Shows that died before their time.....

[LSN80]

As Ive been watching Breaking Bad, I've found myself conflicted. With four episodes left, the show has seemingly told every story it's set out to do. Yet, there's still a feeling of something missing, as the show has gone just five seasons, with the final season stretched out over two years in order to truly hook viewers. Surely, they could have aired those 16 episodes last year, and since the design was to stretch the show over those two summers, why couldn't they film a sixth season to truly tell and design every story they need to tell? I've got few complaints of the way the show is playing out, but these are stories that could have been told over the course of two true treasons, rather then one season dragged out over two years. Although I'm hooked and most episodes have been brilliant, it feels like they're sprinting towards an ending rather then cruising there. Have they done the right thing? I'm not sure. I'm engaged, surely, and truly looking forward to how every loose end is tied up.

I just wish they would have taken a little longer to get there.

But to truly reference a show that went before its time, I look at Deadwood. The American Western based both on historical facts and fiction starring Timothy Olyphant as Seth Bullock, a former U.S. Marshall who leaves his job to settle in Deadwood as the co-owner of a hardware store. Bullock becomes sheriff of Deadwood, attempting to keep the peace in a chaotic town filled with brothels, gun-thugs, and gold miners. Opposing Olyphant's Bullock is Al Swearington, brilliantly portrayed by the excellent Ian Mcshane. McShane owns a saloon and brothel, and frequently employs henchman to do his dirty work in terms of mining for gold and killing those who get in his way.

The show brilliantly portrayed the struggle for power in a lawless town, one filled with gold prospectors, prostitutes, and attempts to unionize. Olyphant and McShane delivered standout performances, however, the show lasted only 3 seasons. The contracts of the actors of the show were not renewed by HBO, and two movies planned to wrap up the show were failed to be made. In that sense, Deadwood delivered three brilliant seasons depicting the struggle for power and order in a lawless town, but failed to deliver a true ending to the show. In doing so, Deadwood ended too soon, and left stories to be told that never were. Truly, Deadwood died too soon.

Is there a show in particular that ended too soon for you?

What in particular do you miss about said show? What loose ends were failed to be tied up?

Any other thoughts or discussion of shows that ended too soon is welcome.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

The first season was outstanding, ending with one of the best cliffhangers you'll ever see in any type of series. In the second season, you saw Thomas Dekker's John Connor more tormented and torn with his missions. In the process, he confided in and trusted Summer Glau's Cameron (John's protector/Terminator) more to the point, where John actually developed feelings for Cameron.

The second season added two major characters with Weaver and Brian Austin Green as Derek Reese (Kyle's Brother). I loved how they teased the audience with Weaver's loyalties throughout the season, because you could never tell if she had her own agenda to do the right thing, or if she was helping SkyNet with Judgement Day. Green's Reese was a nice addition to the inner circle of Sarah, Cameron, and John as an enforcer.

Spoiler

I never saw Derek's death coming in the second to last episode of the second season. It was a complete shock, because I always thought he would make it to the end.

Dekker provided one of the better portrayals as Connor, because you could feel the heartbreak, stress, rage, and frustration he had to go through, while bearing the burden of being the savior of the world. I can't say enough about Lena Headey's Sarah Connor. She brought a legit sense of toughness and fearlessness to the character, and I'll take Headey's Sarah over Linda Hamilton's Sarah any day of the week. Summer Glau had it all as Cameron. She was funny, tough, and Glau's best moments come from season 2 after her chip malfunctions, because she showed a more emotional and human side during the glitches. Personally, Glau is my pick for the second most entertaining Terminator in the franchise next to Arnie.

TTSCC was a fantastic sci-fi action series. The Born To Run series finale was one of the best series finales I've ever seen. It was an episode full of suspense, twists, drama, and the cliffhangers at the end were just perfect. Plus, I remember an episode from the second season, where Sarah was kidnapped by someone working for SkyNet. But the way they set it up, you couldn't tell if Sarah was dreaming or if everything was happening in real life. The entire episode was a total mind-fuck, and they had me going all the way up until the end.

Although, turning Cromartie into John Henry in the second season kind of pissed me off. Weaver wanted to use Cromartie as an experiment, and watching Cromartie (he was a Terminator sent to kill John) make the transition from an unstoppable killing machine to this polite lab rat was really deflating.

