News: EUREKA's Future in Question

With the Television Critics Association press tour in full effect, my Twitter and Google Reader feeds have been packed with tons of breaking news about various networks and TV shows. Most of them I briefly read through, but one caught my eye today. Deadline.com reported that Syfy may be ending its popular series Eureka after Season 6. Shortly after everyone retweeted the news, Syfy sent a message to Entertainment Weekly stating that the network would like to continue the franchise after the shortened sixth season.

My first reaction to the Deadline report was, "finally". I think Eureka is a fine show, and I can understand why it's so popular, but I'm so over it at this point that ending it would be welcomed. I've shared my thoughts about Eureka a few times before, so I don't want to beat a dead horse, but the show has been stale for the last few years now.

Despite its sci-fi setting, Eureka is a textbook example of the procedural style of television. For the majority of its run, every episode has been exactly the same: the experiment of some brilliant scientist goes terribly wrong, all of the other geniuses cannot figure out how to fix the problem, but the simple Sheriff Carter somehow knows exactly what to do. That's about it. They've tried to incorporate some more serialized elements over the years, but the writing really hasn't deviated from its simple formula, and it's just gotten boring.

I'd be sad for the fans of the show if for some reason it doesn't come back, and at least Syfy has Warehouse 13 and Being Human to carry the torch. That being said, I'd be surprised if the network pulls the plug on one of its most popular series after Season 6, and I'm sure it will be back in some form, but one can hope.