There you have it. A few months after axing Samantha Who?, ABC has seen fit to effectively cancel Eastwick by opting to not order any more episodes after its original 13-ep order. Perhaps I wouldn’t be as annoyed that my favorite hour-long of the new season is biting the dust if ABC hadn’t made the simultaneous announcement that they would be ordering more episodes of Christian Slater’s snooze-fest The Forgotten.

Eastwick has taken a lot of flak from bloggers and critics for being an unabashedly girly take on John Updike’s novel and the popular Jack Nicholson-starring film, but I can’t help it: I loved its combination of Charmed and Desperate Housewives. Besides, it’s not as if Eastwick were unrelentingly cheery. Since its pilot aired, two characters have been killed (including a nasty high school student who almost raped someone) and a husband was struck by lightning. Plus, the trio of actresses (Lindsay Price, Rebecca Romjin and Jaime Ray Newman) had a lovely, easy chemistry that most other shows lack. One can imagine them being friends off-set, something that doesn’t seem remotely possible with the cast of Housewives.

But it doesn’t matter now, since Eastwick looks unlikely to resurrect itself. What a shame, too, because this season has been heavy on stress and terror and light on charm. And soon to be even lighter, it seems.

Photo courtesy of Richard Foreman/ABC.