Final seasons a unique challenge for TV shows

Last week Sons of Anarchy and Boardwalk Empire premiered the first episodes of their final seasons. Because television is an extremely competitive business, shows rarely get to finish their stories on their own terms like this. Ratings dip or fail to get off the ground in the first place, actors decide they want to leave or studios decide they want something fresher. Thanks to all this, storylines are cut short all the time. The cream of the television show crop, however, gets to finish what it started. That, of course, opens up an entirely different set of problems for shows like Sons of Anarchy and Boardwalk Empire. Basically, writing a good ending is really, really hard.

After a show has been on the air for several seasons, an ending has to grapple with countless loose ends and somehow tie them up into a satisfying bow. The most famous recent example was the final season of Breaking Bad which aired last year. The loose ends were plentiful, and the pressure was on for a satisfying ending, as the show had set its own bar very high. What was released was a season of television unlike any other. The final eight episodes saw the plot reach a frenetic pace and sustained tension unlike anything that has ever been on TV, making each episode a big event. On social media, you could feel the excitement over each new episode, and the conversation in the week between the episodes was peppered with enthusiasm about the latest episode and speculation over what would happen next. It was one payoff after another, scenes that viewers had been trying to imagine for years finally appearing and then immediately providing new material to speculate about. The finale came and went and tied up every loose end while offering a satisfying conclusion.

That final season is a dream scenario for any TV show. Odds are that neither Boardwalk Empire nor Sons of Anarchy will reach such dizzying heights, as both shows, Boardwalk Empire especially, seem almost to be limping toward the finish line where Breaking Bad was coming to a crescendo. This is not too shameful, as it is hard to compete against one of the best shows of all time, but even though a last season with the electricity of Breaking Bad’s is almost certainly out of reach, the final season can be a big boost to a show on it’s last legs as it amps up its intensity. Sons of Anarchy seems like a prime candidate for this sort of late boost since its already high level of intensity could be turned up a few extra notches as the story comes to a close.

Where there is potential for a boost, however, there are many more potential tripping points where the perception of a show can be drastically altered by its final season or series finale. The final season of Lost was so notorious as a maelstrom of crazy plot points and loose ends that it tarnished the public view of the series overall. The Sopranos, despite its many years as another one of the greatest shows ever, is perhaps most well known in today’s pop culture landscape for its controversial cut to black in the series finale. David Chase, the showrunner for The Sopranos, recently made headlines by talking about that ending seven years after it originally aired. These are two classic shows whose perceptions in the public eye are disproportionately defined by their final offerings. Depending on your adherence to the maxim that any publicity is good publicity in show business, this might be something worth pursuing for a show like Boardwalk Empire that is dragging itself toward the finish line.

But perhaps before its writers decide to end the show by revealing that it was all a dream in Bob Newhart’s head in order to generate extra buzz, they might stop to think about how TV shows are watched now. Breaking Bad’s final season felt so special in part because it was a rare occasion when we as an audience were watching the same thing at the same time as everyone else anymore. With streaming and DVDs and even shows being released full seasons at a time, there is less emphasis on maintaining buzz between episodes and presumably more and more viewers hitting “watch next episode” whenever they’re watching a show as opposed to watching it live and waiting a whole week for the next morsel. Streaming has changed the way shows structure themselves, and it also has given new life to old shows that had fallen into obscurity. With a show’s entire run available to be watched at one time, not having a reputation for being a letdown at the end is a big boost against shows that have made finale noise for the wrong reasons.

So perhaps the best bet for a show that can’t go out with a bang like the Breaking Bads of the world is to instead aim for something satisfying after watching seven episodes in a row in bed.

 

Daniel Grzywacz is a senior majoring in neuroscience and anthropology. He is the lifestyle editor for the Daily Trojan. His column, “Binge Watch,” runs Mondays.