“Atlanta” is coming to an end with its fourth season, FX Chairman John Landgraf announced on Thursday. While on some level that’s gotta sting, there is also real value in knowing when to conclude an excellent piece of television, Landgraf told TheWrap hours later.
“The best-case scenario is we make the decision when to pick up the show, and the creator, the showrunner makes the decision when it ends,” Landgraf told us. “That’s flat out the best-scenario every single time.”
That’s happened a couple dozen times over his decades at FX, he said.
And yes, both sides of this delicate equation have a financial interest in keeping a show going. But both sides also have a “really strong interest in having a show that you can say is good from beginning to end,” Landgraf said.
“You don’t have to make an apology for ‘The Wire.’ You don’t have to make an apology for ‘The Shield.’ You don’t have to make an apology for ‘The Americans.’ You don’t make an apology for ‘Breaking Bad,’” he continued. “You can say, with no hesitation, ‘Watch this show.’ Right? It gets better as it goes along, the ending is great.”
Right, John.
That never-having-to-say-you’re-sorry approach has real long-tail library value, Landgraf said.
“It’s kind of rare in TV,” Landgraf said. “Most TV used to end when it got bad or when people stopped watching it. I don’t think that’s actually a good business decision in a world where a show can live for decades on a streaming platform.”
And it’s definitely not in the viewer’s best interest, either.
So, for “Atlanta,” the best-case scenario was to let the creator, writer, director and star say when it was time to walk away. That was almost four years ago, according to Donald Glover.
“To be honest, I wanted to end it after Season 2, and I think we had talked about that for a minute,” he said Thursday during the show’s TCA panel. “Death is natural.”
Thankfully, we got Seasons 3 and 4 out of the “Community” alum, who added: “I think it ends perfectly.”
‘Atlanta’ to End With Season 4 on FX
“Atlanta” shot its third and fourth seasons back to back, a luxury afforded by the semi-rare two-season renewal. We asked Landgraf if he sees anything gained or lost when allowing a show to tape multiple seasons this way.
“It depends on the producer,” he responded. “With Donald, we didn’t lose anything. He was just capable of running two writers rooms back to back, making two distinctly different and distinctly original seasons of television — neither of which are like the prior two seasons, but both of which are like the prior two seasons in that they’re just good.”
“I will say one downside of it is that because Donald does everything, they went to Europe, they shot that season. Then they went to Atlanta, they shot that season. And they didn’t start editing the European season until they were done shooting the Atlanta season,” Landgraf continued. “So we didn’t see any cuts — I want to say maybe a year, more than a year after they wrapped [Season 3].”
“Atlanta” Season 3 premieres with its first two episodes March 24, 2022, on FX. Season 4 is slated for the fall.