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2017-18 Season TV Cancellations/Pilots: E Corp does hostile takeover. Shuts down fsociety
- Thread starter berzeli
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I think that a serialized show, especially in its second season -should- end on a cliffhanger. It's still early in the show's life and typically the end of the second season is around the time when the show really starts to be what it's going to be about. Look at shows like Person of Interest or Fringe or Chuck (which was mentioned earlier) -- all shows that ended their second seasons with massive cliffhangers that changed the game for the show going forward. None of those shows would have had satisfying conclusions if they stopped right there. Regardless of what anyone thinks about the quality of later seasons of any of those, the cliffhangers were all good and necessary to keep the shows moving forward and continue to evolve the show in a compelling way.
Look at a more recent example like Sense8... it did the same thing. People were upset it got cancelled, and it thankfully got a feature-length episode order to attempt to conclude it the best way possible. But showrunners can't worry about cancellation. They have to try to tell the story they wanted to tell, which is usually designed for 4-5ish years. And that's not a bad thing. Cliffhangers aren't intentionally designed to "spark fan outrage" in the event of cancellation, regardless of what anyone says.
The amount of shows that have actually been "saved" due to outrage is incredibly slim, and that certainly was not the case with the original Timeless cancellation and renewal either.
Fringe, Person of Interest, and Chuck were never cancelled though, and that's the big difference. They were on the bubble and it genuinely could have gone either way with any of them - Timeless was cancelled with horrible ratings and was revived with even worse ratings. Pretending that it might come back for another season was tantamount to an outright lie and instead of being honest with themselves and making sure the story ended in a satisfying way (while leaving a couple of expandable tidbits open for a possible third season), they buried their heads in the sand and it blew up in their face. Like literally everyone knew it would.
(btw I haven't seen Timeless)
And specifically with Chuck, when the show was almost cancelled after season two (which I don't believe they anticipated), the writers made sure that each of the subsequent mid season and season finales would work as a series finale. Because, A. the writers were smart and B. wanted to give their show and the fans a satisfying ending.
You have to be realistic though. Like, what if the Wachowski's hadn't wrapped up the story with their wrap up special on the off chance that they might get another one after that (and another)? "I know they were given a wrap up movie, but they refused to wrap anything up and that's okay because their story is 12 seasons long and this is their art!" Uh, no.
Also, they didn't worry about cancellation because when they were writing it Netflix had never cancelled any of their originals and everyone was operating under the assumption that Netflix was in the business of making complete series for binging so everyone thought that at the very least Netflix would give them one more full season like they did with Hemlock Grove.
Jericho is one and I don't remember the other (if it even exists).
Right, on the bubble means any of them very well could have been cancelled and had that happened fans would be just as upset. They got lucky and didn't, and all 3 of those shows got to go five seasons and end the way they wanted to. That's great, they're the fortunate ones. Many other shows (like Timeless) do get cancelled. Unless the network literally tells them "this is the final season", showrunners can't (and shouldn't) be expected to scrap their long term plan.
Some shows don't know where they're going and try to figure it out along the way (like Lost and Westworld), but most of the time these do have a 5 year plan. And the first and second seasons are paced accordingly. It's not just about "art" or whatever, it's about literally making the show that was pitched and bought by the network, and hopefully beloved by fans.
If you cut off the plan just because you think you might be cancelled, and then get picked up... then what? The whole rhythm is thrown off.
Unresolved cliffhangers due to cancellation suck, but given the number of wildly successful times it has been done (like all three of those shows I mentioned before), it is a very justified part of serialized television.
Timeless was already truly cancelled though so it's in a completely different category than those perennial bubble shows. A more similar comparison would be stuff like Jericho (CBS), Unforgettable (CBS), Breaking In (FOX), Reaper (CW) - shows that were cancelled after the first season, then un-cancelled and brought back on the same network. All four of those shows got cancelled for good in their second season.
Given the track record above, the creative team had no reason to believe Timeless would suddenly become a successful show on the very same network that cancelled it.
And I know it was spun as a heartwarming feel-good story where the fan campaigns rescued it, but the real reason Timeless got a second season was because Sony (the studio) became desperate and decided to give up a 50% ownership stake in the show to NBC. The second season was given a reduced episode order, held for midseason, moved to crowded Sunday nights, and placed behind two brand new game shows with very minimal promotion... This show was never going to get a third season and the writers surely knew that.
Never heard of this but the OT title should be "Comic Book Men Out of Print"
I assume Talking With Chris Hardwick is dead. It's a glorified podcast and he probably has a financial stake in it. Easy to can it.
The other Talking shows they can get new hosts, only Dead is probably worth the effort though.
The other Talking shows they can get new hosts, only Dead is probably worth the effort though.
Screw that, it should be "Comic Book Show Cancelled" to freak people out. :P
This is certainly going to be an interesting limited series. Tom McCarthy looks to be the showrunner from the way it's worded, which is good news.
