series finales – ConStar Media

11 12 2013

Shonda Rhimes NPR Interview

ConStar TV Shows ABC network, ellen pompeo, grey's anatomy, kerry washington, npr, scandal, series endings, series finales, shonda rhimes, showrunners, story tellers, tv writers, writers 0

Shonda Rhimes NPR Interview

Supes late on this one, but if you are too, check it out here. Only about 7 minutes long. I’m glad Scandal has a definitive end, because it’s not the type of show that can last forever, and we don’t want it to go past it’s lifespan. It’s interesting to me that she knew where Grey’s Anatomy would end but then they “kept going” so she had to sort of write past that. I wonder if a lot of showrunners face the same challenge. We sometimes blame shows moving past their expiration dates on the writers/showrunners, but the network has a large say and they’re definitely more about the money than the art or the story. Interesting piece (finally).

02 01 2013

Random Series Finale Thought

ConStar Uncategorized constar studies tv, friendship, random, series finales, televison, the end, time, tv, tv junkie 0

In the 30 Rock finale, they mention all knowing each other for 7 years because that’s the length of time the show lasted, but didn’t The Girlie Show already exist for at least one season before that? (I feel like it was 3?) This is nitpicky and I don’t really care but I just notice how season finales go with the number season you’re watching and not nec how long the characters have known each other. I’m not complaining or anything, I get why it happens, but it also happened on the West Wing, where the characters say 7 years because it was the 7th season but it was really 8 because two terms in office, and then another 2ish for the campaign… Those are the two series finales I watched most recently but it makes me think of other finales where they kind of skip over the fact that they knew each other before the show started. Just a funny observation.
BYE.

01 30 2013

ConStar Studies Series Endings

ConStar How I Met Your Mother cbs network, constar studies television, endings, himym, how i met your mother, multicamera comedy, series finales, sitcoms, television, tv junkie, tv shows 0

Next season, we say goodbye to Ted, Marshall, Lily, Barney and Robin. See here for the official announcement:

I love How I Met Your Mother. It is the only comedy on CBS I watch. It is the only multicamera show that I watch. I think it’s funny and clever and has great characters. It is ending next season and yet, despite my love for it, I am ready for it to end.

Many shows we love end before their time. Some notable examples that immediately come to mind are Firefly, Pushing Daisies and Veronica Mars (which has been on the brain today for some reason). It’s not even the crime of ending a show too soon in its first season because of low ratings (when it’s the networks fault, I’m looking at you FOX), but it’s ending a show into their third, like Veronica Mars, and not giving the writers enough time to come up with a solid ending. Instead, we’re left with a cliffhanger that never gets resolved, or sometimes even worse, the last episode is just a normal episode where nothing spectacular happened.

So it’s nice that some shows get a warning. Lost had a warning. 30 Rock and The Office have been given at least half a season’s worth of episode to wrap up their characters. And now the HIMYM gang gets to end with closure. It’s the end of an era for many TV shows it seems, with 30 Rock, The Office and now HIMYM ending, when they all seemed to pop up around the same mid-oughts era. And while it is sad to see them go (especially because I am not sure how I feel about some of the shows replacing them), it is time for some of them to end. I am ready. I am sad, but prepared to watch the last episode, even if I will be a glass case of emotion for hours afterward.

Because while I love HIMYM and it’s characters, it is time for us to meet the Mother. It is time for Barney and Robin to get married and be awesome together. It is time for Marshall and Lily and Marvin to cuddle up together. It is time for Ted to stop being an idiot. I need the season finale to be where Ted meets the Mother and the last season can focus on how they got together and probably end with a proposal and maybe a montage of happy moments between then and the kids being born. And some jokes from the kids about how he sped up the story right at the end or something. It’s just time. I hate when a show ends too early but it can be draining if a show goes on too long. Thankfully, while there have been slow patches of HIMYM, when watched in a marathon session, it’s still funny and watchable. Other shows who go on too long do not have that grace.

The end is nigh for HIMYM. Let’s hope they have saved their absolute best ideas for the final stretch so it can go out with a bang bang bangity bang.

[also this means Cobie Smulders can go be a bamf on SHIELD which will hopefully be in it’s second season by then. she’s got pretty good job security for the next couple of years should that show make it off the ground]