Wednesday night's episode of Showtime's baseball docudrama The Franchise, which this season is following the Miami Marlins, will be its last. At least two more episodes were originally planned, with the option for others, but the Marlins and Showtime have decided to pull the plug early, because, well, this team sucks. And it doesn't even suck in an entertaining way anymore. They're just back to being the Marlins we've always known: painfully boring, painfully bad.
"There was an option to do more but given the state of our season, it was decided that the original eight would suffice," Marlins president David Samson told The Palm Beach Post in a text message.
Showtime decided to rush an early preview episode to capitalize and chronicle the controversy over manager Ozzie Guillen's remarks about Fidel Castro. So technically, they did churn out eight episodes, exactly the number the show produced last season when it followed the San Francisco Giants. There were original plans to do one more, but the Marlins have pretty much run out of steam both on the field and in terms of storylines
Guillen's kept his mouth mostly shut, and seems a shell of his formerly rambunctious self. The always entertaining Logan Morrison is out with an injury. Several star players were sold off in mini-fire sale. What the hell else was there follow but a bunch of dejected players who have nothing left to play for this season?
Don't worry though! There's always The Dolphins on HBO's Hard Knocks. Hopefully their current suckitude will make for better television.
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