I’ve always enjoyed those Brilliant But Cancelled lists of TV shows but, unlike most people, I think, I’ve always mentally added the qualifier, “But I’m glad they were canceled.”

I grew up in the late eighties and early nineties when obscurity was at a premium. It was the underground entertainment that you liked. The mainstream stuff was sneered at. Pavement and Fugazi were better than Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam. A movie was only good if the director made it for five thousand dollars or shot it at night in the convenience store where he worked.

Mine was not the generation that grew up with the Beatles or Beyonce, where you can be a huge commercial success as well as artistically valid. So, for me, the cancelling of a television show could almost like a badge of honor, like it was proof that the squares didn’t get it, which made it that much cooler.

This is a thoroughly American problem. As Americans, we think that more is better in all facets of life and certainly in television. My only knowledge of non-American television is English television but they have classic television shows that have six episodes a season and run for two seasons (The Office and Fawlty Towers to name two, the latter of which took a four year break in between seasons).

The Big Bang Theory is currently on season twelve.

I think a show getting renewed for further seasons can often be seen as validation from the powers that be. They – whoever they are – get it! Quality entertainment that isn’t mindless drivel will finally make it to the culture at large (or in the case of Big Bang, the mindless drivel continues). On the other hand, a show getting cancelled means, the television suits are giving an Emperor Nero style thumbs down to something, even if it’s great but just doesn’t have the viewers. This is the scenario we romanticize but I don’t think we should.

What if shows weren’t cancelled? What if they just ended?

I’ve never felt so validated for a pop culture opinion as when I read On That ‘Barry’ Finale and Why Some Shows Are So Good, They Need to End in the New York Times. I don’t know James Poniewozikat all but he writes about television for the New York Times and I don’t.

First of all, if you haven’t seen Barry, do so. It’s funny, dark, and dynamic in ways that my favorite television shows are. It can be bleak, dark, dryly hilarious, and laugh out loud funny all in one episode. And, as Poniewozikat points out, if it ended after Sunday’s finale, it would be an amazing mini series.

The same is true of Big Little Lies. I loved that show. They’re coming back for season two, though. Why? It seemed perfectly self contained.

Poniewozikat also got me when he wrote something an opinion I thought only I held. If Homeland were just that first season, it would have been legendary. But people loved it so much that they kept going. And then we got to the truly dreadful season three where they turned Brody into a heroin addict is some nightmarish South American apartment building where he’s held hostage for some reason. Then, two weeks later, they have him in an elite Marine mission. And that’s just one flawed plot arc.

I did a day of extra work on Homeland and curiosity about my episode couldn’t even bring me to watch it again.

Do you know what shows I love? Here are a few: Freaks and Geeks, My So-Called Life, Undeclared, and Party Down.

The Office (American), Friends, and Scrubs. (And I hate to say it but High Maintenance is going down this road.)

What’s the difference between those shows? The ones I love ended. Too early? Maybe but who cares? You have a series of great television shows, none of which suck.

A few hit it just right like 30 Rock and Arrested Development but again, Arrested Development should have left well enough alone. Those three seasons on Fox were brilliant. I barely remember the Netflix season.

Then there are shows that are almost like templates so they can go on forever like Cheers or M*A*S*H (and to a lesser extent It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia).

I once had a friend who works in television tell me that the reason American shows try to have so many seasons is so they can get into syndication, where the real money is. You can’t be in syndication until you have one hundred episodes. So, that’s the motivation. In England, television is subsidized by the government, so, they’re fine with a few episodes and a few seasons.

It’s a fair point but television is changing. We don’t wait until an appointed day to watch a show. We binge watch through streaming services. Television shows are like serials now. I think, as we go on, there will be room for a show that is eight episodes long, completely satisfying, and self contained. It won’t be a shame that there aren’t more. It will be able to stand on its own.

Also, Barry is getting a season two. I’m going to watch it. It might be crap and if it is I’ll be saying I told you so.