Rainn Wilson said that the cast knew that Steve Carell would leave 'The Office' because his film career had been growing.
  • wjrii@lemmy.worldEnglish
    521·
    2 days ago

    I’ll never begrudge people on shows wanting to continue, since it means the creatives and crew continue to get consistent work, but by the same token The Office was already noticeably declining by the time Carell left, and it never got better. Creatively, it could have ended when Jim proposed, probably should have ended when Jim and Pam got married, and definitely should have ended when Michael left. The rest is just flailing, flanderization and coasting.

    • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      111·
      2 days ago

      The original UK version clocked in at two seasons and ended with UK’s Jim confessing his love to UK’s Pam and UK’s Michael being let go because he’s not good at this job.

      It left a lot of story strands unfinished/unresolved and that’s okay.

      God, I wish more television shows were planned with just a short series with things wrapped up after a few seasons. Hell, Netflix already cancels things after two seasons anyway, so lean into two seasons being what you get.

      • wjrii@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        2 days ago

        While I think some British shows quit well before the main veins of drama or comedy have been mined, going out early is better than late. For recent-ish American shows, I think 30 Rock (which famously had to hang on by the skin of its Emmys’ teeth) and The Good Place both went out after the curve had inflected but well before they passed the point of no return.

      • Zorque@lemmy.worldEnglish
        31·
        2 days ago

        That’s pretty much all streaming these days. Netflix wasn’t even the first for that format, FOX had been doing that for decades before Netflix was even mailing DVDs.

    • minkymunkey_7_7@lemmy.world
      152·
      2 days ago

      7 years is a sweet spot with American TV. If they don’t wrap it up after 7 season it just becomes shit. X-Files should have ended at 7. Stargate SG-1 at 7. In fact a lot of them were written for a good closing at 7 years but studios just have the need for enshitification for that ad money.

      Think of the legendary good shows that knew when to end at 7 years. Or 5 years.

      • thebeardedpotato@lemmy.world
        6·
        2 days ago

        I think That 70s Show was 8 seasons long if I’m remembering correctly and you’re right, season 8 was absolutely terrible. It had been declining already by then, but atleast if they ended with season 7, they would’ve ended in a better spot.

        Honestly season 8 felt like a spinoff written by someone else.

        • wjrii@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          2 days ago

          I don’t think it’s fair to expect a show to remain at a single high level of quality over its entire run, but yeah, there’s a point when it’s just a drag on the better seasons’ legacy and (especially in the days of linear TV only) depriving audiences of a new show that might be better and is unlikely to be worse than what’s left to come.

          • thebeardedpotato@lemmy.world
            3·
            2 days ago

            I totally agree, I just wish more studios would agree to give shows the graceful ending they deserve.

            I feel like from a writing perspective, it would also help to know how long your show is going to be so you can fit in everything you want appropriately.

      • Ledericas@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        1 day ago

        i dint mind 8-10 it was a nice change from the goauld for like the past 7 years which turned them into a joke, clearly the age was getting on for sg1 though. sci-fi should at least last 7 years, and not like all this 8 episode bs that streams are pushing, not enough time to flesh out content.

        sga , sgu dint last long enough, and there was so much more content left in those shows, by evidence of interviews after it ended. Wier in season 5, ghost in the machine alluded to “advanced races hidden from the wraith in the pegasus galaxy” as foreshadowing. and sgu had the ancient-level planet builder aliens.

        • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works
          1·
          17 hours ago

          Game of Thrones I think is one of the few exceptions to this rule. It still had plenty of story left to tell and the primary reason the 8th season was a bomb was because the showrunners were busy trying to wrap it up too quickly so they could go work on Star Wars instead. I think they could have taken the exact same half baked story ending that they had, stretched it out into ten seasons, and people would have complained a lot less. Would have been nice to have a better ending written but if they gave the one that they had the appropriate room to breathe, it would have been fine. Not great, but fine.

          But wrapping that all up so quickly and suddenly is what put the nails in the coffin, in my opinion.

    • thejoker954@lemmy.world
      8·
      2 days ago

      They easily could have ended the main show at any of those points and made a legit sequel (like they are doing now) with hardly any down time and both shows would have been better off.

  • LadyButterfly@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    7·
    2 days ago

    The show 100% should have finished when he left if not before. By the time Catherine Tate’s in it, it’s unwatchable. I’d like to have seen it finish with Jim and Pam getting married, then it would be a clear start, middle and end.

  • Ledericas@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    1 day ago

    its like ISAIP, it was great for like 11 years, but it was clear the actors dont feel for the show anymore past 13, they are just in it for the money. and also they are older and are unable to branch out into hollywood proper too.

    and the new writers became wierdly to sjw and sexual with Mac. Just end the show already.

    supernatural was likewise, kripke wanted to end the show at season 5, but the new writers extended it for another 10years, which is insane, and it was clear the show sucked after season 8. all because fans became parasocially-obssesed with the actors(even the actors became creeped out by the fans when they were on con-panels), i think it might played a part in typecasting jared and jensen, misha from exploring other roles where they would break out. yes we know jensen was in boyz, and some other minor shows, but its not like WOW material compared to spn.

  • timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    32·
    2 days ago

    Eh, I’ll dissent. Show was fine after Steve carell. Not as good as it was but fine. Certainly didn’t fall off like many other shows. Think scrubs or others that had a definite limit.

    I enjoyed the later seasons enough to justify them.