The Penultimate Problem

I've already written and talked about Amazon's opening batch of The Man in the High Castle episodes. So you already know my mostly positive views on it. What you don't know as much about (unless you watched it for yourself) is the sharp drop it suffered from towards the end. It didn't take away from my enjoyment as a whole, but the season finale did practically nothing to keep me on the hook for season two. Instead of holding out any suspense, it tied a bow on almost every relevant plot thread. But it's worth nothing. If they had just ended the season an episode earlier, my outlook for the show would be totally different.

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A troubling season five notwithstanding, Game of Thrones appears to have ma(e)stered a very successful formula for the arc of its 10 episodes. All the heavy exposition is built out within the first three to four episodes. From there, with a few twists sprinkled in, they start rising the tension to a couple of central conflicts up until episode eight. And then we arrive at episode nine, and one of the primary sources of our Penultimate Problem.

WARNING: heavy doses of spoilers coming! Episode nine is the Game of Thrones haymaker, when your jaw drops and your favorite character dies. Episode nine is when Ned Stark gets beheaded, when the half man leads the attack, when the Red Wedding happens, when the Battle for Castle Black happens, and when Daenerys finally rides a dragon. Surely there are other memorable moments throughout the series, but half of your top 10 is concentrated in a now very predictable section of the season's story arc. I know nothing (Jon Snow) about what's coming in season six, but I'm almost certain we'll see the juiciest moment in episode nine.

But wait a minute, you might be asking...then what happens in episode 10?

It's actually just a 50 minute set from DJ Hodor

It's a valid question that unfortunately doesn't have such a great answer. It's definitely useful for the show; it helps cool the pace down from the manic frenzy we saw an episode prior and serves to set up whatever's coming next season. But in terms of signature moments? I can't think of a single one that took place in a season finale off the top of my head. And maybe that's okay.

There's definitely an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" vibe to the way Game of Thrones puts together a season of television. That predictable structure is in no way diminishing either its critical praise or commercial success. But when a show is as wildly successful as GoT is, that creates ripple effects. And those tremors may not be as good for the entire television landscape as they are for one enormously successful show.

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Just like any other industry, television can often be a game of copycat. If something starts working really well for one show, you can bet a whole lot of money that you'll start to see a whole lot of other renditions. And HBO often serves as the vanguard for the next movement.

Following the overwhelming success of True Detective season one, is there any surprise that a few other networks tried to jump in on that anthology crime series action? Fortunately so far, that hasn't resulted in a dip in quality. One episode through The People vs. O.J. Simpson, and I can attest that it's awesome. I've also heard good things about American Crime on ABC. But eventually another stooge will try the same formula, and the whole thing will blow up in his or her face. Ironically, I'm almost certain the back-breaking straw would be Nic Pizzolatto's True Detective season three, if HBO allows him to make one at all.

This Penultimate Problem comes from the very same place. I don't know if Game of Thrones was the first series to put so much focus on its second to last episode every season, but it sure as hell won't be the last. Or second to last, for that matter. And while the creative forces behind GoT have mastered that formula, it has left plenty of other people fumbling and bumbling their way through it.

The Man in the High Castle, for instance, is absolutely baller episodes one through nine. And it's all capped off with an amazing twist that I didn't see coming and really made me think. The only problem? You guessed it, there's an episode 10. I think it was made to pretty clearly replicate the Game of Thrones format that worked so effectively before. But that doesn't fly here. It works for GoT because readers know that there are other shoes to drop once the next season arrives. But unless you're a Phillip K. Dick connoisseur, how are you supposed to know there's more crazy coming? (Make all the dick connoisseur jokes you want, by the way, I couldn't care less).

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The problem with copycats is no one does it better than whoever did it first. Think about the Golden State Warriors setting the NBA ablaze. A lot of people think they're reinventing the game a "pace and space" style of play, shooting a metric fuckton of three-pointers and always rushing back to offense after their opponent misses a shot. Now everyone's trying to play that same style, but that's a losing battle.

The only reason the Dubs can pull this off is their exceptional roster. It's deep, balanced, and happens to have the two best shooters in the NBA. And one of them is probably the best shooter to ever set foot on a basketball court.

The Splash Bros. didn't reinvent basketball. They created a
new game that no one else can play.

So how is any team supposed to replicate that to the same effect? Unless they luck themselves into another set of once-in-a-generation players, it ain't happening. And the exact same problem is afflicting TV Land (not the lousy channel, that's already been sunk for years).

For any showrunner looking to put all of his or her eggs into the penultimate episode basket, heed this warning. Unless you can navigate masterfully through your finale, you'll have some trouble sticking the landing. It doesn't make sense even on the most basic of levels. 

If you've gotten someone to watch your show this far, why would you waste your best tease when there's still one episode to go? They're going to ride out the season no matter what; at that point the goal should be to get them primed for season two. Instead, you fire your magic bullet an episode early and leave viewers underwhelmed in the process.

To make matters worse for Man in the High Castle, the episode they chose for a season finale would have worked almost perfectly for a season two premiere. The characters in the rebellion movement think they can change history. I bet the people running the show wish they could too.