TV Comebacks: Should The End Be The End!
Salutations & happy lockdown to you!Ā
Itsās your friendly neighborhood Liam here and as I start write this itās the day after Halloween, the pumpkins are starting to look sorry for themselves and the children are still very much on a sugar high, one that I fear has no end in the near future.
Earlier today while the children (almost literally) climbed the walls I tookĀ the aĀ blessed moment of solitude to pop some network television on. I flicked past āNightmare Tenants & Slum Landlordsā, quickly skipped past a blur of noise that I believe to have been an episode of āKeeping Up With The Kardashiansā before settling on a episode of Dexter (a season four episode, the best season in my opinion).
Watching Michael C. Hall as the murder driven Blood spatter analyst again made me think about the recent news of the shows return and what that could mean for TV shows of yesterday.
Now I feel itās important to note that I am not going to discuss Dexter in a āspoilerā kind of way as I do genuinely believe itās a show that should be experienced without prior knowledge, that and the fact that I know Tobias hasn't seen it yet and Iād like him yto be able to read this
When a show has run itās natural course, itās either met with rapturous applause (Friends jumps to mind) or a mixture of emotions ranging from disappointment, confusion and anger (Lost, Iām looking at you). One thing that either outcome guarantees is an emotional hole where that show once took up residence inside your head.
On 22nd September 2013 Dexter packed away his plastic wrapping and said goodbye to an audience of 2.8 million people (US) to a very mixed bag of emotions, some thought the send of was well executed (sorry, couldn't resist a murder pun) and then there was a large number of people who felt massively underwhelmed and betrayed.
So when it was announced the show would be making a comeback, as you can imagine it was met with very mixed emotions. On one hand there were thoseĀ who took theĀ āWhen a show is done it should stay doneā and then theres theĀ hopeful people who look at the shows resurrection as a chance of giving the show a better ending. I can honestly say that I fall soundly in the middle of these two positions as I have no real issue with the original ending but am looking forward to seeing more Dexter generally.
The real question that Dexter's revival brings to the table is what does this mean for TV show gone by.Ā
I think we can all immediately conjure several canceled or finished TV shows to mind that weād like to see make a comeback.Ā whether thats to give it a better ending, tie up loose ends or just see more of the characters youāve grown to love and hate.Ā
So after thinking about it, Iāve assembled a list of five TV shows that I think deserve a second lease of life. These shows are a mix of shows that came to a natural end and shows that have been canceled before their time!
DISCLAIMER!!!
I will be discussing each show and therefor spoilers are likely. Each section will clearly state which show is being discussed followed by a large picture. So if you haven't seen or finished one particular show simply scroll down until the next one appears.
Lets get nostaligc!
Number Five - LOST
In 2004 Flight 815 crash landed on a mysterious island.Ā
Polar bears, hatches, Flashbacks & smoke monsters were just a few of the mysteries that awaited anyone who went along for the six season journey.
One thing that fans massively hateĀ are cliches, such asĀ āIt was all a dreamā and so to be hit with theĀ āThey were dead all alongā trope was a very controversial and widely hated outcome.Ā
The creators responded to fans predictions of how the showĀ mightĀ end early on with comments along the linesĀ ofĀ āItās not going toĀ end the way you thinkā &Ā āWe have a plan to end itā so for the show to finally come to a close with something that had basically been told to everyone in season two and then adamantly denied by the creators, felt like a massive slap in the face.Ā
For reference the season two episode in particular that basically told us everyone was already dead was Episode 18 titled DAVE. In the episode Hurley starts seeing a bald man from his past around the island. The man (named Dave) keeps telling Hurley heās dead and that none of what heās experiencing is real. So nothing at all like theĀ āit was limbo all alongā ending that we got... can you sense my sarcasm?
Lost is the first on my list to have been given an actual ending (even if it was widely hated) and so the question is...Would bringing it back change the outcome or improve the story.Ā The answer, No, I donāt think it would. In reality the only reason ive included it on my list is because Lostās ending left fans bitter andĀ sparkedĀ controversy.Ā
To be honest I never really got over the wholeĀ āNot Pennies Boatā thing....Lets move on!
NUMBER FOUR - SANTA CLARITA DIET
Have you ever woken up feeling so bad and short tempered that you lose your cool with the annoying guy from work and ultimately end up eating his flesh just to satisfy the new and strange undead cravings your having? No?Ā
Well thats exactly what happened to Sheila Hammond in Santa Clarita Diet.
At first glance Santa Clarita Diet may not be the first TV show to spring to mind when your looking at things āgone before their timeā.Ā
The show is a a tad over the top and can feel quite in your face at times to the point of I think our very own Tobias would struggle with it because of the āIn your faceā styling.Ā
It was for this exact reason that on my first attempt at watching it I made it roughly 20 minutes into the first episode before switching off and walking away.
It wasn't until I saw a trailer for Season three that I decided to give it one more go and found myself falling for the shows charm. So when I finished Season three on a huge cliff hanger only to find out that Netflix had just canceled the show I was beyond devastated.Ā
Would the kids get together, will the mysterious company come back, will Joel be turned and create his own Mr spindly legs ball thingy?!
Santa Clarita Diet is the first on this list to fit into theĀ āgone to soonā category and is a prime example of why I strongly believe every show deserves a final season upon cancellation to tie up any loose ends and close of stories.
