It's that time of the year again, and we're all waiting with baited breath to see which of our favourites survive the networks' pruning process without getting the cut this year. So far, a number of my shows are safe or shoe-ins, practically guaranteed another season.
Unfortunately, some shows return that I would rather see take a graceful retirement... Supernatural, primarily.
The show has gone from to hapless young guys battling boogeymen while searching for their father, to “the Abomination” and “Michael's Chosen” trying to stave off Armageddon – kind of like a munchkin RPG-campaign. Not that it's not fun, but I think “where do we go from here?” is a valid question.
Are they planning on spending another season fighting ol' Luce and the asshats-formerly-know-as-angels? Or will it be something completely different? The fact that creator and showrunner Eric Kripke is leaving the show sets of alarm bells in my mind at least.
Will they keep to the present formula – an uphill battle against progressively more powerful opponents in search of a way to safe the world from near-annihilation? Will they save the world, and spend the season trying to rid themselves of Sam's “go straight to hell” stamp due to his unfortunate “Abomination” status? Will they FAIL to save the world, and wander around a post-apocalyptic USA fighting zombies and trying to help desperate survivors, kind of like Mad Max meets Resident Evil?
I don't know, and I can't help but worry that it will suck.
Chuck, while in a similar situation, isn't quite as bad. While I think the show produced a splendid “season/show finale” in Chuck vs. the Other Guy, I'm not opposed to the six “bonus” episodes they were suddenly given by NBC. I think it's a great opportunity to flesh out the “happily ever after” ending. However, a whole new season may be a bit much. On a spyshow like Burn Notice, where the plot of every episode coupled with the overall story-arch is the main focus, they can pick their focus from episode to episode. But Chuck, which also relies more on the personal dymanics in the cast, appears to have “ended” one of their main storylines, the UST-filled, “will they/won't they” storyline of the main couple. In most shows, this means end of story, game over, fade to black. In the cases where they've kept going, it's mostly been a disaster where the new dynamics let the whole crew fall flat on their collective faces.
Can Chuck maintain a coherent story and plot, with interesting and fleshed out group dynamics, while allowing our intrepid heroes to enjoy their happily ever after?
If they get renewed, we'll get to see.
