Yesterday, HBO continued its pattern of renewing new dramas after a single episode. Today was Showtime’s turn on the renewal front, but HBO’s pay cable rival actually waited four weeks into the current seasons of “Shameless,” “House of Lies” and “Californication” before ordering more.
All three of the Sunday comedies (and, yes, I consider “Shameless” to be primarily a comedy, regardless of how Showtime submitted it at the Emmys last year) will return next year, “Shameless” for its third season, “House of Lies” for its second, and “Californication” for its sixth. Showtime PR seemed especially pleased yesterday to learn that the latest episode of “Shameless” drew 1.4 million viewers, beating the “Luck” premiere (1.1 million) even though HBO is in more homes and it was heavily-promoted.
(Of course, the “Luck” premiere was technically a rerun of an episode that 1.1 million had watched in December, so that number could go up in the coming weeks – though episode 2, opposite the Super Bowl, is not when I’d expect notable growth.)
I haven’t watched “Californication” in a long time (I can’t stand Duchovny’s character), but I’m curious how people are feeling about the other two shows at this point in the season. I’ll check in with another “Shameless” episode review in a couple of weeks, but are you all enjoying it? Several of you seemed ready to quit after what Frank did to Butterface, and most of you seemed unimpressed by the “House of Lies” premiere. Has anyone stuck with it? Are you enjoying it any more now than at the start?