Sunday, August 13, 2017

Doubt--cancelled CBS series


We were in Columbus briefly for an artist event, so while unwinding at home I clicked on the TV by habit, and began to watch a CBS show called “Doubt.” Yes, a lawyer show. How original. About 15 minutes into it I realized that although the screen promo said, “New” this had a story line that goes back a bit. So I got on the computer and read that it was cancelled after two winter shows in 2017, but there were a number in the can, and what we were watching on August 12 were the last two episodes. Cliff hanger of course, and now we’ll never know . Did the pediatrician really kill his girl friend 24 years ago and his blood didn’t show it because he’d had a bone marrow transplant for leukemia years after the murder?

I recognized Katherine Heigl the lead who was obviously pregnant and all angles tried to hide it, Elliot Gould (former husband of Barbra Streisand who used to be a good actor but now seems way over the hill and not given anything important to say) and Judith Light (One life to live, Who’s the boss, and who looked 10 years older than her real age of 68). But the big “breakthrough” of this thankfully short series was a transwoman (Laverne Cox) in a a leading role in a love affair with a cis male (a person assigned male biology at birth). I think it means two gay guys who just don’t want to admit who they really are. We were treated to lots of smooching by these two, as well as two women expecting a baby and one has been busted for drugs and will miss her wife's ultrasound just to desensitize and assure us that all this is normal.

I don’t think it was pulled because of any concern about the transwoman (didn’t fool me--he still has a man’s voice and way too much make-up), or the white and Asian women expecting a baby--that ship has sailed, or because the hot shot lawyer falls in love with her client who may or may not be guilty of murder. It apparently just didn’t have the numbers after the first 2 episodes. Although the summer showings were stronger than the winter, that was probably because there wasn’t much else to do on a Saturday night in August in Columbus, Ohio.

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