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cjlasky7I'm going to throw this out to the internet: did Criminal Minds' showrunner troll her own show in the series finale?
(I know nobody on my f-list watches Criminal Minds. But bear with me; I'm chasing something here....)
Criminal Minds, as most of you probably know, came to an end on Wednesday night, after 15 years of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit bringing the worst serial killers in America to justice.
Although it was a solid performer for CBS on Wednesday nights, CM was constantly dogged by controversy, from its depictions of graphic violence (especially towards women) to the off screen sexual harassment scandal centering on its longtime director of photography, and the near-constant turnover of its cast. Series star Mandy Patinkin left in season 3, claiming he couldn't stomach the violent content. (He's currently starring in Homeland, where he and Claire Danes pick daffodils in a quiet country garden.) Other series star Thomas Gibson was fired a few years later for assaulting a producer. (And the Les Moonves scandal affected the series' female cast in ways too complex and dispiriting to describe here...)
So, after all that, the series ended on Wednesday with an episode cowritten by showrunner Erica Messer that was (to be generous)....baffling. It was split between the team's pursuit of a final serial killer, and a literal head trip through the mind of the show's boyish prodigy, Spenser Reid (played with hushed soulfulness by the always-solid Matthew Grey Gubler). But Reid's psychic journey didn't seem to match up with his character; my wife was vocally irritated by the choice of characters Reid meets on the trip, and the scenes presented. It made no sense at the time--but thinking about it later, I realized that it was not Reid's story being presented; it was the story of the show itself. And frankly? Ms. Messer was not kind. The evidence:
1. In the first scene in the dream journey, Reid recalls a clip from the CM pilot with Gubler, Patinkin, Gibson, Lola Glaudini and Shemar Moore. It serves little dramatic purpose except to remind the audience that Gubler is the only one left.
2. Reid tearfully says that his father and (Patinkin's) Jason Gideon left notes to say goodbye. That's exactly how Patinkin quit the series.
3. Jayne Atkinson's Erin Strauss is an odd choice for a "guiding angel" for Reid's journey. (She's more associated with Joe Mantegna's David Rossi.) UNLESS, of course, you think of FBI Assistant Director Strauss as a "veteran female showrunner"--in other words, a stand-in for Messer herself, telling Reid/Gubler that the current phase of his life is over, and he needs to move on or die.
4. Here's a big one: George Foyet (C. Thomas Howell) plays the devil on Reid's shoulder in the dream. But Foyet is entirely tied in to the story of Gibson's Aaron Hotchner--and the episode replays the entirely-too-graphic scene of Hotchner beating Foyet to death in the series' 100th episode.
Reid solemnly states that Hotchner's act of revenge and subsequent departure was "the beginning of the end" of the BAU. Except...it wasn't. The unit went on swimmingly for a decade after that. But Gibson's violence and dismissal WAS the incident that ended CM's status as a ratings blockbuster.
I've got one more: in the real world plotline, the killer kidnaps Rossi's wife, and in exchange for her safety, the team arranges for him to gain access to the unit's private jet.
Wait a minute, you say. This tiny division of the FBI has a private jet?! Yes. Yes, they do. Messer has subtly acknowledged in the past that the jet is one of those ludicrous parts of a TV show everyone has accepted without denying the stupidity of it all--and she finally gets to blow it up for the climax. (Yeah, the FBI springs for another one at the end, but that must have felt good.)
Now, I have no verification for any of this. Messer would deny it. But I'm pretty sure I'm right. This isn't even the first time this season Messer has ranked on her own show; in a previous episode, Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) catches up Prentiss (Paget Brewster) on the preposterous events of their favorite prime time soap. The scene slid right by me until my wife pointed out that everything Garcia described was Prentiss' entire plotline in the series.
I just find it amusing that a showrunner trashed her own show heading out the door, and nobody noticed. Any other examples of this come to mind?
(I know nobody on my f-list watches Criminal Minds. But bear with me; I'm chasing something here....)
Criminal Minds, as most of you probably know, came to an end on Wednesday night, after 15 years of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit bringing the worst serial killers in America to justice.
