Serialized Killers

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Serialized television is a curious thing. The writers control where a story begins, but networks usually say when it ends. That’s especially true with a show that’s a hit, whether it’s “The X-Files” or “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” or “Lost.”
Networks want hit shows to stay on as long as possible, even when the original story arcs should have long since come to natural conclusions.

“The reality is,” Lindelof says, “that Carlton, myself, J.J. (co-creator J.J. Abrams), the creative brains behind the ‘Lost’ universe, we could all band together and say, ‘We’re ending the show after three seasons because that’s the arc. They get off the island, and we reveal all the things we want to reveal.”And the network would say, ‘No, you won’t.’ They will hire somebody and do ‘Lost,’ with or without you.”

Anybody else holding their breath until Abrams and Co. lose control of Lost and it spills into an unwatchable Alias mess? Never has a show been a better example of the double edge sword that is serialized storytelling.

Consider: first season Alias was a dense, action packed show that couldn’t be missed. Too much happened. There were cliffhangers worthy of waiting with sweaty palms until next week. Audiences were slow to pick up on what they kept hearing from the media was a show that you needed a map to follow.
Second season the status quo got shook up and more people tuned in after the first season finally hit dvd. Third season, the sucking started. Overwrought,melodramatic plot twists start driving away some of the fan base. J.J. Abrams’s sole credit becomes “executive producer”, no longer involving himself with writing or directing duties as he begins working on Lost.Murmuring started about the show getting axed. Fourth season, unwatchable garabage that strayed from large mulitple episode story archs and instead went with stand alone episodes with no tangible story in sight. The series loses it’s style, wit, and character development turning instead to simplicity.
Ratings go through the roof.
Somehow critics overlooked these obvious compromises and praised it while the hardcore audience couldn’t jump ship fast enough.
And now, finally the show will be ending this May. Undoubtably, they’ll find more ways to alienate the remaining fans as they slap together an ending.

My problem (and let’s face it everyone’s) with serialized stuff is too often creators don’t know when to stop.
With comics it’s as evident as anywhere—there are only so many Batman, Superman, Wolverine, Spiderman, X-Men, etc. stories out there even if loyal fans continues to consume anything. A plus with both Dan Clowes and Chris Ware among others is that they take the time to develop one major project before jumping onto another. Thankfully they’re both know for their body of work and are given that time and we don’t have to suffer just have others fill in and flood the shelves with their brand.
We see that happen too much with T.V. Most of the time when creators hand over the reins to someone else while there off developing other projects (Joss Whedon, J.J. Abrahms, Aaron Sorkin) the audience gets stuck with other people’s verison of what a Joss Whedon story would look like. Sure, there are other forces keeping these cash cows going but, the ax never falls soon enough.

While I don’t evny the task of having to content with decades continuity and dealing so many misdirections taken by creative teams who filled in there has to be a point when somebody has the integrity to say enough is enough.