Monday, May 14, 2012

When shows lose their way

I remember when the first ads started running for House back in 2004. I knew immediately this show would be something special. Call it a trained eye. Then the show premiered and consistently I was proven right. There were some hiccups along the way but all in all I was a true believer in the show. Fast forward to the season 7 finale. I heard about it before I could even watch it and what I heard kept me from watching it. I heard enough to clue me in that there was no possible way what they'd done could be redeemed by a season 8 premiere and in the time that elapsed between the two, it seemed everyone else was on the same page. No one was clamoring for the new season like they'd done in the past. You could just smell it. The show was as good as over. It didn't take an expert on the business of show to see that it wasn't a story designed to evolve the character. It was desperate. Can you imagine Lisa Edelstein's Cuddy having to justify her character forgiving House (as she would have been written to do at some point in S8) if she'd stayed with the show? This was the story equivalent of a drunk chick making out with her friend just to hear the guys howl. "Pay attention to me!" was the thinly veiled message David Shore was trying to send us as the audience. He'd lost his way and he thought this sad excuse for a story could distract us from that fact. What it did instead was give us roughly 17 useless episodes of Post Mortem making us wish the show was gone already rather than existing in some sad undead state. In TV, its alot easier to set up a premise than it is to pay it off. That he resorted to something so artless and sad tells me he didn't know where House was going anymore or didn't know how to end it or didn't want to end it just yet. Maybe because he didn't have an ending or didn't know where his next meal was coming from but the long and short of it is, we're looking down the barrel of the very last episode of House and I'm just wishing that there was a hotline showrunners and producers could call when they've lost their creative mojo. Someone possessed of great wisdom and insight who could talk them down of the ledge that takes a once brilliant show right down the rabbit hole into the timeless land of squandered possibilities. Considering the influence those flickering lights and artfully arranged words have on our culture, that's a job vacancy we've gotta get filled. Maybe a council of elders? Joss Whedon, Joe Straczynski, Shawn Ryan, Aaron Sorkin, Bill Lawrence, MCG, Sara Gamble, Hart Hanson, Ronald D Moore. Am I missing anyone?