I have my favourite television shows and like everyone else i look forward to each new season but sometimes i end up disappointed, so when should a series end, should it end at its peak or keep going until audiences stop watching and the network cancels the show.
One of my favourite shows was The X Files which started in 1993, other shows i have enjoyed are Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Lost, 24 and Smallville.
The X Files featured FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who investigated strange cases each week which no other agent would touch, there was also a larger story of alien abduction and what happened to Mulders sister and his fathers involvement which progressed throughout each series, the series was so popular they made a film while the series was still running.
The X Files ran nine full seasons, For season 8 of the show Mulder disappeared off the scene and agent Doggett was introduced as Scullys partner, Mulder would return for some episodes including the season nine finale and agent Monica Reyes became a regular in season 9, i enjoyed the show for its full run but i do believe the show should have ended after season 7.
It was obvious the X Files writers had become tired and were struggling to come up with new plots and quality storylines and who can blame them, they were writing the equivalent of ten movies a year and during the early years they were writing top quality sc-fi that made you think and feel for the characters, the later years saw a slight drop in quality and it felt like some stories were just recycling themselves, sure they would occasionally write a fantasic story but it was not as consistent during the later years and the writing got lazy.
I miss The X Files and i think they could bring it back to television with Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny reprising their roles as Mulder and Scully, i don't mean a full season but let's say ten episodes a year and that way the writers and actors could keep it fresh and do other things, i would also like to see more X Files films, i believe a third one is being planned.
It has to be difficult for the television companies funding each show to know when to call it a day, if the show still gets a reasonable audience, even if its a dwindling audience, then do you walk away and pull the plug and disappoint many people and lose advertising revenue or should the show go on until its a pale shadow of its former self, lets look at Smallville as i feel there has to come a point where they end it and move on, perhaps end it with Clark Kent finally becoming Superman and make a new series of that or turn it into a feature film, i do not think Smallville can go on much longer and i think they need to finally bring on Superman.
Lost is wisely ending after its sixth and final season, now my opinion of season 5 is that it was much weaker than previous seasons, it felt to me that they were struggling to come up with ideas to keep the show going and i just never got into the time shifting storyline, i felt previous seasons were more rooted in reality, ok weird reality but still reality, when they were on the island, letting them get off the island after season 4 was just a mistake and the writers should not have let that happen as they then had to come up with ways to get them back on the island and i feel the ideas that they used didnt work so well, yes i still enjoyed the show and i enjoy the characters but i still felt season 5 struggled with its storylines.
24 is ending this year too and plans are afoot for a film version, this is a wise move, i think every season of 24 has been entertaining and season 7 was a step up from 6 but its best to end it on a high and they took the decision because audiences are on the slide, for me season 5 of 24 is the best with Peter Weller playing the bad guy superbly.
I would love it if they could persuade Sarah Michelle Gellar to do a film version of Buffy The Vampire Slayer as i think she is still young enough and i miss the show, a film version would make up for the poor eighties film although i think the chances of them making a film are zero, the show ended a long time ago and Joss Whedon doesn't seem interested in a movie version.
Mr Whedon did make a movie version of Firefly called Serenity but that show was cancelled early and he had loose ends he wanted to tie up, Mr Whedon is going to be busy directing the big screen version of The Avengers so there is no chance of a Buffy movie with Sarah in it.
A Buffy movie is coming out in 2012, i'm sure it will be entertaining but i wonder how much i will like it without Sarah Michelle Gellar in the lead, they need to find someone really good for the part and i hope they do not take influence from the Twilight movies just because they have been huge hits. I hope it will be more like the tv show of Buffy than the eighties film version.