Fox cancel 'Chicago Code' & 'Human Target'

The Shield writer-producer Shaun Ryan has been dealt another blow; just months after his show Terriers was canned by Showtime, his cop drama The Chicago Code's been axed by Fox! The 13-part series starts its run on Sky1 tomorrow, so it'll be interesting to see if Brits aware of its demise will bother to tune in

Of more interest to me, action-adventure drama Human Target has also been cancelled by Fox after two turbulent years, which included a major revamp. It's not a show I'm upset about losing, because it had a fair chance to succeed and did everything its format allowed in its lifetime. It's just a little surprising because Human Target was bounced around Fox's schedules but always managed to perform wherever it landed. It was also a bigger hit in the Friday night "death slot" than Fringe. It seems that Fox would prefer to take their chances with brand new shows for the 2011/12 season. I wouldn't be surprised if Target's direct replacement is J.J Abrams' new mystery drama Alcatraz.

Lie To Me, Breaking In and Traffic Light have also been cancelled by Fox.

Jump the Blast #7 - 'Human Target'

'HUMAN TARGET' - "Marshall Pucci"

It's the second Human Target offering in this meme already! This one comes from the recent season 2 finale and it's probably THE archetypal "jump the blast" visual; a badass walking away from a large car explosion, without turning back to look, in sweet slow-motion. It's so cliche, I love it. The badass in question is Guerrero (Jackie Earle Haley), the goat-faced assassib who's just dealt with a rogue CIA agent who dared threaten the life of his young son.

Have you noticed a shot in a film, trailer, advert, or TV show that features someone jumping/walking away from an explosion of some kind? If so, why not email me a screengrab and you can be credited in the next installment of "Jump the Blast".

'HUMAN TARGET' 2.13 - "Marshall Pucci"

The season 2 finale of Human Target was a curious mix of exciting moments (most in the first half) with a slight feeling of dryness, primarily because the backbone of Ilsa (Indira Varma) and the weird circumstances of her billionaire husband's murder hasn't been as interesting as intended. It's been referred to occasionally throughout this year's episodes, but was anyone desperate to see this mystery explained? The whole storyline only really took a notable step forward recently, with Guerrero's (Jackie Earle Haley) discovery of a photo showing Marshall with a mistress, so it carried an unshakeable feeling of tedium.

Still, the first half of "Marshall Pucci" was impressive and fast-paced entertainment, with the surprise arrival of Marshall's alleged mistress Julia (Emily Foxler), seeking protection from the people who killed her boss to secure his silence, because Marshall had discovered a weapons cache in medical supplies his company was providing to Africa. Ilsa, relieved to hear that Marshall's rendezvous with Julia was only to provide a colleague with a ticket to safety while he exposed the smuggling, arranged to have Julia taken into her team's care. And it wasn't long before Chance (Mark Valley) and the team come to realize Marshall's killers were a crack CIA squad, led by a rogue agent called Bill Fickner (Jake Weber), who is now targeting Ilsa and has an enviable technological advantage that puts Chance's gang on a weaker footing.

There were undoubtedly some great moments in this finale: Fickner's squad manipulating events out of Chance's control during a rendezvous in a town square, the unexpected reveal that Julia's in cahoots with Fickner and was tasked to bring Ilsa out into the open, the moment when Guerrero realized his young son was in danger (apparently the only "pressure point" he has), and a smattering of decent actions sequences (most memorably a scene when Ilsa got her foot caught in a rail track with a subway train thundering towards her.) Indeed, "Marshall Pucci" was never truly dull, but it also had far less emotional clout than I think was desirable in a big finale.

There was no flashpoint moment when the accumulation of season 2's narrative really took hold, just the feeling this bookended the premiere (in title, and fact it ended with Ilsa taking another literal "leap of faith" with Chance off a building.) The Chance/Ilsa relationship, which can sometimes feel truthful and sweet, still appears slightly stilted and false most of the time. It didn't help that Ilsa was back to being a limp damsel-in-distress for the finale, which is a real pity considering mid-season episodes like "Communication Breakdown" started to give her more depth and range. Ilsa's plucky when required, and has grown from the over-privileged dunce she started the season as, but there's still something in the Ilsa/Chance relationship that hasn't quite gelled.