FOX pulled the plug after season two. Fans tried to petition for a return, but it was no use. Looking back with the gift of hindsight, it's irritating how they used season 2 as a tool to promote that piece of shit Terminator Salvation. I'd take either season of TTSCC over Salvation, easily. That, and when I think about the shit shows (who seriously thought The Wanda Sykes Show of all things was a good idea?) FOX churned out and canceled since TSCC's end, it causes me to shake my head even more.

 

[Alex]

Angel

So Buffy The Vampire Slayer ends. Fair enough, they've done every concievable thing they can do with it, having a big blow off where they destroy Sunnydale and its a bittersweet ending (people dying and whatnot) but still an ending. Angel's final season ends with a cliffhanger and no resolution (I know they do the comics but that doesn't count)

Angel's final season had so much potential. The guys actually working for the bad guys at Wolfram & Heart was a great idea. Heck they brought back Spike from Buffy and he and Angel had some of the best chemistry I've seen on tv. There was so much they could've done though.

I mean after Angel and the gang turn on Wolfram & Heart and try and destroy it from within they could've made an entire season about that. Heck the ending of the season where they're about to take on legions of demons could've made for a great opener for a new season. But no, they decide to just end it at that.

 

[BK Styles]

Angel

So Buffy The Vampire Slayer ends. Fair enough, they've done every concievable thing they can do with it, having a big blow off where they destroy Sunnydale and its a bittersweet ending (people dying and whatnot) but still an ending. Angel's final season ends with a cliffhanger and no resolution (I know they do the comics but that doesn't count)

Angel's final season had so much potential. The guys actually working for the bad guys at Wolfram & Heart was a great idea. Heck they brought back Spike from Buffy and he and Angel had some of the best chemistry I've seen on tv. There was so much they could've done though.

I mean after Angel and the gang turn on Wolfram & Heart and try and destroy it from within they could've made an entire season about that. Heck the ending of the season where they're about to take on legions of demons could've made for a great opener for a new season. But no, they decide to just end it at that.

It wasn't quite that clear-cut; Joss Whedon tried a power play with WB and lost. Every season they wouldn't find out if they'd been renewed until halfway through the show, so Joss went to the network and asked for a definitive answer before they started work on season 5. At the time the only one they could give was a definite no, and they took it rather than waiting it out. So they had to re-do some elements of the series as they knew it was ending, and rather than hot-shotting the shit out of it to try and wrap everything up in a pretty bow, they had Angel end where it started; in the middle of the battle against evil. That's the point of that ending; the battle against evil is never over.

Firefly will always be a series that deserved more. Half a season, 14 episodes long that had some really cool stories that had only just begun, and then wham. Dead. We did end up with the main plot-point of River solved in Serenity, but a lot of stuff (Shepard, the 'blue hands', some proper resolution for Mal and Inara, etc) never saw a television screen (though the Serenity comics did fill in a number of the gaps) and for me that's a damn shame. It would have been real cool to see what it could have become had it survived the axe.

 

[IT Factor]

I am a big fan of Breaking Bad, so kudos for the reference!

As for shows I thought ended too soon, I only have two big ones.

Brimstone; aired on Fox

This show was about Detective Ezekiel Stone who found his wife raped, murdered her rapist, and then was later killed and went to Hell. He made a deal with the devil[played by Smallville's Lionel Luthor, John Glover] and came back to Earth to capture 113 souls in order to get his second chance at life. Peter Horton played Stone and this show was great! It had sarcastic quips, funny dialogue, and interesting souls that Stone came across in his attempt to regain life. The way Stone captured these souls and sent them back to Hell was shooting them in the eyes, described by the devil in the pilot as "widows to the soul". So pretty much Detective Stone was a reaper of sorts and this show was cancelled after its first season and FOX lost out on a great show in my opinion. This show was funny while also being deep and serious and I personally thought that FOX had other shows that were much worse at the time that lasted much longer.

REAPER; aired on the CW network

Again, another show about someone making a deal with the devil and becoming a reaper. This show was similar to Brimstone in concept, only much funnier! Tyler Labine's character of Sock was hilarious and was only to be outdone by Ray Wise's character of the devil. It had a lot of great moments and was cancelled after two seasons. I thought this show was better than the other shows on CW aside from only maybe Smallville & Supernatural. We didn't get to see how this show ended for Sam Oliver and his deal with the devil, which leaves fans of the show with no real sense of closure.