NUMBER THREE - PUSHING DAISIES
Pushing Daisies follows pie maker Ned, who has the unique ability to bring people back from the dead with one touch and then send them back to to their eternal slumber with one more touch. Along with Ned we meet Chuck and her two strange aunts as well as Kristen Chenowethās Olive Snook and Emerson Cod the private detective in search of his lost daughter.Ā What follows is two fun seasons of quirky death defying investigations with Ned helping Emerson Cod by reviving murder victims just long enough to help solve their cases.
Pushing Daisies is a rare example of my fiance Amanda introducing me to a new show which fully reverses the usual situation of me enlightening her with my TV picks. I watched the two DVD box sets that I was handed and then excitedly asked for a third to be told the show had been canceled long before Iād ever started viewing episode one.
Unlike Santa Clarita Diet, Pushing Daisies had the advantage of itās final episode actually tying up some of its many subplots despite the creators not knowing it would be canceled when they penned and shot the scenes.
The problem with the show being canceled mid season is that even with itāsĀ āMake Do Endingā the show doesn't feel complete and many fans felt the showās ending was rushed.Ā
On hearing they were being canceled the shows creator Bryan Fuller did announce that they would finish the shows story lines in a comic book based third and final series. But due to the closure of their publisher it never made it to print.
Fuller has said in interviews that he would happily drop everything and jump at the chance of bringing Pushing Daisies back for a proper ending and has stated that heād love Starz to produce a revival after seeing how they handled Torchwood.Ā
I do personally believe that pushing daisies should be given the chance to close itās story off properly, maybe in a solo film venture. Especially when one of the quotes about itās cancellation mentioned it beingĀ ātoo cuteā... Can something beĀ ātoo cuteā, and if so is that really a good enough reason two cancel something!?
NUMBER TWO - DEAD LIKE ME
The second Bryan Fuller show on this list Dead Like Me is another death focused series (are you sensing a melancholy theme to my viewing choices).
It follows Georgia Lass the unfortunate soul unlucky enough to find herself struck and killed by a falling toilet seat only then to find herself in undead servitude as a Grim reaper.Ā
The show managed to be funny and light while still delivering emotional scenes and mysteries to keep you hooked. Despite this it still foundĀ itself canceled prematurely in 2004.
It was lucky enough to be given a second lease of life withĀ āDead Like Me - Life After Deathā a TV film made solely to close off the story.
When I started watching Dead Like Me, it had already been long dead and gone, so I didn't experience the crushing blow of cancellation. The show just ended when I finished what I had access to.Ā
It wasn't until several years later when I stumbled acrossĀ āLife After DeathāĀ Amazon Prime, that I suddenly got excited to see more of the characters Iād grown to love. So when I started the film only to find that one of my favorite characters Rube (played by Mandy Patinkin) the leader of Georgiaās group of reapers had (badly) been written out off screen I was less than impressed, and I struggled to brush off this early blow.
āLife After Deathā wasn't by any means terrible and did manage to keep some of the originals charm, The problem is that without the chemistry of the complete original cast it just felt flat and didn't quite leave you with the same feeling as itās predecessor.Ā
I know that technically āDead Like Meā has already been given a second chance, but I do think if they managed to get Mandy Patinkin back they could basically ignore āLife After Deathā and do a final series, therefor giving the characters time to move on in a way that felt honest to the origina run.
What revival list would be complete without talking about Firefly?Ā
In 2002 Joss Whedon created a Western/Sci-fi styled show following the crew of a transport ship called Firefly. AĀ show that would go on to have one of the largest cult followings in all of geek history.Ā
Firefly manged to secure itself an average of 4.7 Million viewers per episode butĀ despite these numbers the show found itself canceled after airing only eleven of itās fourteen episodes.Ā
The cancellation of Firefly is still to this day a sore subject and you will struggle to find a true geek who doesn't long for a proper ending to the series..
I am by no means the in house Firefly expert, that position is easily held by Tobias. I have seen every episode and would love to see more though.
To shed a glimmer of hope on the king ofĀ āGone to soonā shows. Foxās president of Entertainment Michael Thorn has shown interest in a potential revival, publicly speaking on the subject as recent as January 2020 sayingĀ āI loved Firefly, personally, and I watched every episode. I didn't work on it, but I loved the show.ā and compared it to The X-files Limited series with regards to potentially returning it to our screens. He also stated that a revivalās main obstacle was the fact they already has a spaceship based series airing in the form of The Orville and it may not be ideal to have two series airing with the same core premise.
Will we ever see any more of the beloved crew members we came to know, love and sometimes hate or was the film serenity the last voyage for the Firefly crew,Ā
no matter how unlikely it may be I will hold on to a small amount of hope that one day Firefly will fly again!
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Now i know that there are easily loads more shows that were gone before their time and deserve another shot at glory.
Please keep in mind that the five shows listed above are simply my personal choices. I will also follow up with the fact that I massively resisted the urge to put Smallville on this list as it does have an ending (that I didn't hate) even if it was a bit underwhelming.
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So thats it, those are my thoughts on bringing shows back from the dead.
What are your thoughts on shows like Dexter & Prison Break being given second and sometimes third chances?
What TV show or shows would you like to see more of and why? Let us know down bellow.
(It is currently 3.15 am as I finish writing this, so I hope itās readable and at the very least makes sense.)
Thank you for taking the time to read my musings.
Liam Out
