Why not trust B In Apartment 23 which was canceled by ABC

The premise of “Don’t Trust B” seems to follow – wide-eyed small-town girl, June Colburn (Dreama Walker) is forced to get along with the strict, irresponsible Chloe (Krysten Ritter) when she moves to New York City. Harmless enough; It reads like “2 Broke Girls” with a little more edge. But the actual show was much more daring than that. Chloe wasn’t just misbehaving in a nice, benign way; It can be legitimately terrible. Don’t Trust B was also frank about the sexual needs and emotional insecurities that motivate its queer characters, including The man responsible for your favorite crying photo: James Van Der Beek, bravely channeling his former teenage self by playing a fictionalized version of himself who is Chloe’s boyfriend. Even Eli (Michael Blakelock), John and Chloe’s peeping neighbor, was a lot like the series around him: perverted, but also strangely wholesome.

And the strangest thing of all, Real-life chaos demon Eric Andre He served as the show’s straight man (!) by playing June’s suave co-worker Mark Reynolds.

Despite its bold and distinctive character, Don’t Trust B achieved over six million viewers per episode in its first season, which debuted in April 2012. However, ABC chose to shorten the first season to seven episodes and folded the remaining episodes. Six episodes into the second season, where they were broadcast out of order. Damn this obvious attempt at self-sabotage, Season 2 still managed to pull in a not-at-all-terrible average of 3.8 million viewers per episode. But even that didn’t stop the network from canceling Don’t Trust B part way into its second season and refusing to air its final eight episodes (which were later released online).

ABC’s actions make more sense when you realize that the network, like the broader media industry, was struggling to figure out what constituted success anymore thanks to delayed viewing and especially the then-new phenomenon of streaming. “It was right before the metrics changed,” Ritter told Michael Rosenbaum. “We were getting canceled numbers that are now considered, like, huge hits, right? It was kind of bad scheduling.” In “inside you” in 2023, noting (in a very Chloe-esque way) that the show was “dragged by a smeared dog.” But maybe it wasn’t all bad in hindsight.

“But it was also very sharp. And we really pushed the envelope. The writing was way ahead of its time. And it was just one of those great little shows that probably served everyone better with just two seasons.” Ritter added, referring to the show’s religious status. Indeed, little Chloe has come a long way, as the enduring legacy of “Don’t Trust B” demonstrates. It’s certainly not as if the show’s sense of quarter-life malaise is no longer prominent.