‘Low Winter Sun’ season 2: Is such thought even possible after tonight’s finale?
Sunday night marked the end for AMC’s “Low Winter Sun,” a show that certainly ended with a much different feeling around it than back when it began. This was a series airing after “Breaking Bad,” and largely considered by many to be the sort of thing that would benefit from it like seagulls on the beach after a barbecue.
Instead, what we saw was perhaps one of the biggest examples of group shunning in the history of cable television. “Breaking Bad” fans were so incensed about the constant “watch this show” reminders that they were turned off by it, especially early in the season when AMC tried to bribe them to watch it with sneak peeks and other goodies airing during it. It even formed the meat portion of the AMC lineup sandwich between Walter White’s flagship show “Talking Bad.” Salt, meet wound.
Truth be told, “Low Winter Sun” was not a terrible show by any means. Mark Strong was fantastic in it, and the writing was pretty high-quality. Was it dry at times? Sure, and it was so depressing that it made “The Killing” look like a warm summer day. While it may not be on the same level as almost any of AMC dramas, it’s still a good show and it’s a better show than 95% of broadcast TV.
But for those of you who watched tonight’s finale and are holding out hope somehow for a season 2, hope does not spring eternal. It’s not going to happen. AMC barely supported this final week, and had they really wanted to get this show more buzz, they would have aired the finale next week after the premiere of “The Walking Dead.” This and “The Killing” will be in the show’s trashbin, and they will renew “Hell on Wheels.” That’s our prediction, anyway.
If you enjoyed the season, you don’t deserved to be mocked for liking a show that became a joke, and it’s possible that in the months ahead potential fans will find this show and like it as well. While you can blame this somehow on the tone of the show being non-commercial if you want, you really have to blame the network in their push to force you to watch. They made “Low Winter Sun” into a primetime pest, and in this age of memes and social media, it didn’t have a chance.
Photo: AMC
gail10s
October 10, 2013 @ 4:54 am
I liked L.W.S. very much. I studied playwriting for legitimate theatre in graduate school. I always prefer an Aristotelian beginning, middle and end. The trend with film and TV, however, is to get into a scene late, get out early and move right along to the next thing. My beloved Iz Diamond-Billy Wilder days are gone. The only tweek I would make with L.W.S. is that Frank’s motivation for killing McCann should come directly from McCann, not third party Joe Geddes. This would involve giving just a bit more information or footage with Frank and McCann going head to head for some reason, probably over Katya. There is this Frank, Katya, McCann triangle which forms the framework for the entire series. Writers, we see so little of this important triangle up front. There needs to be a bit more information about the Frank-McCann conflict in the beginning. The only other way to give this information is in flashback during the second season. If Frank Is on psychiatric leave, this is possible. Frank has fallen into the abyss. Let’s see him try to get back out and how he got there.
I enjoyed this very different, very innovative series very much indeed. Congrats to all cast and crew for a job well done.