John Ortiz
It began with high hopes, then got a weird start, and never got any traction at all. Now Fox is burning off the last two episodes Saturday.
Rake, the serio-tragic story of an excellent lawyer with a gambling addiction, a broken practice, and the worst luck ever had a lot going for it: Greg Kinnear and John Ortiz, Ortiz fresh from the unintended wreckage of the HBO series Luck, were doing some of the best work of their career, portraying a charming “rake” and his solid best friend. And Fox, who’d had luck with “unlovable” character in the past, from Married With Children to House, were high on it, too: it debuted on Thursdays at 9P in January, in the coveted post-American Idol spot.
John Ortiz and Greg Kinnear
But the best laid plans and all that: ratings were anemic from the beginning, and Fox soon shoved it to Fridays at 8P where it did even worse. Now Fox has announced it will burn off the last two episodes this Saturday, April 5, from 8-10P.
What exactly went wrong? Excellent question. Certainly its weird debut date, even out of Idol, robbed it of any of the “Fall Season” momentum. And–in a move that’s all too typical these days–Fox didn’t give the show any time to grow an audience; it was shipped off to the graveyard before it even had a chance to take a deep breath. But that’s all water under the proverbial bridge at this point; at least we’ll get a chance to see Ortiz and the rest of the truly excellent cast in its last two episodes. And maybe we’ll finally find out what’s in that ratty paper bag Kinnear is always carrying around…
