Thursday, December 22, 2022

The (Moderate) Rise and Fall of the CW, Conclusion

 

It remains to be seen what will become of the CW. Perhaps like a phoenix, they shall manage to rise above its current financial straits and move beyond the plans of the corporate honcho. Given the reality of television as a whole and the current status of network in general, I am inclined to doubt it, however.  So what lessons should television try to take away from the past sixteen plus years of the CW?

First, one must differentiate from the network (s) that gave birth to it. For all the flaws that were within the WB (and were far more obvious in UPN) the fact remains that they made a realistic and genuine attempt to battle the four major networks at their own game. During the more than a decade existence of the WB, there was a genuine attempt to try and equal level of creativity that broadcast network was doing at the time.  And given the level of quality of more than a few of their shows (I speak primarily of the now diminished Buffy,  and the still shining brightly Gilmore Girls and Felicity) they may have presaged the arrival of what we now consider Peak TV. The irony being, had they existed in an earlier era, where a far more fragmented audience could sustain a network series for nearly a decade, the success of so many of their series could have made them a force to this day. But the standards they were being measured against was still that of the broadcast channels, and so they failed.

By contrast the CW very quickly moved past any ambitions of being a purely original and creative force and became the equivalent of a genre network, unlike Syfy or Lifetime.  The closest comparison one could make of the CW is not of any  major network but rather a very light version of FX or USA (when the latter was trying to be a creative force). There was then, and is now, still a place for networks like this and given the CW’s success during the mid- 2010s, there’s an argument that it was clearly working for them. The problem, however, must be laid at what was their critical flaw: the blanket renewals they issued early in every fall season.

I see this decision just as much an Achilles Heel for the CW as the decision to keep spending immense amount of money on countless series has proven to be one for Netflix.  But where as Netflix’s decision to produce too many programs in order to see what might stick was a disaster one could see coming a mile away, the CW’s decision goes in the other direction: with so much confidence in proven products – eventually all entirely driven by a single creative force – the CW was running out of space for anything resembling original programming by the end of the last decade and getting increasingly diminishing returns with each coming year.  For all of Netflix’s flaws – and we are aware now how legion they are – when it came to most of their major successes, they had enough faith in the creative forces behind the series to let them come to a natural end. Fans might not have been thrilled that series like The Kominsky Method and Dead to Me were gone after just three seasons, but its hard to argue they overstayed their welcome.

By contrast, the decision to keep so many series on the air well past the extension of their natural lives led to almost all of the series on the CW bleeding out creatively well before their eventual cancellation. The irony is, now that the new ownership of the CW has decided to take a blowtorch to so many series still on the air, most of the shows that were on – Legends of Tomorrow and Stargirl, just to name a few – were cancelled on cliffhangers leaving their fans empty handed. It remains to be seen in Nancy Drew and some of the other series that have also been cut out will end on a suitable note. (Though given the diminishing audience returns on so many of these series, it remains to see how many people still care.)

To this day, I still mourn the loss of the WB and all of the creative series it let loose upon the world.  The WB had a legacy and so much of television is still feeling the ripple effect from it, most of them beneficial.  The CW has lasted longer than the WB ever did. Yet after Jane The Virgin came to an end, it began to diminish as a factor in my viewing life.  The few series I watched after that point had more potential than in practice and it’s hard to see its disappearance being one that will affect by life as a critic going forward.

To be clear, The CW did have its moments. Any network can create two series as outstanding and radical as Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Jane the Virgin is not without its merits, and for all my problems with everything Greg Berlanti, it was admirable what he was initially trying to do before he eventually was overcame by the effort.  But if someday the CW does finally fold in on itself and collapse, I will not mourn its demise as much as the WB’s.  The WB was, for a brief shining moment, Camelot.  At its best, the CW could barely manage to be a pale imitation of the MCU.  For the last few years, the CW was a disaster waiting to happen. We should not be surprised that it finally did.

 

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