As the new fall season of television approaches, we are all faced with the decision of choosing which shows are worth our precious time and which are better off left in the dust. This may not be so much a struggle concerning the new shows (after all, this digital age has made it much easier to catch up on shows we may have missed or not given a chance) but rather which shows you have stuck with and invested so much time in.
One of the main reasons for not keeping up with a television series typically is that the plot has become aimless, leaving the once consistent tone and consistent characters in its wreckage. What was once a drama is now a goofball-comedy-drama thing. Characters once so steadfast in their motivations are now just devices used to make sure the plot develops in the most convenient way possible. As is the nature with ongoing story narratives, the initial focus tends to be stretched out, and in most cases that results in some not-so-awesome plot developments until the whole show is half of what it used to be. The A.V. Club did a great write up of long narrative trends in fantasy epics, but the core problems are just as applicable to any other long-running series.
I just finished the FX drama series Rescue Me after a lot of ups and downs (the fourth, some of the fifth, sixth, and most of the seventh season were less than stellar) but despite it all I decided to stick with it; I enjoyed the characters, the amusing banter, the well done fire scenes, and how it all mixed with the themes of loss and redemption. After the first three seasons of pretty consistent quality, the problems started arising when plot threads were just left hanging or major developments were somehow forgotten about. For instance, the main character played by Dennis Leary is shot in a bar by his cousin Teddy and is left to die. Two seasons later, Teddy is walking Denis Leary's daughter down the aisle for her wedding because somehow a man who attempted murder is a more honorable person than a recovering alcoholic. Either the writers tried to ignore the shooting plot to make this one work, or maybe the shows characters are suffering from some form of Alzheimer's disease. It was moments like these that made me consider reaching for the remote and just calling it quits, but something kept me going. At some point I realized that the writers were going to play it safe, that they were not going to shake the foundations of the plot or of the characters, and if it looked like they were, it would all conveniently be undone in some way or another. After all, they found a formula that worked for a good three years, so why risk destroying everything they have built? Fortunately the comic exchanges in the show remained strong, but I tried to tune out the plot developments as much as I could. Once a show backs away from something it has built up for a whole season and then drops it like nothing, the audience feels cheated. This is the risk that we as audience members take. Will the creators be able to churn out a program while not sacrificing the integrity of everything they built their show on? More often than not, the answer is an unfortunate "no."
In the end, I'm glad I stuck with Rescue Me to see what to do and what not to do when it comes to an ongoing narrative. Would I give as much time to another series showing similar problems? Probably not. Television just takes so much more investment than, say, watching a movie. If I'm going to sit in front of a screen for thirteen hours of my life it better be worth it. And thanks once again to the internet I can usually have a pretty good idea of whether a show is worth watching or not. I have already decided to stop watching True Blood after the second season for this reason.
Television writers do seem to be getting better about putting an end date on their series so that they are better able to control the story and character arcs. It is for this reason that I stuck with Lost until the end after being tempted to stop midway through season three, when everything seemed to be stalled. I will stick by loyally to Mad Men and Breaking Bad for their decision to end the series after two more seasons. Let's hope this current trend becomes the norm for television dramas.
On my list of returning shows I've got: The Office, Boardwalk Empire, Dexter, Parks and Recreation, The Walking Dead, and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I do have some reservations about The Office since they got rid of the central character of the show last season and I'm not sure if the rest of the cast can hold up the show with a giant Steve Carell shaped hole in the middle of it. I hope this season of Dexter will be better than last year's disappointing finale. I can see the show running as long as possible so Showtime can milk the profits until the well dries up. I have faith that Boardwalk Empire will improve from its by-the-book first season. To be fair, they did have a lot of characters to introduce. There has been a lot of talk about the future of The Walking Dead with showrunner Frank Darabont leaving the production, which honestly worries me. There were already some signs that the show was idling as it tried to figure out the plot midway through the season, but I will still watch, being the horror junkie that I am. Parks and Rec and It's Always Sunny have remained reliably funny so there is no issue there.
The new shows premiering this year have shown some potential but I'll just wait for either outstanding word-of-mouth or for the Season 1 DVDs to be reviewed before I open up another possible Pandora's Box. There are only so many hours in a day and only so many hours of television I can watch before I don't have time for anything else.
Sometimes you just need to know when to call it quits.
