The Problem with T.V.

What's the sitch?

Let's say you are watching the next best thing since Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, or House of Cards.  You look forward to watching new episodes every week, and then suddenly one of two things happen: it gets the axe and we end up with a Firefly situation, or it goes on aimlessly trying to find itself.

This happens in almost every medium: movies, comics, books, manga, and T.V.  However, there has to be some reason that this isn't a solved problem.  We all get invested in these shows, but never really get the closure we want.

Why is this?

This almost entirely has to do with the writer's and the network's goals being completely different.  If you talk to a show runner they will say things like, "I just try to make a show that I am proud of."  On the other hand, the television conglomerates are about bottom lines.  If your show needs a season or two of build up, then you're out on the street.

This is very evident in the cartoon business.  Why is the Fairly Odd Parents, Spongebob, or even the Simpsons still around?  It's because they are safe bets.  None of these shows are as popular as their golden age, but the cost to find a new hit show is even more costly.  This is why you see remakes of the Powerpuff Girls, while shows that start off slow like Gravity Falls get weeded out.

Bakuman

If you don't know what Bakuman is, then I recommend you check it out.  It provides an interesting commentary of the minds of manga writers, and how they struggle to get to the top.  However, it showed that there are a couple major hurdles for creators: how to get their series picked up, how to keep their popularity up and grow, and how to end the series the way they wanted to.

In terms of manga, in order to get over the first hurdle, they published many one shots, one-off manga chapters, but they always had problems of convincing publishers.  The main reason most were turned down, even with the success of the one-shots, was that the publishers were not convinced that they could make for a long lasting series.  The series that got published were not necessarily the best of their ideas, so we already notice the first problem.  We get concepts not shows through the floodgates.

The bigger problem is that writers aren't really focused on mapping out the series, but tend to take it season at a time.  When the mangakas in Bakuman wanted to end their mangaka before it got the axe, there was relatively large pushback.  Publishers love shows they can milk forever.

So what do we do?

We have shows like the Walking Dead and Suits that are approaching higher and higher number of seasons.  Every time we seem to get closure, we get a new cliffhanger or some comment by the show runner hinting a new season.  It is a little concerning when there are talks of multi-season contract extensions.

Without a major change in the way networks do business, which may be a possibilities with Netflix and HBO Go becoming more popular, the only thing we can do is manage our views.  Invest your views, money, and time in shows that you like or that you think have promise.  Second, stop watching shows that are dragging on or that you think aren't worth the salt.  Sounds easy, but in reality people don't do this.  This is how the Youtube algorithm pushes the Bee Movies sped up three times, but thats a topic for another day.

This concludes another long winded ramble.  If you have a topic or question, please leave a comment below. Thanks for reading!

Peter