It's no secret that the FAM budget just ain't what it used to be. And it's hard to get upset at that, as a business decision. When you're trying to reel in subscribers, making a big splash on season 1 of a high-concept, alt-history, sci-fi, genre-defying family drama makes sense -- Apple, of course, prints money with their hardware division so loss-leading on streaming is no sweat. So, they give FAM the best possible chance to succeed by underwriting the effects shots and set pieces and cutting obscene checks to play some very expensive songs. And it rocked. It kicked ass.
But, we are now playing out the string. There's not much value-add, not much new audience to be gained, in season 5 of what was always a fairly niche show. I have to assume that even in its diminished state, the show is not making nearly enough money to cover its cost. So, I choose to be grateful that we are getting an ending to this story at all. It's been, as they say, quite mid -- since season 4, in my opinion. But I'm not really mad about it. I just enjoy the moments I'm able to enjoy and scroll my phone during the (sadly numerous) scenes of less-than-dynamic characters talking at each other on visually uninteresting sets.
The one thing that burns me a bit is this. I was wondering, as I often do in idle moments, what the big end-of-season song is going to be. And then I was thinking, man, have we even had a single in-season needle drop this year? This show used to lay them on so heavy I would burst out laughing, especially in season 1. But after the laughter, I would be like, "hell yeah. this kicks ass. Street Fighting Man is a good ass song. Moonage Daydream? That's so on the nose it's kind of stupid, but, again, it's a very good song that I love." Even last season, with the budgetary writing on the wall, we at least got the borderline iconic X Gon Give It To Ya "steal an asteroid" drop. I'm biased because it was my youth, but the 2010s had some incredible music. I mourn, I suppose, that we don't live in an alt-history of our own, where this show took off like Game of Thrones, and Apple would shrug at writing a $5m check to Kanye to play All of the Lights or whatever.
For me, it was the music that was most memorable. It tied it all together.
More space, more set-pieces, a more expensive writers room, juicier actors, they would all be nice. But what I miss most is a hype moment punctuated by an expensive song. I hope we get at least one more before this ride comes to an end.