The Passage cancelled? FOX would be loony to bin one of the best vampire shows in recent memory
CBS ('Bull'), NBC ('Manifest') and ABC ('The Good Doctor') took Fox's 'The Passage' to the mat this Monday, earning almost double the number of viewers as compared to the vampire thriller. Needless to say the doom-mongers were out in force claiming that The Passage's rather low numbers sounded the death knell for a show still finding its arc. Far better shows have been cancelled in the past, and industry observers and insiders know that the business of renewals and cancellations is cut-throat. But if 'The Passage' were to be consigned to the vault of TV's almost-theres then we would have lost a show that has the potential to deliver some truly high-quality content.
Talk about vampire shows and you'll either get excited chattering or eyes that roll around sockets in search of an optic nerve with which to strangle themselves. From the time 'True Blood' and 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' truly opened the genre in style, there's been a glut of shows that have ranged from breathtakingly bad, to exhibiting mastery of a mediocre formula. Nothing has had the fangs, as it were, to really chomp down and hold you in its thrall. Sure 'The Vampire Diaries' had its moments, 'Angel' had David Boreanaz and that Buffy whiff, but the offshoots, reboots and sequels to prequels have been mundane and predictable.