Is Four Seasons all We Can Handle?

[MacLeod]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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Quality attracts viewers on cable. On broadcast, formula still seems to be king.

Perhaps in the US, Networks such as the BBC are generally considered to be good at things such as Period Drama's and documentarys whilst Satelite stations seem to do endless re-runs and cheap formula shows (NB: Networks do this as well).

[Temis the Vorta]

I wish American networks would do more period dramas. Any period previous to 1950. I'm not really talking about the rich-people-in-fancy-clothes routine. That gets tiresome. Westerns seem to be making a comeback, but I'd like to see other milieus as well.

Speaking of documentaries, PBS is airing Ken Burns' Prohibition starting Oct 2.

And of course there's always Frontline and POV. I have my DVR set to ferret out anything new from them. Plus The Universe and Curiosity, if those count as documentaries, which I suppose they do, if they fit into any genre.

I think it is probably harder these days for episodic series to go on very long before getting old to viewers since those type of shows generally tend to just tell the same old chestnuts we've all seen a thousand times.

L&O: SVU is on season what, 13? Shows that have an episodic structure and a durable formula can go on for inordinant lengths. The shows that struggle with longevity are the serialized ones, because trying to plot out an ongoing story for 13 seasons would be a mind-boggling task and not doing it just means you either get repetitive or tangled up in your own canon, assuming any serialized show can survive that long in the first place.

[MacLeod]

^Well L&O went to 20 years, whilst the ST managed from 3-7 seasons each, didn't it start to get tangled up in it's own canon?

Realestically perhaps B5 is a good example of a how long a heavily serialised show works. Yes the last season was weaker, but that was down to being renewed almost at the last minute so the last part of S4 didn't go to plan. Compare with "Lost" whih at times seemed to be we are making this up as we go along.

[Temis the Vorta]

DS9 did great for 7 years. It needed to end because it had run through the premise sufficiently, but getting tangled up in canon was never a problem for them.

What they needed was a fresh premise. I was rooting for the Dominion to win the war in the series finale, half the DS9 cast to get killed, and for a new series to start called Star Trek: Resistance, with the surviving DS9 characters, plus some new ones and I wouldn't have objected to some VOY characters joining the show (Tuvok, B'elanna and EMH would have been good choices) when that series ended.

Canon has never been Star Trek's problem on TV. The problem has been writers and producers afraid to take a risk (which is why VOY and ENT were creative failures) and underlying changes in the TV biz (which is why DS9, VOY and ENT's ratings kept sinking and why it would be hard for even a great Star Trek series to survive now.)

[Miss Chicken]

Supernatural is it to its 8 season and, according to one source that I read Jensen and Jared have been signed up for season 9 and 10.

[Starbreaker]

Supernatural went off the rails after S5 though. There are lots of bad episodes now.

[Skywalker]

Starbreaker wrote:

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Supernatural went off the rails after S5 though. There are lots of bad episodes now.

Although to be fair, not every episode in its first few seasons was gold, either. Particularly the first half of season one. And the fifth season was surprisingly underwhelming IMO.

[Greg Cox]

It will be interesting to see if any other series adopt the AMERICAN HORROR STORY model of telling a completely different story, with many of the same actors playing different characters, each season. That was a bold gamble that seems to be paying off for them . . . .

[degra]

in the past we were fortunate to get 4 to 5 good solid consistently well written seasons out of a show. Nowadays we are lucky if we get one,,,I think a lot of that has to do with networks picking up more and more shows that are better suited to be a one season limited run series than a multiyear series yet trying to force them to go longer so we get a lot of stallung and filler. Shows like Heroes and bsg vampire diaries etc proved that,,,one excellent season then the show comes off the rails.

I also think that writers have come to rely on twists, teasers and cliffhangers rather than using those elements sparingly and creating satisfying payoffs.

I would much rather have a show with a much more open premise, modest ensemble so it could tell season long arcs for a few good years than some unnecessarily convoluted mythology show with dozens of characters to keep track of.

and re: supernatural,,,its last great year was season 4. Season five was highly uneven but managed to tell some strong stories like abandon all hope. Season 6 7 8 are wretched.

[Miss Chicken]

^^^I think season 8 is an improvement on season 7.