Using your knowledge of TV shows, what makes a final season according to you. Which final seasons of shows do you think reached your expectations or went above them?
What makes a final season?: the comeback
- Thread starter Joe Washington
- Start date
Lost is doing it now.
Personlly I think Lost has been on a steady climb since the beginning. But what makes final seasons usually good is either the writers and show runners know they gotta go out with a bang in risk of being canceled prematurely liked Angel for example. Who's to say if they stayed for a 6th season that that season would have topped
season 5 But it's subjective I guess
season 5 But it's subjective I guess
Well, I definitely think it helps when shows know when their final season is going to be, rather than just randomly getting canceled one day and scrambling to wrap everything up. DS9 had a really awesome final season, and I think LOST is doing an awesome job now. I like it when final seasons try to be epic and try to bring closure to as much of the overall story as possible.
I disagree about DS9's final season. I thought it was a major step down from prior seasons.
Unfortunately, I don't think television, due to the nature of the medium is good at producing satisfying endings. Very few television endings are planned out well, and often times just serve as a way to give fans what they supposedly want, without resolving or addressing the true needs of the story.
Unfortunately, I don't think television, due to the nature of the medium is good at producing satisfying endings. Very few television endings are planned out well, and often times just serve as a way to give fans what they supposedly want, without resolving or addressing the true needs of the story.
We're culturally inclined toward a three act story structure:
1. Act 1: The set up (location, style, characters, catalyst, central question, main action beats)
2. First Turning Point: Development (unexpected twist, new details, propels into Act 2)
3. Act 2: Main Storyline, The journey, The quest, the focus of the story)
4. Second Turning Point: raises the stakes, propels viewer into a dramatic climax, speeds the pace
5. Act 3: Resolution, ties loose threads
Source:
http://academics.smcvt.edu/journali... Structure/three_act_story_structure HOME.htm
Granted, most shows spread out the various acts, but we still want that final season to simulate an Act 3 (resolution, the tying of loose threads).
1. Act 1: The set up (location, style, characters, catalyst, central question, main action beats)
2. First Turning Point: Development (unexpected twist, new details, propels into Act 2)
3. Act 2: Main Storyline, The journey, The quest, the focus of the story)
4. Second Turning Point: raises the stakes, propels viewer into a dramatic climax, speeds the pace
5. Act 3: Resolution, ties loose threads
Source:
http://academics.smcvt.edu/journali... Structure/three_act_story_structure HOME.htm
Granted, most shows spread out the various acts, but we still want that final season to simulate an Act 3 (resolution, the tying of loose threads).
I thought Frasier, Cheers, Monk all had perfect final seasons.
Can American TV with its season concept really do a final season well? First they have to know it is he final year and Jay Leno won't move back to late night and the show would get drafted for another go. Then their is a fear of destroying a character before the movie is done if the show really had such a cult or mainstream following.
Ideally a school based show dies in four years when the class graduates. Jack Bauer takes a sniper's bullet to his head. The doctor finishes his training and moves on to his practice
Ideally a school based show dies in four years when the class graduates. Jack Bauer takes a sniper's bullet to his head. The doctor finishes his training and moves on to his practice
I liked DS9's ending because it tied up many loose ends. I liked Quantum Leap's ending because it strolled down Memory Lane with the viewer. I am loving LOST and where it is going.
A good series ending should be planned carefully. MASH springs to mind for that-or Cheers. The writing should recognize the emotional investment of the audience-particularly on long-running shows. In a pinch, it is possible to end gracefully but it isn't easy without sufficient warning. One good example of that is Journeyman, which managed a wrap despite little notice.
Answers should be given, old faces return(if it makes sense) and the characters should be allowed to move on in a believable manner. (Friends did that last bit fairly well.)
The ending should only be epic if the show was epic-a quiet finish has its place, too.
Personally, I'm a fan of "in jokes" so I love it when the series finale can pull it off.
A good series ending should be planned carefully. MASH springs to mind for that-or Cheers. The writing should recognize the emotional investment of the audience-particularly on long-running shows. In a pinch, it is possible to end gracefully but it isn't easy without sufficient warning. One good example of that is Journeyman, which managed a wrap despite little notice.
Answers should be given, old faces return(if it makes sense) and the characters should be allowed to move on in a believable manner. (Friends did that last bit fairly well.)
The ending should only be epic if the show was epic-a quiet finish has its place, too.
Personally, I'm a fan of "in jokes" so I love it when the series finale can pull it off.
I definitely think that a final season will work best when the creative team knows that it's the last season, and they can map out the story in advance. Once the writers know that the show has a set end date, they can (hopefully) begin to bring the storyline to a climax and then offer resolution. If there's anything that they've been putting off, now is the time to do it. If there are questions that need to be answered, now is the time to answer them. Bring everything to a climax, add in a few twists and turns, ramp up the drama, and then give the fans and the characters some payoff at the end.
