Even though his name was slapped all over the marketing as an executive producer, there was barely a single soul excited by the prospect of James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s True Lies being subjected to a small screen remake.
After all, the 1994 blockbuster is easily among both the director and star’s most entertaining efforts, with Jamie Lee Curtis stealing the show through a performance that landed her a Golden Globe win in the Best Actress – Musical or Comedy category. Sequel hopes may have long since died, but the concept – which was already a remake – didn’t need to be resurrected.
Nonetheless, CBS plowed ahead on True Lies V2.0 with Shameless‘ Steve Howey and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law‘s Ginger Gonzaga stepping in for the inimitable Schwarzenegger/Curtis double-act, only for the series to find itself on the receiving end of a critical drubbing and audience apathy.
The two-part season finale doesn’t even air until next Wednesday, but the network has already cut is losses and announced that True Lies is the latest one-and-done wonder. You know things are bad when the people in charge don’t even wait until the first run of episodes is over before confirming it’ll be the last, but it would be hard to imagine anyone being particularly shocked or upset by the news.
There are plenty of spy-driven shows out there that aren’t burdened by the weight of pressure and expectation attached to the True Lies branding, and the vast majority of them also happen to be vastly superior in terms of quality, too.