s Haunting Re-emergence on Ghosts
Question: Long time reader, first time e-mailing you. So what do you think about the resolution on Ghosts of last season’s cliffhanger and that Flower isn’t actually gone? I personally like having her around and the Hetty story was really well done. But it was a fake-out. They put a lot of effort into making us think it was real that one of the main eight cast had departed, but that brings me to another real-life point. I never fully bought Flower was gone since the actress (Sheila Carrasco) never put out anything thanking/leaving the show. Then knowing she was pregnant in real life just made it much more likely to be temporary. Your thoughts? Too meta or just part of the social media age? On top of this, the show is clearly hiding a Rose McIver pregnancy now, and I believe Thor/Devan Chandler Long also recently had a child. — Daniel
Matt Roush: There’s such a thing as too much information, but it’s a fair point. A while back, I praised Ghosts for making us care that a core cast member had been sucked off to Heaven as opposed to “just a basement ghost.” Then we got the tease in the Halloween episode that Flower was in fact stuck in a well, and now we know that it really was “just a basement ghost” after all who left the building. A fake-out? Absolutely. A cheap trick? Maybe. But I can now look at it as the Ghosts producers having the best of both worlds. They were able to explore the deep feelings among the spirits when they thought they’d lost Flower for good, and then we got the happy ending when she was finally discovered after several weeks of suspense because we knew something they didn’t. The reveal of who was sucked off was a funny payoff because they’d previously made the “basement ghost” joke, reinforcing the snobbery of the upstairs ghosts. So in retrospect, I’m OK with how it all played out. But they’d better not try such a thing again. And the Hetty storyline was Ghosts at its best. Haunting, even.
Joe, We Hardly Know Ya
Question: I know fans are having difficulty letting go of Blue Bloods on Friday night, and the cast even took pay cuts this season to keep the crew together and employed. But if the show is too expensive to continue, why have the powers-that-be not considered a spinoff show starring Will Hochman as Joe Hill, the Reagan grandson? Hochman has been a standout since his first episode, and the character of Joe operates in a separate (but nearby) sphere from the other Reagans. The spinoff could be similar enough to the original to retain much of the Blue Bloods appeal, while allowing the Reagans to continue on off screen, with the occasional guest star appearances of our favorites. The crew stays together, the production team stays together, expenses are dramatically lowered, and the audience continues to enjoy the New York-based production quality of the original series. — Rob R.
Matt Roush: I’ve certainly heard worse ideas, and should something like this come to pass, I give you permission to take a deep bow. Because Blue Bloods still has a half-season to produce to finish up its 14th and reportedly final season in the fall, it may be premature to speculate, but CBS certainly has a track record of franchising its hits, including most recently its Friday night neighbor, Fire Country, should that projected spinoff come to pass. Continuing the Blue Bloods universe with an adjacent character makes a lot of sense. I’d be surprised if they haven’t already started kicking around some ideas.
What’s a Millennial to Do?
Question: The cancellation of So Help Me Todd is nothing short of an outrage. With Young Sheldon ending and Not Dead Yet likely next on the chopping block, there is literally nothing left on network TV that I watch as a Millennial. The only people who should be canceled at this point are network executives. I’ve been a loyal network watcher my whole life, and it’s just eroded into virtually nothing but cops and reality. What shows on any platform do you recommend for the Millennial demographic at this point? — Teri
Matt Roush: I lied. This will be the last word on So Help Me Todd this week. But it’s really about programming to Millennials, and I’m afraid I’ve never been much good about recommending programming to a specific demographic. I like to think a good show is appealing to any generation. But my current go-to response when dealing shows of this particular genre is to steer them toward Peacock’s Poker Face, which has a similar irreverence and is as fun as it is suspenseful. (I also recommend checking out Elsbeth with its great guest stars and perky lead, and ABC’s Will Trent for an unorthodox twist on the detective genre. Plus his dog, Betty.)
And Finally …
Question: Is All Rise going to return to OWN? I haven’t seen anything about it being cancelled. — Bob H.
Matt Roush: They may not have made a big deal of it at the time, but when OWN aired the second half of Season 3 last fall, those were the final episodes. The legal drama isn’t expected to rise again.
That’s all for now—and until early May, as I’m taking a short break. We can’t do this without your participation, so please keep sending questions and comments about TV to [email protected] or shoot me a line on X (formerly) Twitter @TVGMMattRoush. (Please include a first name with your question.)
