Hulu sends Up Here “down there” after just a single season on the air
Mae Whitman and Carlos Valdes' musical comedy is dead after a single season at Hulu
Aux News Up Here
Many things may change, over the years, in the wild and constantly evolving world of TV production. But probably not this: Friday night is still a secluded patch of dirt with a broken streetlight hanging over it, where the networks (and now streamers) take their victims to finally die.
Going down there tonight: Up Here, the Hulu rom-com musical that starred the ever-dependable Mae Whitman and Carlos Valdes as a couple whose romantic prospects are continually sabotaged by their own hang-ups and “inner voices”—literalized in the form of co-stars Katie Finneran, John Hodgman, Andréa Burns, Sophia Hammons, Scott Porter, and Emilia Suárez. And they sang a lot! And it was also a period piece set in 1999, just to up the quirk load a little bit more.
And, certainly, Up Here had what a looking-on-the-bright-side-type realtor might describe as “good bones”: The show was developed by Tony winner Steven Levenson and also-Tony (and Oscar) winners Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, with directing duties handled, in part, by Hamilton’s Thomas Kail. (Also, again: Mae Whitman remains a winning presence on TV at pretty much all times.) But our own review of the series dinged the show for both its storytelling and its songwriting. And Up Here’s ratings, unfortunately… well, okay, actually, we have no idea how the ratings were, since Hulu doesn’t reveal that information to anybody. (There’s actually a couple of strikes going on where that’s a big sticking point. Who knew?)
Anyway, they were apparently insufficient, such that Up Here has gotten shuffled off its mortal coil after just a single season (amounting to 8 episodes), all of which got binge-dropped on the service back on March 23. THR does note that the show will remain on the streamer for the foreseeable future, which is, apparently, what fans have to take as a “win” of sorts at this point in television history.
11 Comments
Mae Whitman may be remembered as “Her?” to Arrested Development fans, but she’s not usually the lead. Not that I’m saying it wouldn’t have been cancelled with someone else.
It definitely felt like something that was conceived as a series for Zoey Deschanel, and then recast when she passed on the role.
“Down there”? The “Up Yours” joke was right there, AVC.
“Up Here Goes Tits Up”.
It’s too bad the writing wasn’t up to it, since the cast is so good.Of course, it was probably doomed to be cancelled whether or not it was good, so maybe in that case it’s better to be bad. I dunno, it depends on how you feel about beautiful corpses.
This. It was a great cast, but a lousy execution. Honestly, to waste the talents of Mae Freakin’ Whitman, is an achievement.
I meant to check this out, then completely forgot about it.
Go watch it – it ends nicely. It has a little hook at the end, but nothing that needs answering.
I miss Crazy Ex Girlfriend so much so I was willing to give Up Here a few episodes. Eventually I got to an episode where the main characters broke up basically because of semantic commitment differences and the show became unbearable. Obviously earnest and awkward emotion comes with the territory when youre making a musical romantic comedy, but Up Here felt like it was just uncritically embracing tropes of the genre that Crazy Ex Girlfriend turned into a buffet. The Anderson Lopez juggernaut will need its Emmy to complete the unholy ritual of EGOT though, so its totally possible this could lay the groundwork for something better if new TV ends up being a thing again.
Aww, this show was so charming.
Up…her?