Hundreds of series are broadcast each season (this is Peak TV!) but it is almost impossible for four of the most important in recent times to say goodbye on the same dates. This does not even include The Flash, who said goodbye this week in the United States, closing the prolific universe of fiction derived from Arrow and which in total accumulated 699 episodes in a decade. Television Barry Allen said goodbye through the back door, that of irrelevance.
But The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Succession, Barry and Ted Lasso, who say goodbye in the next five days, are considered to have significantly affected current quality television fiction. The Emmy awards that all of them accumulate prove it. The reasons that place them on Olympus could not be more disparate: groundbreaking, talkative, aesthetic, ingenious, optimistic. And what, then, are the four unavoidable appointments for any series fan?
The spotlights first shone on Midge Maisel in March 2017. She was a housewife left by her husband for the secretary and who, in a fit of character, took the bus at a Manhattan comedy joint. She there she revealed her hardships with her scathing, revealing herself as an irreverent voice in the conservative society of the fifties. And, after five seasons, she is faced with the outcome of her after taking a writing job on a television show.
The Marvelous Ms Maisel stood out from the outset for its careful setting and the speed and timing of dialogues very typical of Amy Sherman-Palladino, a cult screenwriter since she signed Gilmore Girls. It was a comedy with a musical mentality despite not being musical: because of the rhythm, because of the choreography, because of the way the props were used. And, after winning the Emmy for best comedy for the first season and statuettes for Rachel Brosnahan, Tony Shalhoub and Alex Borstein, this Friday he says goodbye permanently.
At HBO they have a kind of obsession with succession wars. If in Game of Thrones they kept the public in suspense until the last episode to discover which character sat on the Iron Throne (which, well, ended up sunk and the least expected character became monarch of the Seven Kingdoms), now the power disputed is that of Waystar Royco, the business conglomerate of the Roy family, headless after the death of the patriarch and with three brothers thirsty for power.
On Monday the enigma is solved. For four seasons, Succession will have revealed itself as a comedy as ingenious as it is implacable about the high degree of psychopathy of the elites, who, living so disconnected from ordinary people, develop a monstrous ability to forget about humanity. Jesse Armstrong's dialogue will be scrutinized for his ability to cram one joke after another with dramatic direction, the construction of devilish situations where the viewer often doesn't understand half of what's going on because of financial jargon, and the way he finishes off character arcs with catchphrases and cutthroat moments. The cast with Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin and Sarah Snook contribute to exalt the text.
And, waiting to see what will happen in the next edition of the Emmy Awards, Succession has won two awards for the best dramatic series on television, three for the script and statuettes for Jeremy Strong and Matthew Macfadyen.
The same day that Succession closes its story, so will Barry, an unclassifiable comedy. Start point? Barry Berkman is a hit man hired by the Chechen mob who, when he infiltrates an acting class in Los Angeles for a job, decides that this is his passion. Thus begins a story about the world of acting, a satirical look at the criminal underworld and the post-traumatic stress suffered by its boring protagonist.
Bill Hader, protagonist, writer and director of Barry, has indulged in any creative whim he wanted for five seasons: well-executed chases, fights within the absurd, stunning dramatic sequences, stabbing at the audiovisual industry to which he belongs and some arcs of devastating character for a series that is defined as a comedy. He has never won the jackpot at the Emmys but Hader already has two best actor statuettes and Henry Winkler one as supporting actor.
And, topping off this week of farewells, Ted Lasso will close a cycle with the end of his third season, which is assumed to be his last. The theory is this: Jason Sudeikis wants to leave the series as lead and writer, as he doesn't want to spend as much time away from his family as a result of filming in the UK, and the Ted Lasso universe will continue with a sequel or spin-off. -off with change of title, a project that will be announced after the broadcast of Wednesday's chapter.
The beginnings of Ted Lasso are curious: the character was invented to promote sports events on NBC, but Sudeikis, Joe Kelly, Bill Lawrence and Brendan Hunt took that wildly optimistic southern coach and wrote a series around him. Lasso, who had no idea of European football, was hired by AFC Richmond. The owner of the club wanted to sink the team for personal reasons but she met a being of light who changed the lives of players and club workers for the better based on education, respect, hope and well-meaning advice.
Two consecutive Emmy Awards for Best Comedy. Another two consecutive Emmys went to Jason Sudeikis for Lead Actor in Comedy and Brett Goldstein for Supporting Comedy. A statuette for Hannah Waddingham as a secondary. It is the end of the cycle that we will soon know how it will continue because, as everything indicates, there will be life after Ted Lasso.
