In recent years, streaming has changed the way we watch TV shows. It’s even changed how they are made. Gone (mostly at least) are the days of TV pilots being produced before the entire show is greenlit. Now, most networks or streamers greenlight a whole season.
Streaming has also changed how shows end — or rather, how they end a lot quicker now than they used to. Seasons would go on for over 20 episodes most of the time. Now it seems audiences are lucky to even get a full season of 10 episodes; it’s generally been reduced to eight now, though there is a good silver lining to all of this. These shows don’t drag out anymore, they end on their own terms when they need to. Both Barry and Succession will end with their upcoming fourth seasons. While it may be sad to see these shows end, this is a good thing.
TV Shows Can End on a High Note
TV in the past has had a big problem running its shows so long that eventually they just lost all momentum by the last season. Near the end, they could feel like an entirely different show, it’s clear the actors want to move on. Seriously, whose favorite season is the last season of these kinds of shows? Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, M*A*S*H, and many more shows suffered the fate of being dragged out (M*A*S*H is still held high, but it ran for over a decade). Ironically, now it seems to be the opposite. Shows now struggle with even ending at all.
While this has plagued shows from streaming to even cable TV, Netflix has been among the most infamous for canceling shows before their time. Often it happens after one season, but not every time. Perhaps one of the most shocking ones recently was HBO’s cancelation of Westworld, which aired its fourth season last year. The most important thing about this development is that streaming has made TV a cutthroat industry. If a show dips in viewership, that show will be axed with no more thought put in. A show has to be strong out of the gate; there’s no waiting around to gain a following anymore.
When shows like Barry and Succession can be ongoing for a couple of years and get to end on their own terms, that is the best possible lifespan for the show. It’s hard to let go of a series, especially when it is well-written and acted, but that is where you want the show to end. It should go out when it’s at its strongest. They shouldn’t fizzle out; instead, they should make the biggest splash they can. A strong series finale can bring a lot of people in to watch the show in completion after it ends. With how many series are canceled these days, some people don’t watch shows until they are over. More shows that are given this closure could mean more viewership.
Ending a show when it needs to end is also giving respect to the writers of the show. They should decide when it gets to end. More than likely, they have a complete arc planned out for the entire show, hoped to be filmed to completion. The sad reality is that most of the time that is never realized. Either a show is cut short, or drags on farther than the creators had wished because it was successful. Shows do deserve to end on their own terms, because any other option usually ends in disappointment.
Shows Ending On Their Own Terms Frees up Talent
A TV show ending on its own terms also allows the creatives responsible for it to move on to other projects. This can include actors, writers, directors, and more. It is unlikely that they would want to be stuck on one show forever. Ending a show, and ending a show well specifically, could look good on their resume. While it’s no done deal that would get them another job, it certainly might help. Actors (especially actor-writer-director Bill Hader on Barry) could benefit from a show having a fantastic final season.
Oftentimes the opposite happens, unfortunately. If a project goes on too long, ends badly, or loses the interest of the audience, that could be a bad sign for the future of the team’s careers. Take D. B. Weiss and David Benioff, the two creatives behind the phenomenon that was HBO’s Game of Thrones. Eager to end the show for future projects they had been given, they rushed the last season of the show and disappointed many fans with the wrap-up. Later on, said disappointment may or may not have contributed to the creatives losing the upcoming Star Wars project they had upcoming. However, the talent behind a show that stayed consistently good has a much better chance of continuing to do other projects because of that.
Ending a show, and ending a show well specifically, is probably one of the hardest things to achieve. It has to balance characters, plot lines, and emotional arcs and be able to give a proper conclusion to all of them. But the pay-off of letting a show end on its own terms also gives the viewers confidence in the other shows the streamer has on getting the same treatment. That would increase a lot of viewership across all shows, as it shows the service is committed to giving successful shows the ending that they deserve. HBO is seemingly going this route a lot more recently, as both Barry and Succession are under its banner — and maybe that isn’t a bad thing. With any show, there’s always this small anxiety that it will not be picked up for another season, and therefore be a waste of time and energy watching it. There will always be shows that are canceled; it’s just the nature of the business. Not every show will be a hit, but for the ones that are, it seems a shame that even some of those have not gotten an ending in the past.
