No, it wasn't a binge. 6 Mondays in a row, 1.5 hrs each, doesn't quite count as a binge. But we were eagerly looking forward to it.
That was the Brokenwood Mysteries on Acorn, season 12. We were waiting for it, and now we're done and we have to wait another year for season 13, if it gets made, which I'm assuming it will.
We found it several years ago, and fell in love with it right from the start. There's no spoilers here, so don't worry about that. I like the quirky characters, but what I really love is that the female lead is a strong character who actually contributes to solving the crime. She isn't there just to look pretty. The situations are pretty tangled, but we sometimes figure out whodunnit, and mostly it's pretty fair. Plus, of course, the New Zealand scenery, some of which we've been to. That's worth the price of admission right there.
Speaking of price of admission, as a digression, and foreshadowing, here is Michelle in an outtake from the noir detective
series. That series was (mostly) planned, well executed, told a story, and was wrapped up to the satisfaction of all involved. Might there be a sequel? Stay tuned.
All too often we discover a series after it's been unjustly cancelled. Firefly. Dead Like Me. The Sarah Conner Chronicles.
Sometimes we catch a series while still in production, and follow along till it ends, sometimes rightly, sometimes not. Elementary. Sherlock. Lucifer. Battlestar Galactica.
Sometimes they're still running, long after they should have been cancelled and we bail out. Grey's Anatomy. The Midsomer Murders.
Sometimes we discover them long after they came and went. Yes, Minister, and Yes, Prime Minister are probably the wittiest and cleverest programs I've ever seen. I have them on DVD and still put them on every now and then. There is nobody who has a command of the language like Sir Humphrey. Who else could look entirely sincere while saying, "In view of the somewhat nebulous and inexplicit nature of your remit, and the arguably marginal and peripheral nature of your influence within the central deliberations and decisions within the political process, there could be a case for restructuring their action priorities in such a way as to eliminate your liquidation from their immediate agenda."
Sometimes we stop watching part way through, and there might be a variety of reasons. Mostly though, it's because we got bored with the story. Medium (season 4 I think), or the story got stupid beyond the conventions of drama, Grey's Anatomy (season 15 or so, though we nearly bailed out several times along the way). Leverage (I liked the first one up to about the second last season and then lost interest, and haven't got into the reboot.) The Mentalist (I made it to about the end of the first season, and might come back to it, while Linda has rampaged through, devouring it while staying up late.) There are other examples with variations on these themes.
My take on it is that a story naturally has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The viewers need to know who the characters are and what they're up to. From there they can settle into the murder or monster of the week, and as long as they can keep the characters and situations fresh, things can repeat for quite a while. Or the writers lose their edge and just start turning the formula crank and it gets boring.
But eventually at least one of three things will happen. Most likely the show will jump the shark. Sometimes that will happen and then it will get cancelled abruptly leaving the audience hanging. Or maybe the cancellation will happen before the show finds it's legs or audience. More rarely, the writers know the end is coming and they wrap things up in a more or less tidy package. Some better than others, of course. Sometimes the writers have noodled themselves into a corner and there is no satisfactory conclusion.
Once a story ends, leave it. Go on to something else. Enough with the sequels. It's lazy storytelling. Don't get me started on time travel or musical episodes. Even worse than that are shows set in high school. Worst of all is superhero shows.
Of the Day
Driftwood (NZ)
Driftwood (NB)
Linda
Newfoundland
New Brunswick
Why ever didn't I publish this, and maybe I did
Film and 90 days, or so ago
Flower
The start of this year's dahlias. The bees have already discovered them.
Landscape
