Culture Crash: The Final Season

For the past decade, the TV landscape has been an endless onslaught of new shows. In many ways, this has been a huge win for audiences because whatever you are into, you could find something new to watch. But all those green lit projects has also come with an unfortunate downside, which is that networks and streamers have grown a bit impatient and become more ruthless with their cancelations. Shows like Netflix’s 1899 and The Society had promising first seasons that weren’t big enough hits to justify second seasons and therefore never got the chance to become the best versions of themselves.

Perhaps that is why 2023 seems to be the year of creatives taking back the reins and ending their shows on their own terms. Most notably, the creators of Succession announced just a few weeks before the show’s 4th season that this season would actually be its last. HBO’s Barry similarly announced this season would be its last. Ditto the Apple TV+ hit Ted Lasso.

In some ways, these announcements have been disappointing to audiences who would absolutely love to see Barry or Ted Lasso go on for 10 seasons, but as a big fan of movies and miniseries, I am firmly on the side that gets excited about seeing where these creatives want to end their stories and allowing them to make a complete statement without letting their shows fall off in the sixth of seventh years.

Succession, especially, seems to be the show that has captured the zeitgeist, and with plots about the megawealthy trying to sway elections and control narratives, it seems most ripe to deliver a series finale that can truly say something about the world we live in. While the prospect of not having more seasons to look forward to is upsetting, I have found that knowing this is the end of the show’s story has made me more precious to every episode, and that has been enthralling. Succession, Barry, and Ted Lasso may be ending, but hopefully that means audiences will get high-quality, show-defining final seasons… and clears the way for new shows in their wake.