I don’t usually talk about pop culture. I don’t venture to talk about music, film, books or television shows. I have seen many television series come go. Most shows are forgettable, formulaic, and predictable. Many times I lose interest before the end comes. Most of the time I’m never hooked so that I forget they even existed. This time I think I will make an exception.

Eureka managed to hook my attention. I’m sad to admit that I only found it on Netflix within the past year, but I got totally involved in the whole premise. It was very much a story of the underdog saving the day. Town Sheriff Jack Carter is the dumbest character on the show. He is a man cursed with average intelligence, but what he lacks in IQ he makes up for in common sense. He has the uncanny ability to poke and prod at whatever problem they find themselves in and distill it into its simplest terms, and in doing so lead the resident geniuses to the answer. Without him, you can’t help but wonder how the town could survive.

The show smartly rides the line between comedy, romance, and drama. The story arcs are compelling and the actors portray their characters with range and give them layered personalities, that even at their worst, you often find a yourself compelled to sympathize with them, often in spite of yourself. The main characters especially make you care for them, and the supporting cast more than pulls their weight. This is not only a group of co-workers, this is a family, and the care shown for one another is often manifested in the way they come together to solve to problem of the day.

Of course they had their issues with each other. They disagreed with each other, they fought with each other, some times maliciously, but the sheriff had a way of bringing them all together. He quickly established himself as an integral part of the town. Jack was sometimes ridiculed, often taken for granted, but his quick thinking always saved the day. He is the glue than keeps the town together.

I use present tense of course. The show may have ended, but it ended in such a way to leave no doubt that the stories continue, even after the show’s demise. That what makes the ending so great, even if bittersweet. The show is off the air, but in our mind we are allowed to believe that the adventures continue. We are left with the hope that we may get to revisit them in some fashion, even if history has shown that it rarely if ever happens. Hope springs eternal – or so I have been told.

Sheriff Jack Carter will remain Eureka’s intrepid savior, risking life and limb to ensure the survival of not only the town and its denizens, but of the hope their experiments inspire. They are fighting for a better future, they dare to believe that they can improve the world, and often their experiments go awry, but Carter and Company manage to save the day.

It’s a sad business that pulls the plug out of a show unique to television. So what that it’s not the most popular? So what that it rides the line between serious and silly, often in the same episode? They had so many more stories to tell, we the viewers invested ourselves on a weekly basis to follow them. Through them we were allowed to believe that the incredible could become credible, the impossible, was within the realm of the possible.

It’s probably too much to hope for that SyFy will reconsider their decision.  Luckily we still have Warehouse 13 to occupy our time, but Eureka certainly still has a place in our culture. Like Star Trek, it wanted to present a world of possibilities, but this time that time was now.

I guess for now, and probably forever, that’s a wrap. It’s our loss.

• ‘Eureka’ Series Finale Review: Just Another Day in the Greatest Town on TV (buddytv.com)
• Farewell To Eureka (rightcelebrity.com)
• Saying Farewell to EUReKA (jsheskier.wordpress.com)

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