News in fandom today
Twitter and Tumblr and LJ were all a-goggle today, with two showrunners posting news about their shows. Lenkov has stated that there are going to be fewer carguments (oh noes!) in favor of arguments in different venues. News of a more dramatic sort came from DeKnight, with the announcement that next January's installment of Spartacus will be its last. Not that either of these gentlemen care what I think, but in both cases, I agree with their decisions.
I've stated before that I thought that Danny and Steve's relationship was growing stale. Carguments are fun but they aren't advancing the bromance; they're in danger of just becoming part of the formula, a tick in a box. Shirtless Steve, check (well, you can't have too many ticks in that box); stunning Hawaii scenery, check; cargument, check - yep, that's an episode! With Catherine coming on board and the threat that will be to McDanno-time (not to McDanno, I think Lenkov gets that), letting the writers stretch those scenes we love into different circumstances is a good, creative choice. I'd like to see their relationship given more weight and have them face challenges together because they're friends but shows change and people change and go with God, Mr. Lenkov.
Now, about Spartacus, I do believe that wrapping up the story next year isn't only okay, it's appropriate. I have no doubt DeKnight and Co. could write script after script and detail every year of those three years of war. There are so many characters and so many plots and they've shown an amazing talent for making even the worst character be absolutely fascinating (I'm looking at you, Ashur and Illythia), but I think you can have a surfeit of so much intensity - watching series after series of Spartacus might be like eating a flourless chocolate cake. It's so good, it's so intense, but man, by the time you get to the end, you are over it. You enjoyed it, but you may not want a slice again too soon. Better to have a few exquisite bites with a glass of red wine than to choke down that last bite or worse, leave it on the plate.
Plus, as DeKnight has stated repeatedly, Spartacus is a tragedy. There are no happy endings here, no great goal will be attained. Favorite characters have died and will die and frankly, it's freaking exhausting, waiting from week to week to see if Agron or Nasir survived. It's bad enough wondering if your show is going to be renewed, let alone worry about when people you care about are going to die a horrible death. All I can hope for is that they die well, they die in character, and their deaths have meaning. And so far, DeKnight and Co have written deaths that encompassed all that. Yeah, I'll cry, but it'll be the good sort of weep, not the enraged, OhMyGod that was a useless death kind of weep (RIP, Ianto).
And I know it's not just DeKnight's creative choice, as much as they'd like us to believe that, because I'm sure Spartacus is expensive to make. But he'd said he'd made the decision close to the end of filming Vengeance, and he comes across as a guy who pretty much lives and works on his own terms. Plus it sounds like he has another project with STARZ in the works, so good on him.
So it's all fine with me. If anyone cares.