Like me, you may be old enough to remember when episodic television ruled.
A crime was committed at the beginning of a show and solved by the end. The following week another crime would be committed and wrapped up within 50-minutes or so and everyone would go to bed satisfied.
These days, of course, it’s all arcs, volumes and series-long mysteries, 24-week long teases. Is he in a coma – looks like it. Will they get off the island – no, yes, but they’ll go back. Who the hell is spray-painting Bad Wolf all over the shop? That kind of thing.
With a serial element incorporated into many genre shows, programme-makers suddenly have to bank a denouement which explains sometimes torturous show mythologies if and when the whole thing grinds to a halt. And they can often tie themselves in knots wrapping up a series.
The US hospital show St. Elsewhere infamously revealed the whole series had been the imagination of an autistic child. David Chase alienated half his loyal audience by having Tony Soprano’s fate hinge on an enigmatic fade to black.
Sometimes it can be a difficult to tie up loose ends when a show is cancelled quickly. Patrick McGoohan had to admit to Lew Grade that he didn’t have an ending for The Prisoner, although the nonsense he managed to come up with quickly seemed to do the trick.
And now the US version of Life On Mars has divided audiences with its bonkers resolution to its central mystery. The explanation for Sam Tyler’s time-travelling in the UK-version was most-satisfactory, but had been so heavily signposted for two series that you couldn’t fail to see it coming.
In the US, they seem to have a more cavalier attitude to this kind of thing. If you, like me, have no intention of watching it, you may find the answers here at Dark Horizons.
How did your favourite series end, I wonder?
April 2, 2009 at 3:52 pm
oh my word that does indeed sound like a totally bonkers ending for LOM. I wonder what Mssrs Graham, Pharoah and Jordan make of that!
I was totally and utterly outraged by The Sopranos ending. And even more so by Chase’s explanation of it. It was rubbish and an insult to it’s loyal audience.
I did wonder how Battlestar Galactica was going to end after all that mythology and stuff. But generally speaking it was pretty cool. West Wing was probably gifted the easiest ending ever – someone was gonna win the election and Barlett sails off into the sunset!
The big one is of course gonna be Lost. As you know I’ve given up on it out of frustration! But I am fascinated to know how they are going to end that mess!
April 2, 2009 at 4:03 pm
I really disliked how they did this ending – I thought it was a bit of a cop-out, honestly, and while there were plenty of clues, the UK version ended far better, with far more meaning. This one just felt empty.
April 2, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Jez,
I think I tend to agree with you about The Sopranos – it seemed like a slap in the face, and utterly pretentious.
I was mostly satisfied with Battlestar, although the quasi-religious stuff – the angels, Starbuck’s vanishing – seemed somewhat lumpen.
Lost will be fascinating, yes. It’s a show kept standing by its own hideously complex mythology. To be honest, I’ve been disappointed with this latest series. I am so *over* with time-travel.
Andrew, hi, from what I can extrapolate, the ending has absolutely nothing to do with the themes of the series. I can just about understand it because it’s been cancelled – but after watching five series of I’d be pretty pissed off with that explanation!
April 3, 2009 at 3:26 pm
I loved the US version of Life On Mars. But I agree with anyone who says they way they ended the series sucked. It trivialized everything that had gone on before. Leave it to US television to cop out at the very end. Astronauts on their way to Mars. As the Brits like to say ‘What a load of rubbish’.
April 13, 2009 at 7:00 pm
@ mark eastwood – I somewhat disagree, this seems to have been an ending that was long planned, but if I’d had to have waited a couple seasons for that ending, I would have been pissed. But, it didn’t have much to do with the themes, and where the UK show showed some good character development throughout, this one nullified it by the main character agreeing to go into that sort of state.
April 26, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Gotta agree on the great ending to the West Wing, it’s just a pity that it lost much of its greatness when Sorkin moved on after Season 4. Still, Studio 60 was great….while it lasted.