Tag Archives: Penguin Mystery

A&E Cancelled Longmire – Tis Sad But True

longmireJust two days after we posted a review of the first Longmire novel (The Cold Dish) by Craig Johnson word came that A&E, the network broadcasting Longmire, had chosen not to renew the show, despite the fact it was the cable networks highest rated scripted show.  Like a shot heard round the world, the announcement went out under the headline “Breaking News” from many who cover the entertainment industry, like the Hollywood Reporter, who came close to that level of emphasis, making it the lead story in their e-mail bulletin that day.

Basic Longmire_Why such surprise?  Such emphasis?  Admittedly the season three finale averaged an audience of 3.7 million, and many viewers had not found the show.  Yet, the flip side of that coin is the fact local movie theaters had commercials for Longmire airing before major summer tent pole / blockbuster movies.  That meant the network was promoting and supporting the show, right?

The sad reality is the audience numbers had slipped since Season 2, when in my humble opinion the show had a more interesting through-season arc.  One of the greatest strengths of Longmire is the friendship between Henry Standing Bear and Walt Longmire, and during Season 3 they were forced to be apart for several episodes with rare contact.  While that allowed for some interesting revelations, and some character development, it meant that a lot of the fun and sparkle that audiences looked forward to seeing on the screen each week was missing.

Perhaps even more important that a slight slip in the ratings however, is that the younger audience, the ever-talked about 18-49 demographic that advertisers are so convinced spend more money, dropped off by 45% during Season 3.

Longmire-TV-2012-Season-1I can not help but wonder if the folks at FX who put Justified on the air have watched Longmire… this is their chance, with one more season of Justified coming to audiences in the not too distant future, what a double feature of entertainment that would be!  An hour of Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) style justice as he goes after Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) down in Kentucky, followed by an hour of Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor) and Henry Standing Bear (Lou Diamond Phillips) doing what they do best in Absaroka County, Wyoming!

After one of those movie theater promotions I mentioned aired while I was at Guardians of the Galaxy with John Mayo of ComicBookPage he asked me after the movie, “anything like Justified?” and we had a good talk about the two shows, and just how much they had in common, and how different they are – the two would compliment one another nicely for an hour of Justice served up with a little old-fashioned attitude and style.

And for those who were paying attention to how Season 3 of Longmire ended, we were pretty well guaranteed to get some more guest appearances from Gerald McRaney who was knocking our socks off as Barlow Connally, father of Deputy Branch Connally (Bailey Chase).

All of the articles I have seen confirm what I first heard, the folks making Longmire are shopping it around, with hopes a fourth season will indeed be made and air, so maybe my dream of some fantastic justice nights on FX is not as crazy as you think.

A few links that might be of interest:

Longmire – The Cold Dish

For three seasons on A&E Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor) has been the determined Sheriff of Absaroka County Wyoming.   His friend Henry Standing Bear (Lou Diamond Phillips) has shown audiences what a true friend is, being the man who will stand by Walt when his world feels as though it is falling apart, because his wife has passed away, and having his back in all situations.

Vic Moretti (Katee Sackhoff) if a no nonsense deputy (undersheriff?) with the skills the county needs in the Sheriff’s department to help solve crimes and uphold the laws, but also to support their Sheriff and balance his skill set.  She may not be a local girl, but she brings city cop training, knowledge of ballistics and Crime Scene solving into the mix.

These are all characters that Craig Johnson brought to life in his series of novels that began with The Cold Dish.  With nearly a dozen Longmire novels, seven of which were in print before the series began airing, the characters had taken form and the relationships were clearly defined… and many aspects translated directly to the show beautifully.  Yet there are aspects that were clearly changed, noticeably and yet not in a negative way, just in a way that as I read I stopped and said, “hmm, I see what you did there,” and took a moment to wonder why.

In the Longmire from Book To Screen Deluxe Teaser, which predominantly contains sample chapters from the books, there is a foreward by Craig Johnson which talks about some of the changes that took place, and the process of going from his original books to the Television series.  He specifically addresses the age change of the title Character Longmire, who is older in the novels than on the TV show.  The change was made, quite simply, to afford the show more seasons, and while they did make him younger, they did not do it so dramatically or drastically that I found it distracting.  And I felt that while they shaved some years off of his age, they did not shave off so many that negated the possibility of his back story, they simply changed the details of it, and it still works, because he is old enough to have still had time to have had a job before he was Sheriff, to have lived a complex life, etc.

I felt they also changed aspects of the relationship between Longmire and Lucian Connally… and as so often happens when I have the opportunity to read source material I want to go back and rewatch the entire series from start to finish and get a better idea of how close the two works are to one another.

I started reading The Cold Dish, the first Longmire novel, days after I watched the season 3 season finale.  I was in awe of how the season ended, knew I had the Longmire novel at hand, and wanted to spend more time with the Longmire characters, so the timing, in that respect, felt perfect.

Throughout the novel I was aware I had seen this basic plot on the show, and yet it felt… different… there was a familiarity to it, without a full on sense of deja-vu, which I appreciated.  I felt like I was along for a ride with old friends, without feeling like I knew what was coming around every turn, and there were no surprises in store for me.  By the time I got to the end, I was certain I had encountered the crime before, and yet, while I have a fairly good memory for the who-done-its, Craig Johnson had surprised me, and I wanted to know what I had forgotten.

After a little digging around I found that I was correctly recalling similar plot points were in the tenth episode of the first season, and yet, I do not feel it would be fair to say that the episode was pulled directly from this novel — so while each might give you hints and things to think about while enjoying the other, I’m not convinced either will help you solve the who-done-it in the other.  And yes, to me, that makes each twice as powerful.

I for one am grateful there are nearly a dozen more books for me to read in this Penguin Mystery series.  While I cross my fingers, and join the multitudes hoping for a fourth season, at least I’ll have some reading material to keep me from missing Longmire and his pals too much.

For more info, you may want to visit: Craig Johnson’s Website

Longmire, A&E’s contemporary crime thriller set in Big Sky country, is based on the Walt Longmire mystery novels by bestselling author Craig Johnson. The series stars Australian actor Robert Taylor (The Matrix) as Walt Longmire, the charismatic, dedicated and unflappable sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming, along with Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Gallactica) as his right-hand deputy Vic Moretti, Lou Diamond Phillips (Numb3rs), Bailey Chase (Damages), and Cassidy Freeman (Smallville)