Ghosted: The Wire + The Demotion
June 12, 2018 3:28 AM - Season 1, Episode 11 - Subscribe

After months without a fresh new case, everyone starts getting very bored and a little crazy.

Worth pointing out the show was retooled behind the scenes, and the AVClub gives two thumbs up to the improvements.

Also, there's some confusion regarding episode numbers: Fox never aired the mid-season finale (but Amazon streamed it), so these are episode 11-12 or 10-11.
posted by lmfsilva (19 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I'm also giving two thumbs up to the retool of the show. When they found the wire and started writing one notepads (including stuff that does qualify as "small talk" and eventually one guy saying one thing and showing a notepad with exactly the same sentence) was as focused as the show allowed itself to be, instead of "you know, Craig Robinson and Adam Scott could earn a broomstick a best secondary actor award in comedy".
Plus, they also went a bit meta with it "who is watching us" at the end of the one episode and Marv/Merv just being there to see what things are working and which ones aren't and some spot cleaning. And, of course, he's there for four years.

I wonder if they're bringing the zany up and turning it more to a workplace comedy to see if it picks up some steam as a potential short-term replacement for B99.
posted by lmfsilva at 4:11 AM on June 12, 2018 [1 favorite]


I watched both eps last night and I like them, but I also missed the monster stuff. I hope they can find some happy balance where they can have the monster of the week stuff and still make it connects to the characters.
posted by runcibleshaw at 9:03 AM on June 12, 2018


wait what was the midseason finale?
posted by numaner at 10:11 AM on June 12, 2018


I liked these two alright, I'm waiting for this particular plot to pick up. It was jarring that their office was changed drastically, I kinda miss the giant screens and ubiquitous panel of computers and switches that Annie was a master of.

Although I found myself wondering if all that got destroyed in a previous episode and I forgot. But this show isn't high enough on my list for me to bother rewatching to find out.

That ending with the multiple fake murders as a distraction was pretty great though, and I do look forward to finding out more.
posted by numaner at 10:20 AM on June 12, 2018


Were the murders at the end faked? I thought they were real, and it was just that the successful assassin(s?) were whisking away the evidence as quickly as the guys looked away & back.
posted by oh yeah! at 11:54 AM on June 12, 2018


Obviously aliens took the bodies.
posted by runcibleshaw at 12:51 PM on June 12, 2018 [1 favorite]


Huh, so I had assumed this was canceled because I never heard it was being retooled and coming back, so it was a nice surprise when it showed up on my DVR. Definitely a tighter program, and it's good to see the background characters start become real characters.

Did anything of note happen in the mid-season finale that was never aired? I'm afraid it's been long enough since the last episode that did air to really remember where they left off, and nothing seemed wrong, but the jump forward to a new office was a little abrupt along with the change in style.

I also miss the monsters. Please bring back the monsters.
posted by General Malaise at 2:31 PM on June 12, 2018


I thought it was canceled too, Amber Stevens West is in Happy Together with Damon Wayans Jr., premiering this fall.

I'm glad, I thought it had potential. I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 7:23 PM on June 12, 2018


I think the extra Summer episodes are mostly to see if Paul Lieberstein can work something out of the cast before deciding to can it or give it an extra season, so we might not see any monster of the week action.

Did anything of note happen in the mid-season finale that was never aired?
I think it was something about Max's wife. They could have puled it to serve as a season finale, but the show is all about the wire now.
posted by lmfsilva at 6:24 AM on June 13, 2018


numaner: I found myself wondering if all that got destroyed in a previous episode and I forgot.

Episode 9, "Snatcher," didn't have any big, explosive ending (episode recap), so maybe in the 3 months without any unexplained happening or a monster of the week, they got bored and did some renovations. *shrugs*


General Malaise: I had assumed this was canceled because I never heard it was being retooled and coming back

It got extended by 6 episodes, with a hiatus to get rebooted. So far, it looks good, and I hope there are aliens in this conspiracy. Or other monsters.

General Malaise: Did anything of note happen in the mid-season finale that was never aired?

The official summary is as follows:
While trying to prove their worth to Capt. LaFrey and the rest of the Bureau Underground, Leroy and Max finally have a lead on the whereabouts of Agent Checker. Leroy finds himself in the odd position of being the believer when Max loses faith that they have what it takes.
If you want to get a (very vague) idea of the episode, here's a rough transcript from the web-sourced episode, so it includes text from ads for other Fox shows at the beginning. I couldn't find any reviews or recaps of the episode, but I found a TON of shady sites that are streaming it. Skimming it, it looks like it could be the new season ending, if they wanted to work towards that as the final episode, but it is very focused on the core team of Max, Leroy, Annie, Ava, and Barry, unlike these new episodes that included more of the otherwise background characters, who are very diverse -- maybe this is filling the gap of B99.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:33 AM on June 13, 2018


I didn't notice the retool in The Wire, but The Demotion was a noticeably better episode than past ones.

I can't really blame anybody for not really knowing what's been going on with the show, I'd probably have forgotten it by now if I didn't have it in my RSS feeds.
posted by rhizome at 10:40 AM on June 13, 2018


I'm still not that into it. Was expecting miracles after the reviews but...eh.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:34 AM on June 15, 2018


With the World Cup I kinda forgot to add the new episodes, but... gone.
posted by lmfsilva at 10:07 AM on June 28, 2018


Really not a surprise, I think they just didn't do enough planning before the first episode.

Total derail, but hey, we're in the graveyard now.

The Orville | Seth MacFarlane's live-action hourlong space dramedy had an impressive short-order run last fall and earned an early second season pickup

Wow, what a surprise, like Seth wouldn't have a multiyear commitment in his contract. If, as I suspect, you don't get syndication without 100 episodes, I wouldn't be surprised if he requires the network to stake him until that line is reached, good or bad.
posted by rhizome at 1:01 PM on June 28, 2018


That's weird - that cancellation list includes Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Lucifer, which were picked up by NBC and Netflix, respectively. But I'm seeing news of Ghosted's cancellation elsewhere.
posted by Pronoiac at 7:03 PM on June 28, 2018


Including a great comment from AV Club: "What really sucks is how the cast found out. Fox just stopped returning their texts and calls. That’s just brutal."
posted by Pronoiac at 7:05 PM on June 28, 2018 [1 favorite]


Well hey, maybe Disney will be better at that in the future. You know, 'cuz they got class.
posted by rhizome at 8:09 PM on June 28, 2018


*waggles eyebrows at the name of the show*
posted by Pronoiac at 8:45 PM on June 28, 2018 [2 favorites]


That's weird - that cancellation list includes Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Lucifer, which were picked up by NBC and Netflix, respectively.

That article is from back in mid-May, before all the fan work got those shows renewed. But yeah googling reveals more recent articles confirmed the cancellation.
posted by numaner at 10:36 AM on June 29, 2018


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