On the matter of old fandoms ...

[sholio]

Holy casting apocalypse, Batman! Not only did they kill off Mitchell, but apparently Sinead Keenan (Nina) and Russell Tovey (George) aren't coming back either. (I'm not sure why Sinead quit the show, but Russell says that he doesn't want to do the show without Aidan, which is sad and yet, deeply adorable. That'll teach you to take your close-knit cast and start killing them off, TPTB!)

I am certainly not going to say that they couldn't make it work - Doctor Who does fine with a rotating cast, for example - but given that the new cast photo (at the above link) basically looks like they're simply going for George and Mitchell Redux, I am thinking that this show has jumped the shark and jumped it hard.

It isn't all that often that I excise entire seasons from my headcanon, but in this case, I think the show stops at season one for me. There are certain narrative things they did in seasons 2 & 3 that I really appreciated, though I'm not exactly sure if I'd say that I liked it, but then there were other things that I hated (and the more I sit here, the more of them I'm thinking of: the way they undid most of Annie's character development, the way George's selfish-asshole side came to eclipse everything I liked about him in season one...), and I think I'm definitely done. So long, show. It's been real.

Comments

[tessercat]

Oh, show. :( S1 tore my heart out and left me quite literally breathless and stunned. It was brilliant and painful and so much...

I started watching S2 almost reluctantly, and didn't get very far, because it just wasn't... it didn't *feel* the same. So I almost didn't read your spoilers, here, but I'm glad I did, because now I feel kind of, uh, justified in stopping at S1. ^_^; or something.

[sholio]

Good choice. *g* I watched all the way to the end of season three, but even though the show was well-written, it was, like you said, not the same -- and they systematically dismantled a lot of what I'd enjoyed in season one. I kinda wish I hadn't watched the rest of it, and I'm definitely done at this point. But season one is still brilliant TV.

[havocthecat]

Aidan actually left to go and do The Hobbit and asked that they stake Mitchell in order to avoid giving the fans false hope that Mitchell would come back some day. (I have a friend who is deeply embedded in BH UK fandom and get all my info from her.)

ETA: Not that I don't adore Mitchell and I'm also sad he was killed off. But it wasn't the PTB who were solely responsible for it this time.

[sholio]

I'm really glad to hear that - thank you very much for the info! It makes me feel better to know that it was his decision to leave in such a final way. I've heard plenty of tales of actors who didn't even know their characters were going to die until they got the script, and then ended up leaving in a bitter and resentful way, so I'm very happy that wasn't the case here. :)