Not every show is going to be kept on indefinitely, no matter how good the story might appear to be, and NOS4A2 is a good and recent example since it’s going to be headed down the road to another destination known as memory lane, at least for now. It’s not hard to think that eventually it could be revisited and that Charlie Manx could become a recurring nightmare, but for now, he’s going to be just another entry in the continually growing list of TV villains that have managed to frighten and excite the fans, as the series has been given the chop recently. There was no real reason given for this, but with the ratings declining it’s not hard to think of why anyone at the top of the ladder would think of pulling the show from the lineup. Ratings after all are what a lot of execs look at more often than anything, and if a show isn’t pulling its own weight then it’s becoming dead weight and will likely be cut loose since otherwise, it can start dragging a network down. There have been cases when the story might be rebooted, invigorated in some way, or even given a facelift of some sort, but it’s rare that such effort will be taken for a show that hasn’t really fired on all cylinders when it comes to connecting with the fans. For all that it offered, NOS4A2 just didn’t appear to grab at the audience in a manner that made it clear that it could last for a while to come. The appearance of the coronavirus and its effect upon the filming practices of so many studios didn’t help, unfortunately, and it kind of helped in its own way to provide the death knell for the show.
The onset of the coronavirus would be kind of a weak excuse to not continue the show, but that coupled with the low ratings provides just enough for those in charge to state that it’s time to move on. It’s not typical that something that has a lengthy pause between seasons and low ratings will be considered worth coming back to, as people will need to be reminded of what’s happening and why it’s important. But lest we start thinking that the show wasn’t worth anything, it’s also easy to think that despite the addictive nature of any good story, there’s always that thought of ‘what’s next?’ since even the best stories can run dry after a while. It feels like sacrilege to say that any story can tap itself out since there are typically so many different possibilities to entertain, but there are those times when it’s best to realize that the story might end up playing itself out eventually, or it might just get entirely too fabricated to the point where it becomes silly and almost entirely nonsensical. It’s possible, even with fiction, to become a little TOO nuts for the given storyline since like it or not, logic has to take precedent at times. The balance between a great show and one that’s okay but tends to go off the rails at times is hard to manage, and even for the best storytellers, the chance to go a little too far in one direction or another can be enticing enough since pushing the envelope is just too tempting, even when intuition is telling people to be wary of killing off their story. Thankfully that didn’t really happen here, but there’s a good chance that it could, and there’s a chance that if it was allowed to go on that people would begin to wonder just what was left for the story to accomplish.
Maybe one of these days we’ll see this show come back since it’s not beyond the realm of possibility when thinking about a show that deals with a villain such as Charlie Manx. It could be that Vic won’t return, that someone else will catch Manx’s attention and that the battle will begin anew and in earnest. But for now, the show is headed on out to pasture, possibly to be forgotten and possible to be kept around until someone finds a need for it. The story is one that feels as though it might be better off being kept around for a while just in case someone happens to need something to pep up the ratings and make people afraid of the dark once again. But until that moment the show is being pulled and it’s likely that a lot of fans are going to be a little disappointed. The outcry isn’t that great, however, since after two seasons it’s rather difficult to really get into a story that is still developing despite the fact that there’s a solid premise to follow. Maybe it will come back one day, who knows.
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