Can’t decide if you’ll tune in for the second half of “The Event” starting Monday?
Actor Jason Ritter says you should because the show has “completely changed”.
“One of the things that is really exciting is that, for a while, [the characters] were all in our little bubbles with our own storylines,” he said. “Now it is all starting to converge.”
Ritter added that he was surprised to be working with co-star Laura Innes (Sophia) in the new episodes.
“I am getting to work with actors that I haven’t gotten to work with,” he confirmed. “Laura Innes and I have a scene together coming up and I didn’t think that would happen for a couple of seasons.”
Ritter, who plays Sean Walker, previously teased that “huge secrets” will be revealed after the show’s mid-season break.
Couple of seasons? Little ambitious, don’t you think? I like Ritter, don’t get me wrong, but has he ever had a series go to a second season?
These “mid-season” breaks are killers for new shows.
I can hardly remember the storyline now… Do I want to reengage with a continuing storyline that a network may kill in mid-step? Time and again we get suckered into caring for these ongoing sagas only to be dropped like in Firefly, Invasion, Jericho, Surface, etc.
“Firefly” was hardly a saga. Most of the episodes weren’t even connected (in a story arc manner, like the other shows you stated).
I’m used to watching cable by now, so I’m not complaining about a three-month break. I’ve dealt with much worse before, like a SIX-month break or an ELEVEN-month break. Three months is nothing to complain about after you put yourself through cable TV.
But on the cable series, with their 6-month and 12-month breaks, there’s at least a little closure, or the feel of the end of a chapter. You’re not really left hanging in mid-story line even though you know the overall story hasn’t yet been resolved (referring to shows like Burn Notice, Leverage, even Dead Zone and The 4400).
I’ve gotten used to the 10-13 episode run, then take a 4-6 month break, then come back with more. I like it. I wonder if any of the major nets would try that method: 13 episodes of one series, then come in with 13 eps of another series before bringing the previous series back for it’s season-concluding run. Having both series run in the same time slot would even provide a little continuity.
And I’ll give Firefly half a nod, because there was a planned arc in there, regarding what was done to River and why… we just didn’t get to see it get there.
Funny, Ritter is what is killing this show fo me.
Along the lines of what Summer says about splitting seasons…it might work if the creative team knows the season is split. All the cable shows you mention know this is part of the business for them and construction seasons accordingly.
I also think networks may want to look at the model 24 and Lost used in their last years. Give us uninterrupted blocks of new episodes so the audience knows “Oh, Mondays at 9 pm in the winter is when we get 24”, etc.
That is even more true of serialized shows
“referring to shows like Burn Notice, Leverage, even Dead Zone and The 4400”
Actually, I was referring to “Stargate” (take your pick as to which one), “BSG”, “Sanctuary” and “Eureka”. Typically, “Atlantis” and “SGU”, as well as “BSG” had clear cliffhanger stories for their mid-season finales. It wasn’t anything like a stand-alone episode before the mid-season hiatus, like it is for shows like “Castle” or “Psych” or something like that. The mid-season finale ended with a “to be continued” ending. And I remember that for “Atlantis” Season 3, the mid-season hiatus was seven months and I went out of my mind waiting for it to come back. So I’m not so fazed about “The Event” or “SGU” breaking for as little as three months. That’s about the same amount of time between seasons (May to September, usually), so what’s to get so upset about?