Yea, Men in Trees, Nay, Six Degrees

The Good News - Men in Trees Has Been Picked Up for a Full Season

The Bad News - Six Degrees is on Hiatus until January

Men In Trees has been given the back 9 episode order, so it's officially been picked up for a full season. This is the best news, because shows like this have not been that popular in recent years, much to my disappointment, despite delivering a highly entertaining episode week after week. I am still mourning the loss of Miss Match (the NBC show that starred Alicia Silverstone).

This lighthearted romantic comedy stars Anne Heche, Abraham Benrubi, and I would say the relatively unknown James Tupper, who is very sexy in a Eric Dane (who you may know as McSteamy on Grey's Anatomy) sort of way, which basically means in every way possible. The other news that comes with it's full season pickup is that ABC will move the show to Thursday nights following Grey's Anatomy. This is great news for Men in Trees because it gives them the possible opportunity of getting some of Grey's viewers, and the two shows are compatible in many ways.

This good news for Men In Trees is bad news for Six Degrees, whose time slot it will be taking. I saw on a message board that I frequent that there was a question of why this decision would be made since Six Degrees gets more viewers than Men in Trees. First, I don't know that that statement is accurate. I think Six Degrees has gotten more viewers many nights, but Men in Trees has about the same level viewership and more importantly Men in Trees has that viewership on a Friday night with no real lead-in (repeats of Grey's' Anatomy tend to air in the 8 p.m. timeslot), whereas Six Degrees has an excellent lead in and hasn't been able to take advantage. As happy as I am for Men In Trees, I am not happy with ABC's decision for Six Degrees.

Six Degrees is a good show, not a great show, but still one worth watching. There's a lot going on with the characters right now and the decision to but it on hiatus until January seems like a very bad one. I see why pulling it from it's slot might make sense, but why not give it Men in Trees spot, or that 8 p.m. Friday slot that is basically an open time as well. This show has a great concept, good writing, very good acting, and it's pedigree isn't bad either (it was created by J.J. Abrams).

On the last episode of Six Degrees, we saw Laura (Hope Davis) being promoted and then being taken by surprised when her female boss kissed her, Cameron (Campbell Scott) messes up taking care of his son (when bones break it tend to count as a mess up, I would say), but being given a second chance by his ex-wife, Damian proposed to his girlfriend, who accepted, and then he confessed to her about his past misdeeds and she walked out on him and in the previews for this week we saw Laura threatening to sue Cameron for a photo he took of her without her knowledge which shows her grieving the loss of her husband, Damian may be able to deal with his past and get the chance to get his girl back, and Whitney's lying ex-fiance is back to wreck havoc in her life and Whitney (Bridget Moynahan) will try to make him jealous by having a fake date with Cameron. Does it really sound like a good time for a hiatus? I think not. There's a lot of momentum right now and they should build on that.

Word is that the show is being retooled to focus more on the Campbell Scott and Bridget Moynahan's characters. Let's hope the hiatus until January doesn't really mean it is not returning at all and us fans are left with no explanations or conclusions about what has happened thus far. ABC is legendary in its poor decision making cutting good shows, My So-Called Life, Relativity, Cupid, Once and Again, Eyes - just to name a few. This show isn't as superb as any of those, but it is worthy of a full season to find an audience.