MY TAKE: Watering down the Impact of the Empire
The first season of Fox's hit show Empire, couldn't have gone much better. The season finale was watched by 16.7 million viewers. No show in modern TV history has ever grown more from the season premiere, to the season finale, up 71% from the premiere.
But here is the thing with TV, sometimes, less is more.
Season one was given a 12 episode run, and after the booming success, season 2 has received a 18 episode run on Fox, beginning this Fall.
I for one have mixed emotions o this. Storytelling should be well paced, but also provide enough meat to keep the audience coming back. Sometimes, when TV shows are required to produce compelling TV that keep the fans on the edge of their seats every week, it causes writers to do crazy things.
With the obligation of fulfilling a 18 episode arc, opposed to a 8 to 13 episode run like most of the best shows on Cable, I'm afraid Empire will risk being watered down.
Let's look at a show like Scandal, of whom I have been a huge fan of since day one. The show was at its best, without question, when it had shorter, more concise, and focused amount of episodes to tell a story. The show lost viewers and steam once the writers were forced to produce episodes that had little to do with the main story arc, and had to venture out into areas that were less interesting and didn't advance the main hook of the show.
I can easily see that happening with Empire.
Over the weekend, the shows co-creator Danny Strong and executive producer Wendy Calhoun discussed issues surrounding season 2.
“Eighteen more episodes, it’s a lot. It’s not a cookie-cutter type show; it’s not the crime of the week; it’s not the medical disease of the week … I’m very attached to the mythology of the Lyon family, so there’s gonna be a storyline in season two that’s a flashback story that I’m very excited about, an origin story for one of the characters,'' said Danny Strong.
Strong conceded that while there’s pressure to maintain the show’s success, they don’t intend to reinvent the wheel when their first season template worked so well. “We’re just going to continue the story, because if we tried to make it bigger and better, we’d make it worse and lamer… We’re cognizant of things fans responded to, but this isn’t ‘choose your own adventure,'” he noted. “It’s not like we ignore the response to the show, but we don’t use that to guide us.”
That leads me to believe that the writers don't even think its a good thing. Now I know a lot of shows use the flashback technique, but who wants to watch a season dominated by flashbacks? It gets old after a while.
Now trust me, I'm a fan and I will watch every week and enjoy. But I want the show to succeed immensely, and I hate when networks over shoot the target. Let shows build gradually. Make the fans wait for more in the coming seasons. Give us something to look forward to, utilizing a natural progression.
Don't water down a great show, for the instant gratification of short term ratings success. You will set the bar so high that it will eventually be impossible to reach.
But here is the thing with TV, sometimes, less is more.
Season one was given a 12 episode run, and after the booming success, season 2 has received a 18 episode run on Fox, beginning this Fall.
I for one have mixed emotions o this. Storytelling should be well paced, but also provide enough meat to keep the audience coming back. Sometimes, when TV shows are required to produce compelling TV that keep the fans on the edge of their seats every week, it causes writers to do crazy things.
With the obligation of fulfilling a 18 episode arc, opposed to a 8 to 13 episode run like most of the best shows on Cable, I'm afraid Empire will risk being watered down.
Let's look at a show like Scandal, of whom I have been a huge fan of since day one. The show was at its best, without question, when it had shorter, more concise, and focused amount of episodes to tell a story. The show lost viewers and steam once the writers were forced to produce episodes that had little to do with the main story arc, and had to venture out into areas that were less interesting and didn't advance the main hook of the show.
I can easily see that happening with Empire.
Over the weekend, the shows co-creator Danny Strong and executive producer Wendy Calhoun discussed issues surrounding season 2.
“Eighteen more episodes, it’s a lot. It’s not a cookie-cutter type show; it’s not the crime of the week; it’s not the medical disease of the week … I’m very attached to the mythology of the Lyon family, so there’s gonna be a storyline in season two that’s a flashback story that I’m very excited about, an origin story for one of the characters,'' said Danny Strong.
Strong conceded that while there’s pressure to maintain the show’s success, they don’t intend to reinvent the wheel when their first season template worked so well. “We’re just going to continue the story, because if we tried to make it bigger and better, we’d make it worse and lamer… We’re cognizant of things fans responded to, but this isn’t ‘choose your own adventure,'” he noted. “It’s not like we ignore the response to the show, but we don’t use that to guide us.”
That leads me to believe that the writers don't even think its a good thing. Now I know a lot of shows use the flashback technique, but who wants to watch a season dominated by flashbacks? It gets old after a while.
Now trust me, I'm a fan and I will watch every week and enjoy. But I want the show to succeed immensely, and I hate when networks over shoot the target. Let shows build gradually. Make the fans wait for more in the coming seasons. Give us something to look forward to, utilizing a natural progression.
Don't water down a great show, for the instant gratification of short term ratings success. You will set the bar so high that it will eventually be impossible to reach.
