DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
 
 
 
Sometimes Just One Season Is Better Than an Endless Endpoint
April 29, 2016  | By David Hinckley  | 8 comments
 

For better or worse, NBC’s Game of Silence (top) is looking like the latest TV show where less would have been more.

Game of Silence, which airs at 10 p.m. ET Thursdays, has the right stuff to be a strong extended miniseries, maybe 8-10 episodes.

Instead, the network has already made it clear the 10 episodes now under way could end with a dramatic cliffhanger, which means NBC hopes it becomes popular enough to earn a second season.

Based on the current ratings, that’s looking like wishful thinking, and part of the reason could be that viewers who see no endpoint aren’t enthralled enough to sign on indefinitely.

It’s hard to blame them. Game of Silence has been built from the start on one intense storyline. Stretching it into two or more seasons means either teasing this story out forever or spinning it out into new stories.

Neither option seems as strong as simply telling that original story crisply and well – in the manner of, say, FX’s recent O.J. series.

Game of Silence focuses on a group of childhood buddies and the girl who hung out with them: Jackson Brooks (David Lyons), Gil Harris (Michael Raymond-James), Shawn Cook (Larenz Tate), and Jessie West (Bre Blair).

That group and a fourth boy, Boots Nolan (Derek Phillips), made a dumb childhood mistake that got the four boys sent to the Quitman juvenile detention center, where they were abused in ways that left them scarred for life.

The show picks up their lives in adulthood.

Jackson is now a successful attorney, engaged to a woman at the law firm where he’s about to make partner.

He has tried to let the past go. Gil and Shawn have not. They want what Jackson warns them is revenge and they insist is justice.

Meanwhile, some of their tormentors from Quitman have become even worse people. Revenge and justice become more intertwined, and the line between them blurrier, as we learn that our group itself has not always behaved admirably.

It’s a complex story, but at its core still compact and focused enough to make a strong closed-end series.

The thing is, broadcast TV has never been crazy about that concept, despite short stretches when miniseries became the rage.

Given a choice, broadcast networks would almost always prefer a traditional 22-episode series that can be locked into the schedule with a loyal viewership for 5-10 years. It’s easier, it makes more money.

But cable networks, which keep nibbling away at the broadcast audience, have created their own new norm: seasons of 10-13 episodes.

Yes, Walking Dead and Game of Thrones (left) fans would love more episodes.

On the plus side, shorter seasons mean episodes can be run consecutively, without breaks. They require less of a commitment from viewers in a cluttered media age. They cost less to produce and the actors, in general, love them.

Whatever the reason, shorter series have caught on, from FX’s Fargo and HBO’s True Detective to AMC’s Better Call Saul and even traditional procedurals like TNT’s Rizzoli & Isles.

So the broadcast networks have had to get into the game, at the same time all networks are experimenting with different configurations.

One hybrid involves creating a franchise and then each season telling a single different story inside it, with or without the same actors.

When that model works, we get Fargo. It has also worked nicely for FX’s American Horror Story and ABC’s American Crime. It worked less well for ABC’s The Slap, but that’s the TV biz. In the best of times it has a high failure and mortality rate.

In any case, every TV fan can point to shows that ran longer than they should have. Fox’s Sleepy Hollow (left), for instance, might have worked better as a limited series, rather than groping for endless variations on its one basic story.

ABC’s The Family, Sundays at 9 p.m. ET, started with one core mystery and is now trying to “spiderweb” it out into enough connecting stories to keep it going for more seasons.

It might work. It might not. It depends on whether viewers want to keep watching these characters segue into further adventures – i.e. follow The Family as a soap opera – or whether they mostly want resolution to the mystery that drew them to the show in the first place.

More than ever in today’s crowded TV world, one size does not fit all. But a show that keeps its focus and gives viewers a full-throttle ride to a strong finish often will beat a show that hangs around long after it should packed its bags and checked out.

 
 
 
 
 
Leave a Comment: (No HTML, 1000 chars max)
 
 Name (required)
 
 Email (required) (will not be published)
 
ECONT
Type in the verification word shown on the image.
 
 
 Page: 1 of 1  | Go to page: 
8 Comments
 
 
Our carbide inserts allow fast machining, dimensional stability, and better surface finish on metal parts. We inserts also have low-temperature resistance, good thermal and electrical conductivity, and many other excellent properties. We is the name you can trust for world-class carbide inserts., welcome to our website to learn more about carbide inserts:https://www.estoolcarbide.com
Mar 7, 2024   |  Reply
 
 
Through our convenient online shop you can order products. And when we say "best", then we mean a carbide inserts that is just as good as the original!We are one of the biggest carbide inserts Probus Soafuia manufacturers and offerors in China. A lot of styles with superior quality at an affordable price are in hot sale here., welcome to our website to learn more about carbide inserts:https://www.estoolcarbide.com
Feb 28, 2024   |  Reply
 
 
Through our convenient online shop you can order products. And when we say "best", then we mean a carbide inserts that is just as good as the original!We are one of the biggest carbide inserts Probus Soafuia manufacturers and offerors in China. A lot of styles with superior quality at an affordable price are in hot sale here., welcome to our website to learn more about carbide inserts:https://www.estoolcarbide.com
Jan 29, 2024   |  Reply
 
 
Vince Everett
Isn't this the same EXACT plot from the movie "Sleepers" (Brad Pitt , Robert DeNiro, Kevin Bacon) ?
Apr 29, 2016   |  Reply
 
 
ZEKE
I am finding that the decade of the abused young boy has worn it's time... (No girls were ever abused?-- or that wasn't as bad!) And the new rash of plot lines of locked in basements/closets/communes as a plot device begin to blur. Originality is hard to find. Abused boys, and sex-slave prisoner girls are abundant.
Apr 29, 2016   |  Reply
 
 
Evangeline
And sometimes when this happens I wonder how can the story continue/where do we go from here?
Apr 29, 2016   |  Reply
 
 
Sarah
Yes and I could not have said it better (although I have tried). One ore addition to the list for this season is Quantico which is starting to bore me and I am getting sick of Alex's high and mighty I'm better then everyone here attitude. Because most of the time the characters outlive their usefulness in this situation.
Apr 29, 2016   |  Reply
 
 
Kevin
wish networks would go to the 10-13 episode structure. get's distracting when 22 episodes take 9 months to air. especially sitcoms. enjoyed ABC's 2 seasons of Agent Carter and Fox's first season of Wayward Pines. They were aired w/o reruns and interruptions like AMC's Better Call Saul, FX's OJ story or Fargo's 2 seasons, BBC's O. Black, BBC's Prey, etc. Don't even mind AMC's separation of TWD into fall and winter seasons. It's the consecutive airing that I like....................
Apr 29, 2016   |  Reply
 
 
 
 Page: 1 of 1  | Go to page: