Not-So-Great Expectations: Form, Fandom, and the Revival Julian Axelrod Columbia College Chicago (2017) Contributor of the Month
Is the Entourage movie the only worthwhile revival of a long-dormant TV show? Before you pull out your torches and pitchforks, let me explain. In a cultural landscape where fans are constantly fighting to bring back their favorite series and with more avenues than ever to revive these shows, cult favorites rarely stay dead for long. Whether it’s Arrested Development resurfacing on Netflix, Cougar Town moving to TBS, or Veronica Mars making the jump to the silver screen, any show can find a second life if it has a Watercooler Journal
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passionate fan base to champion its return. But while a show’s fans are often the driving force behind its resurrection, those fans also approach its return with lofty expectations that the show couldn’t possibly meet. This paradoxical approach makes reviving a beloved series a futile exercise.
Television critics and historians often cite the “beautiful corpse” theory when discussing shows that were cancelled prematurely. According to this school of thought, a brilliant series that ends too soon (like Firefly) will be remembered more fondly than a show that starts out strong but overstays its welcome (such as The Office). While a long-running show like The Simpsons runs the risk of eclipsing its past glory with years of mediocre output, a beautiful corpse like Freaks and Geeks never has the chance to disappoint its fans—its eighteen “perfect” episodes speak for themselves. Although you’d be hard-pressed to find a TV writer who hopes their show gets cancelled after one season, sometimes this is beneficial to the series’ legacy, as fans are more likely to rally around a show that they felt didn’t get a fair chance during its first run. Simply put, it’s better to burn out than to fade away. For years, Arrested Development was heralded as a show that was ahead of its time. With its crossfire dialogue, skewed sensibility, and intricate web of references and callbacks, it was often regarded as “too smart for network television,” a label that proved especially true when Fox cancelled it after three seasons. So when it was announced that Netflix would bring back the show for another fifteen episodes, fans rejoiced. Finally, we would be reunited with the Bluths in all their sniping, dysfunctional glory—only now we wouldn’t have to deal with nervous Watercooler Journal
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network executives changing the episode order and putting the show on hiatus for months at a time. For long-suffering Arrested Development fans, it was a dream come true. However, when Netflix finally unveiled season four, many fans were confused and disappointed. Instead of focusing on the hilarious family dynamic between the Bluths, the main characters were split up and sent on separate storylines to varying results—for every Fantastic Four musical, there was a tedious hour focusing on George Sr.’s new business venture. The episodes were packed with allusions to characters and subplots from the first three seasons of Arrested Development, but it often felt like the writers were just referencing the original series without capturing what made it successful in the first place.
“Simply put, it’s better to burn out than fade away.” However, while I stand by that last paragraph, I’m also one of the few people who enjoyed season four of Arrested Development. While not every character arc was equally interesting, I thought the culmination of all the storylines was an exciting payoff to the season’s jigsaw puzzle structure. By approaching the episodes as pieces of the overall season rather than selfcontained stories, Arrested Development felt like the first Netflix series to make proper use of the format. But here’s the thing: While it was a successful season of television, it wasn’t a successful season of Arrested Development. If Netflix had just marketed the season as a new series following a man trying to convince his family to sell the rights to their life story and not a follow-up to one of the most acclaimed comedies of all time, it probably would have been much more warmly received. But the show suffered from comparisons to the first three seasons, and fans were disappointed that the show didn’t deliver after they waited seven years for new episodes. But what would have satisfied them? What do fans expect from a resurrected show? Ideally, a series revival would give you that same emotional thrill that you got from watching the original show. But so much of that thrill is wrapped up in discovering a program you love and watching it every week. How can a show develop a story and surprise its audience while simultaneously bringing back characters and tying up storylines from its original run? A revived series has twice as much to accomplish due to fan expectations. Watercooler Journal
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Additionally, a show may not be able to fully embody its original strengths for any number of reasons, from the restraints of its format to the availability of its cast. The cast of Arrested Development became so busy after the original show ended that they could only shoot a handful of scenes with the entire cast for season four. The Veronica Mars film has to fit a twenty-two-episode mystery into a ninety-minute movie. There’s still a faction of Freaks and Geeks fans who want the cast to reunite for a film, failing to realize the inherent creepiness in seeing actors in their mid-thirties to reprise their roles as high school freshmen. No matter what the show is, there’s bound to be some element that will keep the show from fully realizing its former glory. Which brings us to Entourage. Now, I’m not arguing that Entourage is a good show. And I’m definitely not arguing that it deserves to be made into a movie. But of all the shows on their way to revivals, Entourage is the only one that runs no risk of tarnishing its legacy, because Entourage is a show where absolutely nothing happened for seven seasons. Sure, we’d all much rather see a featurelength adaptation of Terriers or Party Down. But what are the odds that these movies would
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truly satisfy their fan base? Is it worth tarnishing our fond memories of these shows just to have them back in our life for a few more hours? Would our expectations be too high? Not for the Entourage movie. Even the most diehard Entourage fans (do diehard Entourage fans even exist?) stopped expecting anything from the show after season four. By the time the series ended, it rivaled Seinfeld as the ultimate show about nothing. If the movie has even a semblance of real tension or stakes, it will be a marked improvement over the original show. There’s nothing for it to live up to. And so, the Entourage movie has one advantage that critically acclaimed revivals like Arrested Development and Veronica Mars will never enjoy: complete freedom from fan expectations. This means that, in typical Entourage fashion, everything will turn out just fine for everyone involved.
image credits, in order: ©HBO Studios, via http://schmoesknow.com ©Fox Network @Netflix Watercooler Journal
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