Three Top Shows Coming to an End

They say bad news comes in threes and if you’re a fan of TV drama you may well come to agree with ‘them’. Over the past week or so three of the best shows on TV have met their maker with first Boardwalk Empire, then The Newsroom and now Justified all getting set to end their stories for good.

If you’re not familiar with any of these shows, here’s the lowdown. Boardwalk Empire is a 1920s-set crime drama based on the real-life trials and tribulations of Enoch ‘Nucky’ Thompson; a man who straddles the line between gangster and politician in Atlantic City. The show boasts Martin Scorsese as executive producer and has won one Golden Globe and 13 Emmys over its four seasons so far.

The Newsroom is far lighter fare as a cast of characters (who are often all far too clever and quirky for their own good) staff a fictional television newsroom and attempt to produce a fair, ethical and hard-hitting nightly news show while juggling their own personal melodramas. It sounds like ridiculous fluff, but the snappy dialogue, occasionally insightful social commentary and accomplished performances make it continually watchable.

The least well-known of the three, but my personal favourite, is Justified. The show follows Raylan Givens, a US Marshall who is reassigned from Miami to his childhood hometown in rural Kentucky as penance for his trigger-happy style of law enforcement. The easy charisma of Timothy Olyphant in the lead role carries the show, but it is the mix of intriguing mysteries, tense shootouts and rich dialogue - where you feel there is never a wasted word - that keeps viewers riveted.

So if these shows are so good, why are they finishing? Could this be a sign that TV studios have recognised the need to end their shows on a high rather than milking a good idea completely dry and outstaying its welcome? Or is it merely a coincidence that these shows have simply reached a natural conclusion? It may also be the case that the talent involved in these shows feel it’s time to move onto something new. The stars of each show; Steve Buscemi, Jeff Daniels and Timothy Olyphant have all had varyingly successful movie careers and perhaps do not want to continue to forego their silver screen options while being tied down to the time-consuming process of making TV. And it’s not just the actors, The Newsroom’s creator and writer Aaron Sorkin will surely have plenty of movie offers following the success of his work on The Social Network and Moneyball.

If this is evidence of a new outlook from TV studios to make complete, coherent stories rather than dragging out a good idea well past its prime then it will be a welcome shift. Too often in the past has a good show laboured on well past its prime, the most famous of which would have to be Lost. After a terrific first season, what followed was something of a bloated mess followed by a muddled conclusion that satisfied very few but the most ardent fans.

Lost is not the only offender though, you could also cite Prison Break, 24 and Heroes as shows where a strong premise plays out nicely for one or two seasons only to be followed by a laboured re-hash of the same ideas season after season.

Still, it’s not all bad news, while these three great shows are coming to an end there is still one more season of each to come with Sky Atlantic all but assured to be bringing Boardwalk Empire series 5 and The Newsroom series 3 to our screens. However, Justified isn’t quite so lucky. While in the USA the FX network is currently showing the latest fifth season (with its final sixth season still to come), here in the UK it has, up to now, been shown on 5USA, but that channel has now decided not to carry season 5 leaving it without a UK broadcaster. Presumably it has been dropped due to poor ratings – a fate that befalls many programmes on 5USA I rather fancy.

Fear not though, seasons 1-4 of Justified are available on Netflix in the UK and with the subscription streaming service building a reputation for knowing good TV when they see it (Breaking Bad, House of Cards, Arrested Development etc...) I am hopeful of the possibility that they will pick up the rights to season 5 and subsequently the final sixth season too.