I've been rewatching season 4 of "24" while using the treadmill, and despite all of its wild implausibilities, "24" is probably my favorite show of all time.
Of course, ten years ago, I would have said that about "The X-Files," for 10 years ago was just after the first three seasons of that show, when the government/alien conspiracy arc was at its most effectively ambiguous. Then, the show started to collapse from the weight of internal inconsistency, lazy writing, annoying characters, until by the end, it was a relief that the show finally ended.
What I draw from this is that it may not seem like it at the time, but an early cancellation is better than a late one. Take "The Pretender," a show about a supergenius being chased by the Centre; kind of like "Doogie Houser" meets "The Fugitive." After four seasons, NBC canceled it, leaving a cliffhanger ending. TNT acquired the syndication rights and produced two TV movies that also ended with a cliffhanger. That's annoying, but at least the show was still strong (in terms of writing) when it was killed off. So I have good memories of that show.
Or "Nowhere Man," a show about a photographer on the run from a mysterious conspiracy; his existence has been erased so that his wife doesn't know who he is, etc. This show lasted just one season: the debut season for UPN. At least it was given notice that it wasn't going to be renewed, so that the last episode does tie things up. I would've liked another season, but it too ended on a high note.
Not all shows that remained good to the end were canceled prematurely. "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" both ended on their own terms and remained enjoyable to the end.
But then there are the counterexamples, those shows like "The X-Files," that hung on way too long. "Alias" is a prime offender. While I never held it in the same high esteem as I did with "La Femme Nikita" (itself a show marred by a terrible last season), I did like "Alias" quite a bit in season 1 and 2. But season 3 was bad, and season 4 was so awful that I didn't bother watching season 5 at all.
The original "Star Trek" probably should fall into this category, as the last season (3) contains some of the worst hours of TV programming imaginable. (The episode "Spock's Brain," anyone?) However, since I only caught this show in syndicated reruns, it didn't have the same impact as when you're watching a show organically.
How do these lessons reflect on some of my current TV shows? Mostly, I'm worried about "24" and "Lost." It's too bad that the economics of TV shows dictate a preference for 5-10 years of a show, so that there are enough episodes to run in syndication (though 3 years is generally deemed sufficient, I think). The problem arises if that forces a show to last longer than it should, just to stretch things out and to make more money for the production studio and the network. I'd like to hope that the producers of these shows will realize when it's time to wrap things up.
Memories of the bad endings of TV shows drag down the entire show.
"Invasion" was a great show, and ABC canceled it after a cliffhanger ending. Pissed me off royally.
Two other shows that died premature deaths: "Brimstone" (back in '98) and "Karen Sisco" (last season).
Posted by: Lugosi | June 09, 2006 at 05:53 PM