Let Them Finish

As loyal readers know, I resist tuning in to TV shows if everyone has been telling me how I have to start watching them. But, facing cold nights full of re-runs I finally got around to starting the Showtime program, "Homeland". Now, it's not a bad show, but hardly the groundbreaking, change-my-life phenomenon I had been told it would be. It was very well-acted and for the most part well-written, even if it did suffer the fate that a lot of shows that are on premium cable suffer: starts really well and then fades throughout the season, ultimately ending unsatisfactorily. Actually, in the case of "Homeland" it hardly ends at all, which is the point of this post. Watching the season you can almost tell the exact episode in which the writers were informed they had been picked up for a second season and were forced to scramble to come up with a new ending for this season as well as a new way to keep the drama going for next season. Let me be among the first to say I find this totally unnecessary.

Of course, "Homeland" is hardly the only show this has happened to. This season's "Sons of Anarchy" finale seemed rather disjointed (this is my favorite show, so you have no idea how much it pains me to write this), because it felt as if the entire season was building towards a climax, only to see the show given another season fairly late and the writers couldn't come up with a clean way to extend the drama for another 13 episodes. It was really unsatisfying. Of course that ending felt smooth when compared to the show "The Killing" which spent the entire year following the investigation into the murder of one girl and then ended the season without revealing who the killer was. It probably didn't help that the show's producer then went on the offensive after all the complaining and told the show's fans they were never promised an ending, which pretty much pissed off all the people who had watched and in the process guaranteed there won't be a third season because the rating are going to now plummet.

Now, "The Killing" was based off a Dutch show that lasted for two season, but each season had a totally different cast and case. I don't watch a ton of BBC, but I will say this about them and other European shows: when they declare that  something is a one-season event, they mean it. There is no scramble to come up with enough ideas to make it through a second season. They either go in a totally different direction or don't even bother to have more episodes. There is something admirable about that. I mean, I get why channels would want to keep a successful show like these going: they are easy to make, the DVD sales bring in a ton of money and they are always the darlings of the awards ceremonies, which means the network can brag about all their award-winning programs. But, that doesn't mean they should automatically be giving every show another season. Occasionally, these shows would be better served quitting while they were ahead. Not every movie needs a sequel and that goes double for TV shows. I look at a show like "Nurse Jackie": amazing first season, everyone hated the second one and I wasn't even aware there was a third season until I Googled it a minute ago out of curiosity.

Obviously, I've never written for a critically acclaimed show on a major network, so I don't know how hard it would be to walk away from an opportunity like this. But, I'm willing to bet that even some of the creators of these shows aren't happy with the decisions they have to make just to make it to through another season they weren't expecting to have to write. Personally, I would much rather see these writers be given deals to develop a new show instead of trying to continually extend one idea for six seasons. (I don't care that a cable show is 13 episodes and a major network show is 24, trying to string anything out that long is going to get repetitive soon enough.) At some point both the writers and producers need to simply cut bait and decide on an end-date, because if you don't you run the risk of getting to the point where no one cares how your show ends. I know I would much rather have people bummed that my TV show was ending instead of saying, "Wait, is that still on the air?" Just remember this: it is always better to go out one year too early instead of staying one year too long. And if you don't believe me, ask the cast of "That 70's Show."