Dark Skies Finally Coming to DVD

POSTED BY: cljohnston108
UPDATED: Thursday, January 20, 2011 07:58
VIEWED: 7584
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ECGORDON

Friday, August 13, 2010 1:33 AM

I totally agree with you that most US shows have too many episodes per season, but that is the model. The intent is to get as many eps produced as quickly as possible to make a profit in the syndication market. I was surprised NBC nixed a short fifth season for Heroes in order to get close to 100 eps (not that it deserved it).

I was not aware of the situation you seem to have read about concerning Dark Skies. Perhaps the problem was that Zabel assumed that thirteen episodes might be all he would get, considering the track record for genre shows. He should not have been so short-sighted. He should have plotted the show out for a couple of seasons at least.

IMNOTHERE

Friday, August 13, 2010 8:57 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by lwaves:

It's my opinion that some shows of 22 episodes may have been better if they had been made as 13 episodes (much like the HBO style shows).

*Cough* Babylon 5 *cough*. That was at its best when they crammed the last two planned seasons into season 4 (unfortunately, they went on to make season 5 anyway).

Seriously, I agree - it wasn't so bad with old-style shows where they pushed the plot reset button at the end of each stand-alone episode, but now pretty much everything worth watching has a continuing plot (and big end-of-season climaxes) and 22 eps is just too long to pad out a season-long story.

BSG was particularly bad that way - cracking episodes at the start and end of the longer seasons acting as bookends for a lot of padding.

The other nice thing about the UK system of 6-13 episode series is that the whole series is usually in the can (if not through post-production) before it airs, so there's no opportunity for mid-season meddling, and the renewal decision doesn't have to be made until the full series has been shown. Shows have to be quite offensively bad to be canned mid-run.

Then, quite frankly, for some shows one 6-13 episode run is enough: great show, story told, the end: Dollhouse & Sarah Connor spring to mind. I enjoyed Pushing Daises but couldn't have taken 100 episodes of it (you'd have got toothache in your eyeballs).

It always amuses me that the UK and US versions of "Life on Mars" ran for about the same number of episodes, but one was hailed as a triumph and the other was a canceled flop.

LWAVES

Saturday, August 14, 2010 10:42 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by ImNotHere:

The other nice thing about the UK system of 6-13 episode series is that the whole series is usually in the can (if not through post-production) before it airs, so there's no opportunity for mid-season meddling, and the renewal decision doesn't have to be made until the full series has been shown. Shows have to be quite offensively bad to be canned mid-run.

Then, quite frankly, for some shows one 6-13 episode run is enough: great show, story told, the end: Dollhouse & Sarah Connor spring to mind. I enjoyed Pushing Daises but couldn't have taken 100 episodes of it (you'd have got toothache in your eyeballs).

It always amuses me that the UK and US versions of "Life on Mars" ran for about the same number of episodes, but one was hailed as a triumph and the other was a canceled flop.

That's very true. Once a series is made we usually do get to see it all even if it's bad (Demons ??). I have heard of shows not finishing their run over here but it's very rare.

Life On Mars UK is a great example of what I'd call a concise show. 8 episodes a season and only two seasons. But what a great series and a fine example of how not to let a show drag on but just tell the story and keep it 'must watch TV'.
Other shows could learn a lot from this.

"The greatest invention ever is not the wheel. It's the second wheel." - Rich Hall

ECGORDON

Saturday, August 14, 2010 1:28 PM

The US problem is one of money, not creative integrity. The networks are the ones that make the most money during a show's regular run, but the production company benefits if the show runs long enough to syndicate later. That's why we have so many shows that run forever even if the quality is not sustained (or even there to begin with).