BY MIKEY MIGO
There aren’t many shows that I’ll actually watch on a weekly basis. I won’t actually watch the sixth season of Dexter until shortly after the season finale because I’m a masochist for forcing myself to wait and I just really like binging on it for large chunk of a couple days. Dexter has had its up and downs, but it’s still one of my favorite shows on television right now. Michael C. Hall is the absolute best actor on television right now and he has had a great run on Dexter. I’m just wondering, where do we go from here? How many more seasons can it go? I don’t want to ruin anyone’s day, but this show can’t last forever. It’s a great show, but I really fear it’ll go on too long and fade out instead of going away in the blaze of glory I think we’ve all earned and yearned for. How many times do we really need to see Dexter make a connection with someone and then find out they’re crazier than him? It seems to be the rinse and repeat of the show now. The thing is that I watch the show knowing this, but I STILL find myself becoming intrigued and excited about it. It’s just really well done. I guess if it ain’t broke, why fix it? Yeesh. I’m more and more weary with each season that passes. I’m afraid I won’t like the show anymore or that it’ll go in a direction I can’t get behind. That’s the real testament of the show, and any television series for that matter. It’s a loyalty and earned anticipation.
Some shows ruin it by going too long. If you ask me, a good series should go five or season seasons. By a “series” I mean a series, an on-going storyline. There is non-episodic shows in syndication. The ones you can catch any of and not miss a beat with the story like “Seinfelds”, the “Simpsons”, and “3rd Rock from the Suns”. There is sometimes SOME progression, but with shows like a Dexter or a Breaking Bad every episode is part of an intertwining story. HBO and Showtime had the cable world in check with some great series from the past like Sopranos, Oz, Larry Sanders Show, and others. Then AMC and FX came in with their own quality shows like Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Sons of Anarchy, and others. These shows all pretty much go 13 or so episodes and then we wait another year. These 13 episodes add up over seasons and eventually an entire world is created in a well thought out and developed process. There needs to be a direction or an end game plan in place as soon as possible so you have something to work for and go towards. Sometimes when shows go too long they get old, they fade in quality, and they lose all their impact. I don’t want Dexter to fall victim of this. Breaking Bad is now going to go five seasons and I think it’s perfect. The story is so amazing that it needs closure. You can be almost guaranteed that it’s going to end guns-a-blazing. Six Feet Under ended perfectly, The Wire went just about the right amount of time, and others. I did feel that some shows went just a little too long. If Sopranos, Big Love and others would have left maybe a season or so sooner I think they’d have an even bigger impact. I know Sopranos is considered one of the best shows of all time, but it went too long… and you’re right, it is. Maybe I’m nit picking or over analyzing it, but I hold my TV in high care. I hope you’re enjoying this current golden age of television series because there is so many great shows on right now. Some are going to get cancelled, some will go out perfectly, and some will go on too long. If it’s good, it’s good. Just be careful because for every consistent quality show like Dexter out there, there is an increasingly annoying Weeds getting stale and overstaying it’s welcome.
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