Although it was a solid performer for CBS on Wednesday nights, CM was constantly dogged by controversy, from its depictions of graphic violence (especially towards women) to the off screen sexual harassment scandal centering on its longtime director of photography, and the near-constant turnover of its cast. Series star Mandy Patinkin left in season 3, claiming he couldn't stomach the violent content. (He's currently starring in Homeland, where he and Claire Danes pick daffodils in a quiet country garden.) Other series star Thomas Gibson was fired a few years later for assaulting a producer. (And the Les Moonves scandal affected the series' female cast in ways too complex and dispiriting to describe here...)
So, after all that, the series ended on Wednesday with an episode cowritten by showrunner Erica Messer that was (to be generous)....baffling. It was split between the team's pursuit of a final serial killer, and a literal head trip through the mind of the show's boyish prodigy, Spenser Reid (played with hushed soulfulness by the always-solid Matthew Grey Gubler). But Reid's psychic journey didn't seem to match up with his character; my wife was vocally irritated by the choice of characters Reid meets on the trip, and the scenes presented. It made no sense at the time--but thinking about it later, I realized that it was not Reid's story being presented; it was the story of the show itself. And frankly? Ms. Messer was not kind. The evidence:
1. In the first scene in the dream journey, Reid recalls a clip from the CM pilot with Gubler, Patinkin, Gibson, Lola Glaudini and Shemar Moore. It serves little dramatic purpose except to remind the audience that Gubler is the only one left.
2. Reid tearfully says that his father and (Patinkin's) Jason Gideon left notes to say goodbye. That's exactly how Patinkin quit the series.
3. Jayne Atkinson's Erin Strauss is an odd choice for a "guiding angel" for Reid's journey. (She's more associated with Joe Mantegna's David Rossi.) UNLESS, of course, you think of FBI Assistant Director Strauss as a "veteran female showrunner"--in other words, a stand-in for Messer herself, telling Reid/Gubler that the current phase of his life is over, and he needs to move on or die.
4. Here's a big one: George Foyet (C. Thomas Howell) plays the devil on Reid's shoulder in the dream. But Foyet is entirely tied in to the story of Gibson's Aaron Hotchner--and the episode replays the entirely-too-graphic scene of Hotchner beating Foyet to death in the series' 100th episode.
Reid solemnly states that Hotchner's act of revenge and subsequent departure was "the beginning of the end" of the BAU. Except...it wasn't. The unit went on swimmingly for a decade after that. But Gibson's violence and dismissal WAS the incident that ended CM's status as a ratings blockbuster.
I've got one more: in the real world plotline, the killer kidnaps Rossi's wife, and in exchange for her safety, the team arranges for him to gain access to the unit's private jet.
Wait a minute, you say. This tiny division of the FBI has a private jet?! Yes. Yes, they do. Messer has subtly acknowledged in the past that the jet is one of those ludicrous parts of a TV show everyone has accepted without denying the stupidity of it all--and she finally gets to blow it up for the climax. (Yeah, the FBI springs for another one at the end, but that must have felt good.)
Now, I have no verification for any of this. Messer would deny it. But I'm pretty sure I'm right. This isn't even the first time this season Messer has ranked on her own show; in a previous episode, Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) catches up Prentiss (Paget Brewster) on the preposterous events of their favorite prime time soap. The scene slid right by me until my wife pointed out that everything Garcia described was Prentiss' entire plotline in the series.
I just find it amusing that a showrunner trashed her own show heading out the door, and nobody noticed. Any other examples of this come to mind?
no subject
Date: 2020-02-22 02:11 am (UTC)Yep.
Television writers get burned out and usually hand it over to someone else after the five year mark. If they don't...well. It either gets very meta, or jumps the shark.
Game of Thrones comes to mind, although people noticed. Not everyone.
ER...got weird, then kind of leveled off.
Aaron Sorkin almost tanked The West Wing. They saved it by giving him the boot.
If they don't tank it, they get very meta-narrative on it. Supernatural comes to mind -- it went very meta.
I've seen them do it with soap operas -- right before they are cancelled. One Life To Live and All My Children went insane (yes, even for a soap opera). What did All My Children do? They brought back EVERYONE who they'd killed -- apparently an evil Doctor was keeping all the dead characters in a secret care facility and bringing them back. He even brought back the previous Kendall as portrayed by Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Days of Our Lives...which is still going strong...had Marlena become possessed by the devil and kill all the characters in town, they escaped in their coffins to an alternate universe. Although that's most likely not the same thing. But too hilarious not to share. (I gave up on Days, when they were riding hobby horses back in the 1980s.)
