Jokesters can give up on all of the Forever puns. ABC’s drama has been middling in the ratings, leading many to joke about the show’s short-lived status, but on Friday ABC announced that it has given Forever a full-season order. That’s right, Forever is not getting canceled by ABC, at least not today. So, if you’ve been interested in the oddball procedural, now’s a good time to give it a shot.
Forever stars the charming albeit serious Ioan Gruffudd as Henry Morgan, a medical examiner in New York City who hooks up with a Detective named Jo Martinez to solve cases in the city. Procedurals are almost never super straightforward these days, and Forever does feature a twist. Henry Morgan is not just any medical examiner. He’s an immortal medical examiner. Oftentimes the episodes feature flashbacks to the man’s past, which waffle between amusing and campy, as in an episode when Morgan dealt with the Jack the Ripper case from history's past.
It’s a clever, fun TV series that is propelled into excellent territory by the relationship between Morgan and Martinez, and the deceptive nature of Morgan’s own story, which he is forced to keep from her. It’s also a series that would be great opposite ABC’s other procedural Castle, rather than opposite Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and I’m hoping the network will be able to rework the schedule to fit them together, as it did with Forever’s premiere. We’ll have to wait and see how the cookie crumbles, however.
Deadline says that Forever is managing to move forward thanks to a pretty epic DVR bump. Apparently, the Tuesday night drama nabbed an impressive 82% gain in the week following last week’s initial airing. Of ABC’s new entries, so far only Black-ish and How To Get Away With Murder have received full season orders. At the very least, Forever’s luck is running better than ABC’s other New York-based series, Manhattan Love Story, which earned the honors of first cancelation of the season late last month.
Forever is definitely a procedural and thus definitely not for everyone, but very rarely does a show with slow ratings get a chance to finish out its first season. Today is a new day and a second life for the series, pun intended, and I hope the show will actually nab the viewing audience it deserves. You can catch new episodes of ABC’s Forever on Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. ET.
