Why plug was pulled on ‘Banshee’

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — When should a TV series end? For some viewers, the answer is often, “Never!” For the people who make TV, the answer is usually out of their control. TV is a failure business, and most programs get canceled by network executives due to underperformance.

But in this new golden (platinum? titanium? diamond?) age of television, more TV series are getting an opportunity to wrap it up and conclude on their own terms when the producers are ready. “Lost” did it. “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad” did it, too. “Game of Thrones” will end when the showrunners decide it’s time to go.

Still, the decision to end shot-in-Pittsburgh Cinemax action-drama “Banshee” came as a surprise because the show is filming only its fourth season. All of the series referenced above ran at least five seasons (sometimes stretched over six years), but TV is becoming a more flexible medium.

On Thursday “Banshee” co-creator Jonathan Tropper wrote at Grantland.com about his reasons for pulling the plug on this series about a criminal posing as a smalltown sheriff.

“I am acutely aware of all the shows that I have loved, as well as the shows that wore out their welcome, tried my patience and let me down — shows that stayed past their expiration date simply because of the not-insignificant revenues that flowed through them,” he writes. “I’m not going to get specific, but we all know the signs: stunt casting, trips to exotic locales, weddings, Mulder leaving, etc. We all know that feeling of helpless frustration when a good show gets left out too long and goes stale.”

Mr. Tropper recognizes the suspension of disbelief required to swallow the “Banshee” story, and that played a part in his decision.

“‘Banshee’s’ premise, by its very implausible nature, was always one with a somewhat limited shelf life,” he writes. “How long can anyone really pull off being a fake sheriff?” The show had the ratings and fan passion to go for another season beyond the fourth season that’s filming in Vandergrift and will air in January. But as the writers developed the fourth season, Mr. Tropper had a growing unease with the show’s potential next step.

“I was a novelist before I ever wrote for television, and as a novelist, I work under the principle that every story has a beginning and an end,” he writes.

Mr. Tropper said the “Banshee” writers brainstormed plotlines that could extend the series, but “they all required a contrived divergence from our original raison d’être. I was haunted by the notion of becoming that show that hung around too long, of sullying the memory of four organic seasons with that potentially shark-jumping fifth one.

“Whatever we did next came with the risk of dilution to something potentially mediocre,” he continues. “Mediocrity can pay the bills, but it comes at a price none of us was willing to pay.”

Now, some TV fans, local crews and folks in Vandergrift will no doubt see this as selfish, but aren’t creators entitled to that? If they brought a TV show into the world, seems as if they should have the option to take it out, too, even if there are moments of self-doubt.

“It’s going to be in those moments, during the long, dark teatime of this self-imposed hiatus, where I wonder if Lucas Hood getting married just as his evil twin arrives in town to open a bed-andbreakfast wasn’t such a bad idea after all,” Mr. Tropper concludes his Grantland essay.

Cinemax Programming president Kary Antholis told me late Thursday the network was prepared to renew “Banshee” for a fifth season.

“We asked if he had a vision of where it would go, and he just could not crack that,” Mr. Antholis said. “One of the great trademarks of the show is that every season tops the last one. We bought into Jonathan’s vision and only wanted to go forward if he had the same ratcheting up as part of that vision.”

Perhaps if it were a network other than Cinemax, which is run by the same folks who run HBO, there would be reason to cock a quizzical eyebrow at how this all played out. But in this instance, with the network and showrunner on the same page, there’s no reason for doubt.

And who knows what the future holds? Now HBO/Cinemax has experience making TV in Pittsburgh. Perhaps it’ll bring another project here.

“People have been fantastic, and our crew has loved being in that city,” Mr. Antholis said. “There are a few shows in the Cinemax pipeline, and we should be so lucky to set them there.”

HBO plans ahead

Fans may not be buying what the “Game of Thrones” brain trust is selling, but HBO programming president Michael Lombardo said Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) is definitively deceased.

“Dead is dead is dead is dead. He be dead,” Mr. Lombardo said. “Everything I’ve seen, heard and read, Jon Snow is indeed dead.”

(Of course, death in the “GOT” universe does not preclude resurrection, and Mr. Lombardo did not address that.)

Mr. Lombardo suggested “Game of Thrones,” currently filming its sixth season, will likely end after eight years.

“Seven seasons and out has never been the conversation,” he said. “The question is how much beyond the seventh season we’re going to do. … I think [producers] are feeling two more years after six. I’d love for them to change their minds, but I think that’s what we’re looking at right now.”

This fall, HBO comedy “Doll & Em” returns for a second season (10:30 p.m. Sept. 13) and “The Leftovers” is back at 9 p.m. Oct. 4.

Further down the road, HBO has a Sarah Jessica Parker series about divorce in the works for next summer or fall. And Larry David may yet return with another season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”