Smith & Kidnapped: The Dramas Are Back, Sort Of

Both NBC’s Kidnapped and CBS’ Smith were ratings disappointments to their respective networks and were quickly pulled from primetime. Many viewers will agree that neither serial drama was given a chance to develop an audience and were both worth watching. If you’ve been missing these series, both shows are back. Well, sort of.

Smith, starring Ray Liotta, Simon Baker and Virginia Madsen, was the first new show of the fall season to bite the dust. CBS pulled the serial drama after just three episodes. Fans were left wondering what happened and were quite vocal about wanting to see the show return.

Kidnapped starred Jeremy Sisco, Timothy Hutton and Dana Delaney and initially aired on Wednesday nights. The show was weak in the ratings and NBC announced that the serial would conclude after 13 episodes and moved it to Saturday nights (when few people watch network television anyway). After two airings, NBC pulled Kidnapped from primetime completely. Fans of this show were left handing and have been quite vocal as well.

Well, all of the postings, emails and phone calls to the networks have paid off. Episodes of both Smith and Kidnapped have been posted online for all to see — providing of course you have a high-speed Internet connection.

You can find the seven completed episodes of Smith via the Smith page on the CBS website. They’re free to view online but unfortunately there’s no way for you to keep them. They are currently available for purchase on Amazon.com and on iTunes. In addition, CBS has posted detailed five-page synopses of the five unproduced episodes — so fans can read what would have happened in the coming weeks. No word if this show is headed for DVD but it certainly is possible. After all, the fan favorite Tru Calling’s second season was cut to six episodes and that was released on DVD just a few months later.

NBC is posting one new episode each week of Kidnapped on the NBC website. Unfortunately, if you miss an episode, it’s removed when the next episode is posted. It’s hard to say but I would think that if enough fans request it, NBC might keep them online a bit longer, allowing fans to catch up (hint, hint).

There’s also been some talk of releasing the 13 episodes of Kidnapped on DVD sometime in the future. If Sony (who produced the show) is impressed with the demand and continued support that would happen sooner than later.