Overall, I still enjoyed this finale on a superficial level -- it was fast, fun and the action was delivered well. It just lacked that killer spark and emotional resonance I want to see from finales. There wasn't enough to differentiate this from a decent mid-season episode, really. As a whole, season 2 actually became one of the more enjoyable TV shows I've been watching every week, with the only bum note being Ames (Janet Montgomery), who's supposed to be hilariously straightforward and sassy, but just comes across as rude and annoying. Winston (Chi McBride) also suffered through a pretty thankless season, relegated to sitting in a surveillance van providing earpiece chit-chat most weeks, and the show sometimes struggled to provide material for five regular characters. The show worked better with three leads, so in an ideal world one of the core triptych would have been female from the start.

What did you think of this finale and season 2 in general? And what do you hope for in season 3, if Fox renews the show?

Asides

• Showrunner Matt Miller was interviewed by Give My Remote, where he reflected on season 2 and his hope for the show's renewal. It's particularly fun to hear Miller admit he should never have changed the theme tune, in retrospect!
• I keep talking about the ratings, but they're really fascinating with this show. It started its run on Wednesdays nights with 6.59m, which dropped to around 5m most weeks. Now, at the end of its run, the last two episodes on Wednesday achieved 9.22m and 8.30m (for this finale). And that's after the show was bounced to Fridays, and aired a few weeks of double-bills! It's proven itself a robust show that a loyal audience will stick with, that's also capable of drawing newcomers in if it's scheduled better. For what it's worth, I think it'll be back for season 3.

written by Matt Miller & Heather V. Regnier / directed by David Barrett / 9 February 2011 / Fox

'HUMAN TARGET' 2.12 - "The Trouble With Harry"

The penultimate episode of this sometimes erratic but hugely enjoyable second season gave us another prime slice of Human Target, from the pen of Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levine, who usually deliver more of a season 1 flavour to their storylines. In "The Trouble With Harry", we found Chance (Mark Valley) handcuffed to a booby-trapped bar stool, waiting for a hostage exchange to happen, only for bungling private eye friend Harry (Tony Hale) to wander into the middle of the operation.

In flashbacks, the result of Chance apprising Harry of the situation, we followed the circumstances that led to Chance's predicament, which began 48 hours earlier with a client called Sarah (Nicole Bilderback), who had accidentally discovered evidence that her rich husband Claypool (Michael Massee) is running a hit squad. As a recluse with an extraordinary amount of security, a plan was set in motion for Ilsa (Indira Varma) to meet with Claypool to discuss a philanthropic business venture, sneaking Chance and Ames (Janet Montgomery) into the residence with Guerrero (Jackie Earle Haley) posing as Ilsa's driver, with Winston (Chi McBride) orchestrating events from his nearby surveillance van. Ilsa was tasked with ensuring cagey Claypool drank an expensive bottle of wine they've spiked with a truth serum, in order to get his computer password, while Chance and Ames had to negotiate a room full of invisible laser beams and temperature sensors.

I like Human Target when it's finding a use for everyone and the dynamic shifts into full-on Mission Impossible territory. Having to break into a seemingly impregnable country retreat brought its own delights, with Chance finding himself stretched-out between a table and desk (just above invisible beams, like a shoestring version of the iconic moment Tom Cruise dangled above a pressure-sensitive floor in Mission Impossible), together with the natural comedy of the operation resting on Ilsa being able to convince Claypool to drink his tainted wine. Guest star Michael Massee is also very reliable as a screen villain, often raising the poorest of TV shows out of the doldrums whenever he's around (remember his turn as mad scientist Dyson Frost in FlashForward?), and while Claypool was a slightly underwhelming character for Massee's talent, it was still good to see him involved.

I even enjoyed the sometimes irritating plot-device of starting the story in media res, then telling the majority of the story using flashbacks. It's often the sign of an episode with a lack of plot, which is perhaps true here, but it somehow worked in the case of "The Trouble With Harry". Even Tony Hale, reprising his hapless character from the recent "Communication Breakdown", managed to make his lazy role as expositional aide quite entertaining. And how can you really hate an episode that involved the leading man and woman evading a gun-toting biker with a stolen horse from a stable? A good action moment a pleasing romantic undertone, which led to the breakthrough scene with a drunken Ilsa kissing Chance, having been given proof her beloved husband was cheating on her before his untimely death.

Look, it's hardly rewriting the rules of action-adventure television, but with a capable cast, strong guest stars, a steady stream of decent action sequences, snarky humour and clear storylines, Human Target's carving a niche as a consistent source of disposable in-the-moment entertainment.