One could argue that everything after Season 8 was Stargate: SG-1 2.
All I ask from final seasons is that the level of writing stay high. Of course, given that cancellations usually happen because the audience has lost interest, the odds are not good that a show will be of great quality during its last season. It works better if the show runners have a planned end point due to design of the show or contract length.
All I ask from final seasons is that the level of writing stay high. Of course, given that cancellations usually happen because the audience has lost interest, the odds are not good that a show will be of great quality during its last season. It works better if the show runners have a planned end point due to design of the show or contract length.
Except for, ya know, the original question of whether Bajor was going to join the Federation. But other than that and some of the stupid stuff with Gul Dukat getting posessed by the Pagh'Wraiths, I thought that DS9 did a good job resolving the big stuff with the Dominion as well as some of the smaller stuff, like Rom becoming the new Grand Nagus and Garak returning to Cardassia and General Martok becoming the new Chancellor of the Klingons. I liked the advancement of the Bashir/Ezri romance and the bittersweet ending of the Bashir/O'Brien bro-mance. I didn't much care for Odo leaving though. I just have a hard time imagining him ever leaving Kira's side considering all the heartache it took to get there.
I agree that Season 8 would have been a wonderful ending. However, I did enjoy Seasons 9 & 10 as sort of a separate series. Col. Mitchell was lame and I missed Jack O'Neill but Vala Mal Doran was a hoot!
Angel had a good final season, although it was very different from the rest of the series. It needed to be, since there was just no way to top Season 4 in the old Angel Investigations format. Still, it brought Angel and Wolfram & Hart back to the forefront, after the Beast/Jasmine & badass Wesley diversions of Season 4.
Oh, don't get me wrong. I liked Seasons 9 & 10 too, but it just felt so tacked on when looking at the series as a whole.
Hell, Stargate did it twice, didn't they? Seasons 7 AND 8 were supposed to be final season, Big Finish seasons, and they got renewed at the last minute both times. Then in Season 10, they get cancelled in the middle of a story arc they had to whip up from whole cloth to cover the fact that season 8's finale completely destroyed the original series concept... WTF?
I had my problems with seasons 9 and 10. Rocky start, too many new characters and established character transitions... it really did feel like a different series altogether, and might have worked better had they just made a clean break with it instead of trying to make two postscript seasons out of it... nevertheless, SciFi would cancel the show just as they were finally getting the Ori plot geared up toward something I actually kind of liked.
I had my problems with seasons 9 and 10. Rocky start, too many new characters and established character transitions... it really did feel like a different series altogether, and might have worked better had they just made a clean break with it instead of trying to make two postscript seasons out of it... nevertheless, SciFi would cancel the show just as they were finally getting the Ori plot geared up toward something I actually kind of liked.
Of course, just knowing you're reaching the end is not always a help. Buffy used the entire seventh season to try and end the series in a big way and just turned into a contrived mess (a lot of blame I'm willing to put down to spending way too much time cleaning up the fallout from Season 6), whereas Angel had to end its series in a big hurry, but seemed much more satisfying...
Sort of. Season 5 and 6 were planned to be the final seasons too. If you remember, each of those season enders didn't have a cliffhanger, but set up some things for a then-planned movie. But the show got the pick up by Sci-Fi in season 5 and a last minute renewal in season 6. When starting to write, they were planning for season 7 to be the final season, but they got a renewal very early that year, which is why "Lost City" ended on a cliffhanger instead of having things wrapped up.
I sort of agree about the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It sucked huge. I think they did a pretty good job of bringing things full circle and ending with an appropriately huge storyline. However, they were crippled by the fact that most of the characters we loved in Seasons 1-4 turned into the most contemptible little shits you could imagine, especially Buffy. Xander managed to keep his dignity but not his screentime, as Andrew & Anya ate up all of the comic relief scenes. And there was way too much focus on Spike. I still don't think Spike works as a central focus. He was good as a villain in Seasons 2-4, as comic relief in Season 4, and was serviceable as an unpredictable rogue in Season 5. Beyond that, he was lame & overly angsty. (Thankfully Angel redeemed him somewhat by playing Angel/Spike almost like a bitter old married couple.)
IIRC, "Lost City" was originally going to be the movie. But then, they decided to just make it the 2 hour season finale instead. It makes sense as a movie, particularly the way it introduces Dr. Weir as a character that can get the new, casual audiences up to speed with what's going on.
IIRC, "Lost City" was originally going to be the movie. But then, they decided to just make it the 2 hour season finale instead. It makes sense as a movie, particularly the way it introduces Dr. Weir as a character that can get the new, casual audiences up to speed with what's going on.
This is true. When they heard about the 8th season pick-up, they just decided to adapt their plans for the movie into the 7th season ender.
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