CBS TV Shows have issues though. Making me wonder about CBS. I know they are hell on wheels to work for. Never interview or take a job with either CBS or NBC. I learned that way back in 2006. Bad work environments. I don't know what ABC is like -- it doesn't sound as bad.
Anyhow, yes, I suspect TV writers start to sabotage themselves when they get burned out. I know Whedon did on Buffy. I honestly think he thought it was a five season series and was shocked it got picked up for two more seasons by UPN and that UPN wanted to keep on going.
Saw it with Stephen Moffat on Doctor Who and Sherlock -- he'd gotten burned out on the characters and didn't know how to wrap it up.
And...then there's Rod Sterling who felt the need to write every Twilight Zone episode...not a good idea.
TV writers have big egos and it usually does them in. See MASH, which ran too long. Or more notably "Happy Days".
no subject
Date: 2020-02-22 02:43 pm (UTC)While I'm sure that in many cases that's true, I'd venture that especially in the case of broadcast network show writers, if the show is successful (makes money, lots of it) the network brass are going to insist on new seasons and episodes as long as the bucks keep coming in.
Being a music fan, this seems to me analogous to very successful musicians and groups who are made to tour endlessly, day in and out, because the record company is only looking at the income the musicians generate. Personal mayhem for the musicians often ensues, for example see Johnny Cash and others in the recent Ken Burns PBS documentary. Some musicians even die very young.
And yes, often musicians regularly comment on their fame and its oft-times price.
One example by Pink Floyd's Roger Waters and David Gilmore:
So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from hell
Blue skies from pain
Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
Did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
Did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here
We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl
Year after year
Running over the same old ground
And how we found
The same old fears
Wish you were here
So... did they jump, or were they pushed? Not always just ego, methinks.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-22 04:56 pm (UTC)And if you write a novel that takes off? The publisher wants you to write another one just like it. So do your readers. You're stuck writing one book after another in a series. It's VERY hard to get them to let you write anything else. I remember when people read the book I wrote - they all wanted to know when the sequel was coming out. The book was meant as a stand a lone. I wasn't writing a series. Thank god it wasn't popular - I had no pressure on me to do what didn't need to be done. People are selfish - they don't care about art, they care about their own gratification. So an artist can get trapped in that in cycle.
And to do well, you have to write three to four books a year, constantly churning them out, and often they don't get well-edited. And the art turns into work or redundancy. It's why most mystery series tend to be crap after about the sixth book. The writer starts phoning it in or repeating themselves. I've yet to see one end well. Or the writer will kill off the character -- hoping to end it there, only to be forced to bring the character back by their publisher (See Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes).
But, that said, ego is heavily involved - the entertainment industry is toxic - why? Fame. The writers/musicians/etc don't have to do any of that-Johnny Cash didn't have to tour endlessly, Arthur Conan Doyle didn't have to continue writing Sherlock Holmes stories.... They do it for their ego. They put their egos above all else. The applause becomes a drug. Their ego is constantly being stroked or torn down. Look at all those useless awards and accolades -- all subjectively awarded? All the subjective reviews and critical reviews? I remember being told by professional actors and writers not to read reviews. Many don't. The good reviews make you cocky, the bad reviews devastate you. It's a field that attracts narcissists. Most male entertainers tend to be narcissistic - it attracts them like flies. As are many professional novelists. As Ursula Le Quinn once stated - writers have HUGE egos, and fragile ones.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-22 06:30 pm (UTC)2. I love Moffat's stuff, but he can't write an extended plotline to save his life. His one-offs are brilliant, but every ongoing plot for Matt Smith invariably disappeared up its own asshole. (I didn't see Dracula, but I'm guessing it was pretty much the same.) He works better under another showrunner. Maybe he should have stayed a comedy writer (Coupling).
3. Soap operas sound like the comic books of the TV world.
When I say Messer "trashed" CM on the way out, I don't mean by incompetence or burnout. (Yeah, we've seen a lot of that in our time....) And as for her script being "meta"--it wasn't the cute kind of meta that comes from love ("Dawn's in trouble; it must be Tuesday"). This was a subtly presented but quite comprehensive list of grievances from a writer who's been on staff for a decade and has seen a lot of shit go down. And if I'm right about this, then the scenes between Atkinson and Gubler--who was clearly Messer's favorite--are a producer telling a friend: "You did good work here. But don't let this show be a career highlight. Go out and do something better."
I honestly don't remember seeing anything like that before.