I don't think it was much of a shocker that this was not just a season finale but more like a series finale. These type of shows just don't seem to get much of an interest. PAN AM kind of fizzled too. One thing it did make me do is visit the wiki pages of the these guys.
sharehttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt3530726/board/thread/247026898
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3530726/board/thread/247326710
Clearly, the show wasn't made with the intention of having there even be the possibility of a second season.
I think they would have found an audience for a second season if this had aired at a different time. Right now interest in spaceflight in the US is low because NASA doesn't have a manned program flying. Also, ABC didn't seem to know how to market the series correctly. They tried to pitch it as social melodrama instead of emphasizing the historic role the wives had in the US space programs.
The main cast turned out to be unexpectedly good. I think word of mouth would have supported renewal for a second season if ABC had structured the series to keep that option open. They could have easily a historically accurate yet also compelling mid-Gemini cliffhanger to lure audiences into watching a second season.
The show finished filming over a year ago, and yet, they completed the story. It was just a limited series. The ratings were okay for a summer show. Short of making a fictional version of it, there is no more story to tell.
"Arguing with trolls is like playing chess with a pigeon . . . ."
Yes, but they skipped over a lot of historical events in order to cram everything into ten episodes. That is the point. The wives' stories weren't fully told, even after all this time of them being overshadowed by their husbands.
This property really should have been picked up by HBO, who could have sponsored a proper adaptation of the book.
If HBO picked it up, half of every show would be sex scenes. Then they'd add all sorts of other silly stuff that just makes me cringe to think about. I'm not against sex scenes, but I don't really want a historical drama filled with them.
I could have seen the series dragged out over multiple seasons, but how interesting would a second season be starting from the end of the first? I don't think it would be that interesting and really think they did a fantastic job doing it as they did.
Actually that's not true, it did not finish filming over a year ago. They filmed from October 2014 - February 2015. Not that that changes the fact that they did wrap up the story. They skipped over a lot of things and briefly glazed over others in order to fit it all into 10 episodes but the final episode concluded with a wrap up and at that point the women were kind of going their separate ways (or already had), I don't know how they could go on after the way they ended it, especially considering it's based on actual events and real people. I suppose they could go back and focus on wives other than the Mercury 7 wives but I think it would feel pretty strange.
It was announced as a 10 episode series from the very, very beginning and considering the way the 10 episodes were structured I have no idea why ABC insisted on calling it a Season finale instead of series finale. Even if it had amazing ratings it would have been tough for them to extend/renew it given the way it was structured so why not just call it a series finale? It made no sense to me.
Does anyone know if there's a reason why it had to be 10 episodes? It felt kind of rushes at the end and it could have maybe benefited from having 1 or 2 more episodes to spread some things out a little. I just wonder if there is a rule about "mini-series" not being more than 10 episodes and that's why they chose that particular number.
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