Naming Rites

In honor of April Fool’s Day, this post has nothing to do with it.

We often talk about a “limited series.” But really, isn't every series limited? After all, they don't go on forever. (Even I Love Lucy, which ran for six seasons in the fifties and had 26 to 35 episodes per season, eventually came to an end.)

I know, I know – limited series tell you up front how many episodes there will be. In the US there seem to be about eight or 10. In the UK, sometimes only three or four.

But what if the show is popular? Then there will be a second season. Maybe a third. And fourth. Doesn't sound so limited to me.

In any event, production budgets are limited, and so are attention spans, so why not series?

But whatever you call them, they offer the same problems as any other TV show. Recently I was watching Episode Four of an eight-episode limited series.

By that time I was, of course, familiar with the characters, so you can imagine my surprise when suddenly I did not recognize either the man or the woman on the screen.

I went back and saw that I had missed the words at the opening of the scene — “Seventeen years ago,” printed in a tasteful oyster white on a very pale gray background. In other words, these were actually the characters I had come to know, only 17 years younger and played by different people.

This is supposed to be entertainment. I shouldn't have to work so hard.

Random Bonus Content — I find it confusing that “series” is both singular and plural. I always have the urge to add another -es at the end when I'm talking about more than one.

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