Happy to have you back Noel. One of the best shows of the past 5 years, it's bittersweet to have it end but I'm all for the show ending on its own terms and leaving the party too early rather than too late.
Unfortunately, I suck at remembering exact quotes, but my favorite Matt Berry line reading was right after Nadja "Like Frankenstein" and he said "Who?" or "I don't know him" or something else that made me laugh loudly.
Great to have the vampires back. While I would happily watch as many seasons of this show as they chose to make, I'm not that sad it's ending, particularly since they do seem interested in giving it some thematically satisfying wrap up.
But I mainly want to use this comment to ask two inside baseball questions of Noel or Myles or anyone else with insight:
1. What's the logic of networks burning through episodes so quickly? If it's some piece of crap one season non-wonder that they are burning off in July, sure, but this is kind of a tentpole series for FX. Why don't they want to milk it for longer? AMC for example usually stretches the final seasons of their shows over a couple decades.
2. The Guide saying she wants to eff Jerry is funny, but given that the characters say fuck all the time I wonder about it. Are there different standards for sexual versus non-sexual fucks?
1. I wish I knew! My only thought is that they're attempting some kind of hybrid of the binge model and the weekly model? Let viewers take a little plunge on Week One and hook them for the rest of the season? As someone who covers television and often has to write about shows that take this approach, it's kind of exhausting! (A couple of months ago I wrote three RINGS OF POWER reviews in a single day. That was a grind, let me tell you.)
2. I think this is just Guide-specific, not anything to do with network standards. She's a bit more demure than the other vampires.
I would guess, with the scheduling, that they didn't want Shadows to run into Christmas or 2025, but they couldn't start it earlier since English Teacher was running (maybe in part because they want them in the same Monday night slot, maybe in part because Paul Simms is an EP on both and may just not have had time to get them both done in the time frame that would take). I think Shadows is going to once a week after this week.
"While I would happily watch as many seasons of this show as they chose to make, I'm not that sad it's ending, particularly since they do seem interested in giving it some thematically satisfying wrap up."
This is precisely where I'm at, too. The show's had a great run and hasn't overstayed its welcome at all, with enough episodes under its belt that you don't feel as though the writers had anything left that they didn't get a chance to say. Plus like Noel said, it seems like they knew this would be the last season and were able to craft it accordingly, which I always appreciate. The series will always be there for a rewatch, again with enough episodes in total that that won't grow stale too quickly.
I don't claim to have insight, but I'll lend my 2 cents:
Scheduling TV shows, particularly in the streaming age, is weird. My best bet is that they wanted to front-load some episodes because of this series' proximity to spooki season, and may not have had the flexibility that Marvel had when it was scheduling Agatha (perfectly). Plus they probably have other reasons to premier different shows at specific times, and wanted this show to end before their others start.
And I think that's just a quirk of the Guide being herself. I don't think they have an alotted amount of Fucks to say in one broadcast (even though this is an FX show, and therefore a broadcast one, they're very lenient with swear words, but I guess they just figure they can bleep them out on air and save the swears for streaming).
To the question posed above, about how we feel when we learn one of our favorite shows is heading into retirement...I say, in this particular case, that's perfectly fine. There's already too much damn TV to keep up with, and that's only the new shows being premiered. It'll be nice to scratch one more off the list, to be able to recommend people check out. But this show, in my opinion, was starting to fall off a bit last season, with some of the episodes feeling a bit "inessential". They're still funny, and worth tuning in for, but I'm slightly relieved we're not getting 10 seasons of this show, and it can wind down with some form of an ending in sight.
This episode, for example, was just fine. It was good for recentering our vampires and creating arcs that will hopefully lead them through this last season, but I wasn't a huge fan of Guillermo or the New Vamp's roles that much in this episode. Guillermo in particular feels like his whole Familiar arc concluded last season, so now he's just kinda...around? Don't get me wrong, still funny, but just sorta there now. And the New Vamp isn't really as funny or annoyed as I thought he should be. Futzing around for decades is indeed the way to go, but now he's snapped our quartet of vamps back into actually trying to do something with their un-lives: More people-research for Nadja, a single friend for Colin, Dr. Frankenstein (Who? Never heard of him) for Lazlo, and maybe conquering for Nandor. Hopefully we'll get some guest star vamps and the Witch Hat makes a return.
Happy to have you back Noel. One of the best shows of the past 5 years, it's bittersweet to have it end but I'm all for the show ending on its own terms and leaving the party too early rather than too late.
