House’s “Everybody Dies”: not all endings have to suck
An exploration to House’s final episode and a reason why some show’s swan songs are received poorly.
If you are insane enough to have a Twitter account in this day and age, certainly you would have noticed the brutal conundrum that TV writers face whenever their brilliant show is coming to an end. Examples such as The Sopranos, Lost and most notably Game of Thrones; were massive TV phenomenons that were shamed by half their viewership (some claim even more) just because of their last few episodes.
Endings matter. Endings matter so much that I compare it with having terrible audio in your film. Audiences simply won’t forgive you. And frankly, they shouldn’t. And nowhere is this demand more apparent than in the world of TV writing. Having longer run times, people get to know the character you’ve written to a scary degree. I have seen fanboys remember story beats and events better than the writers themselves. To me, this is a core issue when it comes to explaining why artistic works in the TV realm are the ones that end up instigating audiences to do something as ridiculous as starting petitions to rewrite the entire show.
House had those similar circumstances back in 2012. Hugh Laurie was the one of the highest paid actors and possibly the most watched leading man in the history of television.