When word filtered out recently that HBO was letting the actors on
"Deadwood" out of their contracts -- essentially canceling the series
without actually canceling it -- fans were not the only ones who were
stunned. It was a strange move that surprised many in the industry
because,
well, HBO will be the first to tell you that "It's not TV -- it's HBO."
What
that slogan implies, of course, is that HBO does things differently.
Apparently not.
In the end, all roads lead back to the bank. And if there's any issue that
places HBO squarely in the same realm as everybody else in the industry,
from broadcast networks to ad-sup****ted cable channels, that issue is
cash.
Whether or not it's TV or HBO is up for debate. But this isn't: It's
always
about the money. Some stories just have the same, sad ending, no matter
where they play out.
But just because HBO acted like, well, Fox, doesn't mean it should suffer
the whiny backlash of outraged fans. And yet, that's what's happening now,
with Internet campaigns hell-bent on saving "Deadwood" and at the same
time
organizing the National Cancel HBO Day. The first is understandable, the
second is asinine.
On the plus side, this is the kind of devotion and fervor "Deadwood" has
aroused, with its Shakespeare-in-the-mud, swear-word-marathon mix of
bloody
drama and dark deeds of men (and hookers). HBO should be proud of that.
It's
the kind of series that gets people talking. And normally that's exactly
the
kind of series HBO wants, since word of mouth drives subscriptions, and
subscriptions are more im****tant than ratings to a pay-cable outlet like
HBO.
Though the acclaimed foul-mouthed Western -- a magnificent drama, with
nothing like it anywhere on the dial -- will start Season 3 on June 11 and
run a full 12 episodes, that's the end of the run. Creator David Milch had
always wanted to do four "chapters" of the "Deadwood" saga, essentially as
long as the lawless town managed to keep itself a separate entity from God
and country. And there was never any indication from HBO that one of its
most acclaimed series would not return.
So the move by HBO caught most people by surprise. Although HBO has not
officially canceled the series, chances of it surviving are slim and none
and -- well, you know the rest of that story. While Season 4 is not an
impossibility, once actors are let out of their contracts, any future work
they take invariably leaves them unable to come back. Multiply that by an
entire cast, and you can forget Season 4 (theoretically, the series could
be
salvaged at the 11th hour if Ian McShane, who plays Al Swearengen, would
return; without him, forget it).
Why did this happen? A complicated set of issues that revolve around
money,
it would seem. The bottom line is that "Deadwood" is expensive to make,
cannot possibly be cut for use elsewhere (even on ad-sup****ted cable),
would
not be co-financed by any other production company in Season 4 (unlike the
very expensive historical drama "Rome," where costs are offset by foreign
producers other than HBO) and would require HBO to pay the "Deadwood"
actors
to sit around while notorious clock-killer Milch works on a different HBO
series, "John From Cincinnati." Nothing dramatically new in all of that
except, and this a big exception, HBO balked at paying the tab.
Welcome to network television, everybody! Here we cut corners to use as
floatation devices when the cor****ate drones cast us off to sea!
And yet, why should HBO suddenly get frugal? That's the current mystery,
which remains unsolved and is, for your purposes, probably unknowable. But
both Milch and HBO are at least partially to blame here. Conventional
wisdom
is you keep a guy like Milch -- brilliant but scattered -- on a short
leash
or you might as well start tossing cash in the fireplace. Letting him keep
two plates spinning seems indulgent and, given the result, disastrous.
Though it might be hard to fault Milch for taking HBO's unparalleled
creative freedom and largesse as a ripe op****tunity, it's hard to buy into
the notion that he had no inkling this one-for-the-other scenario might
happen. Also, HBO did offer him a short order of six, instead of 12
episodes. He turned it down. Even if he doesn't like short orders, Milch
has
been around long enough to know that HBO is nothing if not pliant. Give
them
six, they'll eventually want 12.
But it didn't happen. And even though Milch is now re****tedly trying to
finance a big chunk of Season 4, it'll only end in tears. And you know the
rule: No crying in "Deadwood." Which brings up the side issue to HBO
suddenly acting like a TV channel with a working accounting department:
Some
people are so mad at HBO they want to cancel their subscriptions.
Now that's rich. The one channel that has almost never let anyone down
turns
off the cash spigot and people cry for blood? HBO may have a history of
lavish spending and subsidizing works of outright genius -- "The Wire" --
but it's still a business. Viewers certainly have a right to cancel a
service they pay for, no argument there. But at least anecdotally the
reason
people get HBO in the first place is to watch quality, noncommercial
programming of the highest standards.
So now they want "NCIS"? That's a tough theory to sell. It's the cutting
off
your nose to spite your face sales gambit, and that's never very
successful
in the end.
It's fine to be outraged that "Deadwood" will leave too soon, that story
lines will go unfinished, that everyone will suffer from not enough
McShane
in their lives. But if you cancel HBO, that means what, exactly? That you
don't want to see "Entourage" or "Extras" or "Curb Your Enthusiasm" or
"Big
Love" or "Rome" or the last eight episodes of "The Sopranos"? This is a
channel that doesn't launch many duds. Try as it might, Showtime isn't
even
in the same league as HBO. Only FX comes close. And you already get that.
Two more seasons, possibly, of "The Wire" -- television's meatiest, most
finely nuanced milieu -- and you'd pass on that? Just a reminder: Nobody
else makes that series.
Of course, this is a theory not lost on "Deadwood" fans. Nobody but HBO
would have made "Deadwood" in the first place. So would you take 36 out of
a
possible 48 episodes of brilliance -- or none?
By the way, Milch's "John From Cincinnati" is described as "surf noir,"
which sounds just as ludicrous as "Deadwood" did before anyone saw it.
What
if that turns out to be even better? Will you be happy with "Prison Break"
on Fox instead?
Cancel at your own peril.
E-mail Tim Goodman at tgoodman@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
You can read his blog, the
Bastard Machine, at sfgate.com/blogs/goodman.
--
Beating a dead horse one X-Men at a time.
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