Aside

• Last week I commented about Human Target's fascinating leaps around the Fox schedule and the according rise and fall of ratings. This episode actually aired on a Tuesday, following a Monday night episode, and gained the show's best rating all year: an impressive 9.22m. I really don't see any reason why Human Target shouldn't come back for a third season now. It can get almost 10m in a decent timeslot, and even on a Friday it almost gets 5m.

written by Jonathan E. Steinberg & Robert Levine / directed by Peter Lauer / 2 February 2011 / Fox

'HUMAN TARGET' 2.11 - "Kill Bob"

I don't have much to say about "Kill Bob", so I'll be reasonably brief. This episode was entertaining and had good action sequences, but the idea behind it didn't quite take flight, and the subplots were very weak. The central premise was solid, though: a scientist working on weather satellites called Bob Anderson (Todd Grinnell) became the credulous target of an assassin, with Chance (Mark Valley) realizing the hitman is none other than his beautiful wife Angie (Lauren German). In shades of the recent Angelina Jolie action movie Salt, it transpired that Angie (named after Jolie?) is actually an undercover Russian spy called Natalia Petrovic, who has been ordered to kill her husband by her OSA handler Ivan (Richard Zeman), as he's outgrown his usefulness.

Human Target often takes a familiar idea and runs with it, which is exactly what happened here. Fortunately, "Kill Bob" wasn't a facsimile of Salt and, despite its title, also had little in common with Kill Bill, but it certainly amounted to a rather formulaic hour of entertainment. Chance simply played bodyguard to Bob; initially waiting to be sure Angie was the person responsible for the attempt on his client's life. The early scenes worked best, with the lurking doubts over Angie's guilt and Chance (rather weirdly) joining the Anderson's on a day trip to the country, and once the cat was out of the bag "Kill Bob" got added mileage by revealing Angie's actually trying to fake her husband's assassination to satisfy Ivan.

Unfortunately, the subplots this week were very poor -- especially in the case of Ames (Janet Montgomery), who arrived back from a trip to Las Vegas with Ilsa (Indira Varma) and announced she's married to a man she's only known a few weeks. This news irritated Winston (Chi McBride), who places a great deal of value in the institution of marriage, and there was the expected frosty atmosphere. Trouble is; who cares. Ames has been season 2's biggest misfire, mostly because she's so petulant and nowhere near as charismatic and sexy as the writers hope. Most of the time she just doesn't fit into the needs of the show itself, and she certainly hasn't managed to endear herself to the audience. The news of her irresponsible marriage didn't have the desired impact, and it was annulled by the end of the episode anyway.

Overall, "Kill Bob" was distinctly average and wasn't helped by the fact it spoils what's been a brilliant run of double-bill episodes that turned Human Target into must-see TV for much of January. When this show has a really exciting story and is pushing its characters into new territory, it's a great deal of fun. When it's riffing on lukewarm ideas and filling the gaps with pointless filler, it risks being a washout. Still, it was mildly interesting to see the show turn the spotlight back on Ilsa's dead husband Marshall Pucci, who was seeing a mysterious woman shortly before his death. I'm predicting he's not really dead and will re-enter Ilsa's life before the season's over -- probably coinciding with the moment Ilsa realizes she's falling in love with Chance. Anyone agree?

Asides

• Human Target has pinballed around the schedules this season; from Wednesdays, through a run of double-bills on Fridays, to Monday. Interestingly, this Monday episode delivered season 2's best rating yet (7.7m), which is almost double its Friday performances (which were still good for that notoriously tough timeslot.) The Wednesday night ratings seem to hover around the 5m mark. It just goes to show how much scheduling can affect a show! But wherever you put Human Target, it seems to do quite well, which is a promising sign for the show's future.
• You may recognize Lauren German from Hostel: Part II, making her the second actor from that movie to appear in Human Target, after Roger Bart. She also appeared in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre remake and the short-lived TV series Happy Town.

WRITERS: Brad Kern & Zev Borow
DIRECTOR: John Terlesky
TRANSMISSION: 31 January 2011, Fox, 9/8c

Jump the Blast #6 - 'Human Target'

'HUMAN TARGET' - "Communication Breakdown"

Here's a shot from a recent episode of Fox's action-adventure drama Human Target, showing bodyguard Christopher Chance (Mark Valley) and his partner Ilsa Pucci (Indira Varma) escaping the wreckage of their private jet, moments after it crashed in the South American jungle after getting hit by a RPG. The classic "hero-and-girl run away from a downed plane sequence", just as its leaking fuel is ignited. Only, those are clearly two stunt doubles. Huh.

Have you noticed a shot in a film, trailer, advert, or TV show that features someone jumping/walking away from an explosion of some kind? If so, why not email me a screengrab and you can be credited in the next installment of "Jump the Blast".