Poop Shute

F*ck you HBO!

I feel so cheated. And for the second time.

HBO has a talent for putting together brilliantly written, cutting-edge shows. SOPRANOS, SIX FEET UNDER, ROME, CARNIVALE, DEADWOOD, etc.
They are also famous for f*cking it all up too.

Sopranos probably went on a couple seasons too many in my opinion. It was great, but began to just go on a little too long. Then we have Carnivale and Deadwood, both of them had the plug pulled when the story was clearly nowhere near any kind of resolution.

Six Feet Under is the rare shining example for me. It ran a perfect four seasons. It got better and better right to the very end, and the ending itself... was the only way a show with a theme like that could end. It was breath-taking. I have a feeling that any more than what we got would have began to outstay it's welcome, like Soprano's.

One of my biggest problems with network television (CBS, NBC, FOX) is a lot of shows tend to take a story that should be told in two to three seasons and stretch it with needless meandering of the story to stretch it out until the ratings start to slip, at which point the story fills in its holes and concludes. Lost, Heroes, 4400, and X-files, are only four of the most successful examples that come to mind. There is an answer to all the stupid crap on Lost, but I guarantee you that it won't be revealed until they decide to end the piece of garbage.

HBO has never suffered from this need. They don't need to come up with stupid filler episodes of their show that reveal NOTHING about the ongoing plot, and waste time with meaninglessness. Network TV does this as long as the ad dollars remain profitable. HBO relies on cable subscribers and DVD sales, not advertising dollars. All they need to know is that they are providing a product that sells subscriptions and DVD's. They had that with Deadwood, and they pulled the plug prematurely.

I just finished the last episode and it is SO unsatisfying. There is so much more to this tale, and you can sense it with every fiber of your being as you watch the final credits roll. It's like an abortion... of a three year old child, not a fetus.

Two surefire signs tell me that it was a premature cancellation. The first is a quote I read from series creator David Milch, saying that the show will be a four season story arch. The second is the fact that Milch did not write the final episode, or even much of the "final" season even. I know, he had another show to worry about, but from my television experience, most show creators like to have their hands in on the concluding of their creations. To most writers their work is like their child, so this is like seeing that child through to graduation personally. I've seen many interviews with Milch, and he doesn't strike me as the type to let someone finish his work for him.

The actors didn't even know it was over until some time after filming what is now the final season they found out (through the grapevine) that the set was being dismantled. HBO initially promised there would be two two-hour films made to wrap up what would have been the fourth season, but the news I just read said they went back on their word and scrapped it. F*ckers!

So the amazing and captivating story of DEADWOOD joins it's predecessor CARNIVALE on the scrap heap of unfinished HBO dramas. This is why I feel cheated. They hook you in, get you invested in a world and then leave that world permanently in limbo. The characters will never achieve what their creators intended, and we will never know. It's like those painful real-life experiences where you meet someone new, rapidly bond with them, and then they disappear and you never hear from them again. That may just be me, but it happens a lot in the acting world anyway. I have dozens of "close friends" that I may never see again. I hate that.

Now the characters of Deadwood join that list of friends I'll never see again. I repeat;

F*CK YOU HBO!