Mar 30 2009
In the Motherhood Gets Cut to Six Episodes
Well, as I feared, In the Motherhood debuted to largely bad reviews from professional writers and home viewers alike. According to Variety , this coupled with only moderate ratings caused ABC to cut back the original order of 13 episodes down to six. ABCs official reason was of course that they just had too many shows to juggle and didn’t have room at the moment for the full order. In ABC-speak this could easily mean cancellation is in order.
Or not. After all, the critically acclaimed shows that had a solid base of loyal fans got canceled too. It all boils down to wooing young product-buying viewers. If In the Motherhood rallies in ratings, it could return at a later date for more episodes.
Right now, though, high ratings seems a tentative prophesy. Over at Entertainment Weekly and The Washington Post, much of the reviews and comments section are filled with scathing indictments of In the Motherhood: that it’s insulting to real life mothers, that it pales in comparison to the original webisodes it was based on, that it’s old hat and boring, and the kiss of death for any sitcom–it just plain ain’t funny.
Another talking point appears to be material inappropriate for children on at an early hour, including some information about Santa parents would rather their children didn’t have. While I agree that more care should be taken for family-friendly TV in the first hour of primetime, I think parents need to take some responsibility as well. Why would you sit down with your children to watch a show you knew nothing about? One ought to know by now not to trust the networks to show good judgement. One quick visit to the Internet would have shown plot information, including the Santa gaffe, and all these now-angry parents could have saved themselves the anguish of their kids seeing stuff they didn’t want them to see.
If you want to watch–or avoid–In the Motherhood, it airs on ABC Thursdays at 8/7c.