Awwww that sucks. Well, it had a good run. It might've been heaaaaaaabily scripted, but it was fun. Always amusing to see the nerdy nostalgia people brought in. I actually learned a lot about nostalgic toys from the 60s-80s.
Yeah it was such a good filler show for when I had a few extra minutes to burn, but it would usually turn into a binge catch-up instead.
Kevin Smith is setting up a patreon to apparently try to fund it, the show has got to be cheap as hell to make, I imagine YouTube Red, Apple, or even Netflix will happily take it up if they include the current 7 season, 96 episode back catalog as well.
I'm 2-3 seasons behind, the show is probably fake as hell ala Pawn Stars / those auction shows but its still kinda fun to watch as a comic / 80s nerd since it has a lot of cool toys. Definitely one of those "watch while cooking / cleaning" kinda shows.
Yeah I mean there's little doubt that I'm a 70's - 80's nerd and beyond, but I've been beyond giddy sometimes when they drag in some toy that I'd completely forgotten about, or some memorabilia that hits home. I hope they get it funded.
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YouTube Orders Dark Comedy Series, 'On Becoming A God In Central Florida', Starring Kirsten Dunst From George Clooney, Grant Heslov & TriStar Television
Kirsten Dunst
Playing a scammer
out for revenge
in 1990s Florida
I don't think I've ever been in so much as for this.
AMC just how do you not order this?
Kirsten Dunst
Playing a scammer
out for revenge
in 1990s Florida
I don't think I've ever been in so much as for this.
Nice! This has been in development for a long time. I've been looking forward to it from the beginning, but Yorgos Lanthimos stepping away from directing it is a huge disappointment.
Ah that's too bad, I enjoy the show (though I've been disappointed that the last few seasons have had to have a celebrity or big event in every episode).
Can't Kevin Smith afford to fund the show himself if it's super cheap?
Kevin Smith has been in the biz long enough to know rule 1 of Hollywood: never, ever, ever fund anything yourself. There is plenty of dumb money out there that would love to do anything associated with movies or TV.
Even super low budget TV shows cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, plus if you don't have distribution you're playing a risky game of making anything at all.
Add to that Kev isn't all that rich. I know he's mentioned that his reported net worth is way off. Probably not in the eight figures.
Add to that Kev isn't all that rich. I know he's mentioned that his reported net worth is way off. Probably not in the eight figures.
How the fuck is Olmos in that?
I also await the angry tweets when anyone says anything remotely bad about the show.
"I know I'm a celebrity with (some) money, but you as a store that relies on profits wouldn't even dare to try to CHARGE me for my own doll, would you??"
I wonder if they even haggle like they do with random customers when they aren't filming. I have a feeling they don't (or don't as much as they do on the show) and a lot of people are disappointed when the visit and try to get a great deal.
Holy crap salvation, the show about Elon Musk sending random hot people to space to save the human race before an asteroid extinction event, is back tonight. I hope season 2 has dinosaurs.
Definitely think it's right up her alley based off her work in Fargo Season 2 (best performance I've seen of her)
Sepinwall's Best of 2018 So Far list for Rolling Stone.
Also, after spending some time eviscerating this season of Westworld, Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan take the time to look at the upcoming genre shows that are trying to replace GoT. I haven't listed to the whole thing yet, but they're usually worth a shot.
'Westworld' Season Finale, and the Search for the Next 'Game of Thrones'
Also, after spending some time eviscerating this season of Westworld, Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan take the time to look at the upcoming genre shows that are trying to replace GoT. I haven't listed to the whole thing yet, but they're usually worth a shot.
'Westworld' Season Finale, and the Search for the Next 'Game of Thrones'
Good to see One Day at a Time on that list, it is very undervalued due to its sitcom roots. Great show all around, but especially great for it's portrayal of several minority groups.
It's okay. It can be unbelievably dumb at times. But the first episode was pretty good. It's only 10 episodes but I feel like I could've bailed at episode 4.
Ratsky or anyone else - have you seen any L+3 or L+7 numbers for Westworld S1 vs S2? I'm having a tough time digging them up.
I noticed that the S2 finale numbers were down from S1 as far as the same day number goes:Sunday cable ratings: 'Westworld' finale steady, Season 2 down vs. Season 1
I noticed that the S2 finale numbers were down from S1 as far as the same day number goes:Sunday cable ratings: 'Westworld' finale steady, Season 2 down vs. Season 1
I was curious if this is an increase people timeshifting or if the audience has decreased this season.
Somewhat minor casting note from The Romanoffs (Matthew Weiner's upcoming Amazon series) that also states that the show is set to debut this year.
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Ugh, that app got worse and worse... It functions terribly, always auto-played video when you turned it on, navigating was awful, and if a video on your watchlist expiredn you can ONLY access/delete them on PC...
Yeah, not much was lost here, although it sucks that Canada doesn't have a lot of streaming options. Do they get TubiTV at least? Tubi >>>>>>>>>>Crackle.
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