What, you don't want a Vampire version of the Office?
...actually, now that I wrote it down, that would be pretty great.
I was very pleased with myself that when Colin got out his phone to catch Jerry up, I predicted he was going to show him The Dress.
Unfortunately, I suck at remembering exact quotes, but my favorite Matt Berry line reading was right after Nadja "Like Frankenstein" and he said "Who?" or "I don't know him" or something else that made me laugh loudly.
Yes! It was a dismissive "Whooo?" followed by, "Never heard of him." (As I recall.)
Hilarious!!
Great to have the vampires back. While I would happily watch as many seasons of this show as they chose to make, I'm not that sad it's ending, particularly since they do seem interested in giving it some thematically satisfying wrap up.
But I mainly want to use this comment to ask two inside baseball questions of Noel or Myles or anyone else with insight:
1. What's the logic of networks burning through episodes so quickly? If it's some piece of crap one season non-wonder that they are burning off in July, sure, but this is kind of a tentpole series for FX. Why don't they want to milk it for longer? AMC for example usually stretches the final seasons of their shows over a couple decades.
2. The Guide saying she wants to eff Jerry is funny, but given that the characters say fuck all the time I wonder about it. Are there different standards for sexual versus non-sexual fucks?
1. I wish I knew! My only thought is that they're attempting some kind of hybrid of the binge model and the weekly model? Let viewers take a little plunge on Week One and hook them for the rest of the season? As someone who covers television and often has to write about shows that take this approach, it's kind of exhausting! (A couple of months ago I wrote three RINGS OF POWER reviews in a single day. That was a grind, let me tell you.)
2. I think this is just Guide-specific, not anything to do with network standards. She's a bit more demure than the other vampires.
But is she mindful?
Ha! Always.
I would guess, with the scheduling, that they didn't want Shadows to run into Christmas or 2025, but they couldn't start it earlier since English Teacher was running (maybe in part because they want them in the same Monday night slot, maybe in part because Paul Simms is an EP on both and may just not have had time to get them both done in the time frame that would take). I think Shadows is going to once a week after this week.
"While I would happily watch as many seasons of this show as they chose to make, I'm not that sad it's ending, particularly since they do seem interested in giving it some thematically satisfying wrap up."
This is precisely where I'm at, too. The show's had a great run and hasn't overstayed its welcome at all, with enough episodes under its belt that you don't feel as though the writers had anything left that they didn't get a chance to say. Plus like Noel said, it seems like they knew this would be the last season and were able to craft it accordingly, which I always appreciate. The series will always be there for a rewatch, again with enough episodes in total that that won't grow stale too quickly.
I don't claim to have insight, but I'll lend my 2 cents:
Scheduling TV shows, particularly in the streaming age, is weird. My best bet is that they wanted to front-load some episodes because of this series' proximity to spooki season, and may not have had the flexibility that Marvel had when it was scheduling Agatha (perfectly). Plus they probably have other reasons to premier different shows at specific times, and wanted this show to end before their others start.
And I think that's just a quirk of the Guide being herself. I don't think they have an alotted amount of Fucks to say in one broadcast (even though this is an FX show, and therefore a broadcast one, they're very lenient with swear words, but I guess they just figure they can bleep them out on air and save the swears for streaming).
To the question posed above, about how we feel when we learn one of our favorite shows is heading into retirement...I say, in this particular case, that's perfectly fine. There's already too much damn TV to keep up with, and that's only the new shows being premiered. It'll be nice to scratch one more off the list, to be able to recommend people check out. But this show, in my opinion, was starting to fall off a bit last season, with some of the episodes feeling a bit "inessential". They're still funny, and worth tuning in for, but I'm slightly relieved we're not getting 10 seasons of this show, and it can wind down with some form of an ending in sight.
This episode, for example, was just fine. It was good for recentering our vampires and creating arcs that will hopefully lead them through this last season, but I wasn't a huge fan of Guillermo or the New Vamp's roles that much in this episode. Guillermo in particular feels like his whole Familiar arc concluded last season, so now he's just kinda...around? Don't get me wrong, still funny, but just sorta there now. And the New Vamp isn't really as funny or annoyed as I thought he should be. Futzing around for decades is indeed the way to go, but now he's snapped our quartet of vamps back into actually trying to do something with their un-lives: More people-research for Nadja, a single friend for Colin, Dr. Frankenstein (Who? Never heard of him) for Lazlo, and maybe conquering for Nandor. Hopefully we'll get some guest star vamps and the Witch Hat makes a return.