TrueTelevision: Thoughtful and in-depth discussion about television
r/TrueTelevision
Sorry for the Hot Take title, but with both Succession and Barry ending, and AV Club recently doing a list of the 10 worst and 20 best finales, I've been thinking about endings a lot. And I think they don't matter nearly as much as people think they do.
I recently watched the 2000s reimagining of Battlestar Galactica again, a show I hadn't revisited since it originally aired, largely because I hated how it ended. And watching it again was largely a joy. The first couple seasons were full of great sci-fi world building, compelling mysteries, excellent characters and some great performances, music that made Bear McCreary the default choice to score any nerd-friendly movie/video game/television series, special effects that mostly hold up well despite age and a limited budget, and powerful stories that reflected the sentiments of post-9/11 America. And I still didn't like the ending, but one of my original complaints wasn't so bad the second time through, and while the rest were still disappointing, they didn't sour the total experience.
That got me thinking about how much value people place on the endings of shows. Any mention of Game of Thrones, Dexter, Lost, How I Met Your Mother, and probably dozens of other shows immediately brings out people complaining about the endings, and never discussion of the rest of the shows that clearly they at one point loved or else they wouldn't be so passionate about the ending.
I get why it happens:
It's the last thing you saw, so it's the freshest in your memory
A bad ending is disappointing. You like the show up to that point, and you hope for a perfect ending that you didn't get
And I did the same on Battlestar Galactica. But after seeing it again, I think that was a mistake.
A television series of multiple seasons isn't a single big story, no matter how serialized it is. Not to get overly "it's the journey not the destination," but a lot of these shows had storylines resolved, mysteries answered, and character arcs completed long before the shows ended, and the fact that people kept watching and appreciating the shows is a testament to how well they did. That quality doesn't disappear because a few seasons later, the last episode had something you didn't like. Dexter becoming a lumberjack or whatever doesn't change the fact that the ice truck killer storyline was great.
And I think some fans have it in mind that they're going to get some surprise twist ending that they never saw coming, when that's really hard to pull off these days. A lot of potential surprise endings are cliches ("I am your father" or "he was dead the whole time" or whatever), so those aren't any good anymore. And good twist ending needs to not just be a surprise, but to make sense. Which means laying the groundwork before the reveal. And while I'm easy enough to fool, a thousand fans discussing theories on a subreddit or whatever are going to piece together the clues if they're done well. I think that makes writers shy away from even trying a big twist ending, which leaves those hoping for one disappointed.
I do think endings are important. By "overrated," I simply mean not as important as they're made out to be. By being so focused on an ending they didn't like, fans are missing out on remembering what made some of those shows great to begin with.
As a huge fan of 'House of the Dragon', I am doing research for my master thesis about the female audience's perception of the fictional female characters from the show and their enjoyment of them. I am currently looking for female fans and viewers of the show that would like to participate in a survey about their favorite or least favorite female character. Wanna join? Click here to start the survey: start the survey
Thank you in advance! 🐉🔥
https://medium.com/fan-fare/beef-its-what-s-for-tv-f0f9cc98240c
The show puts a microscope on the lives of two seriously flawed and damaged people, and in the process puts a microscope on all of us. In today’s world of social media and celebrity, of cancel culture and doxxing, it shows how quickly our lives can fall apart in an instant.
It’s so much more than its stars, its trailer, or the central conflict. Every episode reveals another layer about the characters, about society, about race, class, gender…about pretty much everything.
Broadly asking for recommendations tends to end up with the same things listed every time, so instead, once a month, we'll have a thread on a particular theme. It might be a genre, time period, or anything else we think might be of interest.
So for April, let's go with Crime. It's a pretty broad genre, to include detective stories, murder mysteries, courtroom drama, heists, cons, mob stories, noir, and cop shows. Mixed genres are cool too, so crime comedies, space pirates, wizard thieves, crime-fighting superheroes, and anything else is fair game, as long as crime is a main ingredient.
Rules:
Let's assume we're all already familiar with Barry, Better Call Saul, Breaking Bad, Daredevil, Deadwood, Fargo, Firefly, Justified, Luther, Mare of Easttown, Mindhunder, Orange is the New Black, The Shield, Sons of Anarchy, The Sopranos, True Detective, and The Wire. That's an arbitrary selection, but those are either popular or critically acclaimed, and they're recent enough that if you're interested enough in television to be here, you probably know them. But if you don't, consider checking them out, because a lot of people like them a lot!
Top-level comments should include one recommended show. If you'd like to recommend more than one, just make multiple comments. I'll add comment that you can reply to with anything not related to a recommendation.
Include why you're recommending it. It doesn't need to be a whole essay, but at least a couple sentences that will give us an idea of what makes it worth checking out. No comments that are just the name of a show, or a list of titles.
No spoilers, obviously. If you're suggesting someone watch a show, it's best not to tell them how it ends.
So, what crime show would you recommend?
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Your Week In Television: Posted every week on Monday at 12am.
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