My seasonal allergies are lasting longer than Fall’s TV season. We’re not the only ones who have noticed this, right?
It feels like many television shows barely put their backs into the season, and now we’re going on hiatus, and we’ll be left waiting for our favorite shows to return sometime after the holiday season.
What even happened in the first half of your favorite shows? Do you even know? Because if I sit down and ponder it too long, I can’t even come up with adequate answers.
Streaming’s Impact on Broadcast Must Be Stopped.
The industry has been undergoing constant evolution for some time now. With broadcast, in particular, they’ve been attempting to keep up with the fast turnaround of binge seasons that streaming has provided, as well as the plethora of content.
As television has become more expensive to produce, it has fundamentally changed how we experience our favorite shows today.
Budget cutting their way through different filming locations (practically everything is in Canada now, these days), cutting cast, and writing off characters like it’s a sport.
We also have shorter seasons for many shows, with some staples ranging from 10 to 13 episodes a season to 20-24 for those that are really lucky.
And the amount of actual scripted content on broadcast? Limited.
If you aren’t part of a Dick Wolf or Ryan Murphy franchise, you’re practically out of luck. And if you don’t have something inspired by other IP or some form of spinoff or adaptation? Hell, you’re not even in the running for consideration.
The Season Just Started … And We’re Already On Break.
Of course, those are discussions for another day because right now, I’m reeling from how quickly Fall Finales have come upon us. This week will mark the Fall finale for almost everything currently airing on broadcast across the major networks.
High Potential’s midseason finale was two weeks ago, and shows like Doc are set to have theirs come next week.
But when did we reach a point where television shows took their holiday breaks practically right after Halloween?
Remember when a series used to almost get halfway through a season before taking its hiatus sometime in December? Now, we have shows signing off until the new year at the beginning of November.
Worse yet is that many of these same shows have barely had the time to dig into what their season is properly, so they’re now leaving us to go on hiatus, and I’m still wondering what they’ve been working toward in the first place!
Grey’s Anatomy premiered on October 9 with an exciting premiere that resolved its explosive cliffhanger. The season is now comprised of only 18 episodes. Yet, roughly a month later (as it also had a break BEFORE this upcoming hiatus), the Fall Finale will be Grey’s Anatomy Season 22 Episode 6.
Yes, that means the series has only aired SIX episodes before it’s taking off until January, not even getting through half of its own season count. And the storyline reflects that.
Predictability Strikes Again. Yay!
The only continuing arc they can tease for the fall finale is Jo finally having her twins after seemingly being pregnant for a million years, and we all could see that coming since before the season aired.
Oh, and another big, harrowing event that will leave us on a cliffhanger and place one of the series’ leads, who won’t be killed off, into peril.
In fact, it teases something with Teddy and Owen again, which is not unlike a previous midseason finale from a few seasons back, so much so that the promo gave me deja vu.
One Chicago is headed into their Fall Finales, and I’m still trying to figure out why at least two out of the three shows in the franchise wasted so much time on such non-stories that they’re sparking very little interest.
The franchise used to sign off in December, as proper shows did, and typically with a cliffhanger that left us reeling until the shows returned by the end of the following month.
But now they’re barely making it to mid-November before they’re disappearing off the airwaves, leaving us in repeat-ville until the shows return.
Are there even enough episodes to repeat until they return in January? Inquiring minds want to know!
Shorter Seasons. Shorter Arcs. Sucky Payoff.
The worst part is that we can already predict some of the cliffhangers that are coming for us.
Stella departing Chicago Fire for a while (most likely another move inspired by budget efficiency), teasing Lenox doing something potentially life-ending to save a life after her prognosis, is about what any of us could predict right up there with Hannah potentially having some pregnancy issues.
Goodness knows, One Chicago is infamous for angsty pregnancy plots. And Chicago PD has the unit revisiting the first “Big Bad” with Raymond Bell, a character whom they just introduced two episodes ago during Chicago PD Season 13 Episode 4.
The latter’s character-centric formatting, which they utilize to accommodate the budget by having fewer cast members in each installment, ultimately results in a rotation schedule that disrupts the narrative flow.
Thus, now a fall finale is approaching, and it’s hard to feel as if we had any real attachment or direction during the first half of the season.
Not only did One Chicago get a late start this season, but they’re also signing off early.
Short half-seasons have meant that shows have barely had the chance to fully invest in their respective seasons and storytelling before they go on hiatus, and it’s not a great formula for keeping viewers engaged.
Procedural Plate Spinning, Nothing to See Here! Literally!
Perhaps that’s why even the best of broadcast is struggling with that.
Matlock, a series that everyone hailed in its first season, feels like it’s in a cyclic rut with the Wellbrexa scandal, making its protagonist less of an endearing woman worth rooting for and more of an insufferable woman who needs to end all of this nonsense without so much unnecessary, convoluted drama.
As much as we love Brilliant Minds, it’s no secret that it hit a sophomore slump and seems to have shifted too far away from what made it so compelling in the first place. Thus, it’s overeliance on a mystery conspiracy is the season’s biggest hook and undoubtedly where the predictability of its Fall finale comes in.
Does Elsbeth even have an overarching plot point this season? Or is it just flying by the seat of its pants and quirkiness? Wait, shady, elusive political conspiracy simmering in the background — same song.
FBI and Law & Order have leaned so heavily into their procedural format that there’s very little to carry over. SVU has a big question mark: whether or not its newest addition, a plant by Liv’s boss, is actually there for nefarious reasons.
Still, weirdly, the disparity between how the network airing and the streamer airing play fast and loose with some of their scenes often disrupts the vibe of that mystery they only hint at as an afterthought.
Fall Finales are coming so quickly that people have barely had the chance to dive into the season of their shows in the first place. It’s frustrating for many reasons, but the impact on storytelling and the quality of the series as a result are the most prominent irritations.
It’s Fall Finale Time and Nothing Happened — Midseason Finales Happened Faster Than Storylines Could Form
You can’t rush through a good story.
It feels like the desire to have something to air is starting to override the ability to have something great worth tuning in for, and it’s placed many writers in an impossible position: trying to develop enthralling stories and character development in a way that accommodates earlier hiatuses.
The struggle to do that is evident in some series, with a handful of shows barely attempting to set up their overarching stories for the season.
Meanwhile, other shows are cramming in so much at once that they’re making our heads spin (Doc, is that you?), and many are still relying heavily on the intrigue of previous big arcs to bide them time until after the hiatus, like High Potential.
Unsurprisingly, quick fall finale drops have contributed to series pacing issues. You cannot convince me otherwise.
Because we’re at fall finales already, and I’m still trying to figure out what even happened during the first half of the season for many of these series.
Holiday Break? Folks, it’s barely November.
Fall Finales are dropping faster than actual stories can take shape, and that doesn’t bode well for the art of storytelling, nor viewers’ interest.
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