NBC Cancels Bent, Awake And Two More

And now for the bad news…

Today we learned that Parks and Recreations and Up All Night were renewed, and last night there was good news for Community. But it's not all good news for NBC. The ax fell for a number of the network's struggling freshman series, some more deserving of a second chance than others. Unfortunately, these ones won't be getting them.

TVLine is reporting that NBC is pulling the plug on Awake, Bent, Best Friends Forever and Are You There Chelsea?. The latter two comedies, I'm relatively indifferent toward, as neither of them grabbed my attention, but the cancellation of Awake and Bent is particularly disappointing, as I was a fan of both.

Awake stars Jason Isaacs and follows a man who is in a car accident with his wife and teenage son, after which he begins to wake up in two different realities, one of which has his wife alive and his son dead, and the other in which his wife has passed and his son survived the accident. Last night's episode ended with a particularly great revelation. It's unfortunate to know the series won't return for a second season. There are two episodes left scheduled to air this month. Hopefully we'll get some measure of closure from the show when the finale airs on May 24.

Meanwhile, the Amanda Peet starring comedy Bent never really got a fighting chance, airing late during midseason, with two back-to-back episodes over the course of three Wednesday nights (against some serious competition). As I mentioned last month, I'd hoped NBC would take a chance on the series and bring it back for Season 2. While I can't say I'm surprised to hear bad news, I'm still very disappointed.

Kelly West
Assistant Managing Editor

Kelly put her life-long love of movies, TV and books to greater use when she joined CinemaBlend as a freelance TV news writer in 2006, and went on to serve as the site’s TV Editor before joining the staff full-time in 2011 and moving over to other roles at the site. At present, she’s an Assistant Managing Editor who spends much of her time brainstorming and editing features, analyzing site data, working with writers and editors on content planning and the workflow, and (of course) continuing to obsess over the best movies and TV shows (those that already exist, and the many on the way). She graduated from SUNY Cortland with BA in Communication Studies and a minor in Cinema Studies. When she isn't working, she's probably thinking about work, or reading (or listening to a book), and making sure her cats are living their absolute best feline lives.