Can suspended production benefit a TV series?

Thanks to the coronavirus, the world seems to have hit the pause button. For the time being, most of us are stuck at home, waiting until it’s safe enough to go back outside, assemble in large groups, and stand closer than six feet away from the nearest stranger at the supermarket.

And of course, many of us wait to go back to work. The virus has brought many industries to a halt, including the film and television industries, with show after show and movie after movie going on hiatus. It’s frustrating, both for fans and home and especially for people working on these projects, but might might these production shutdowns have benefits in the long run?

On the surface, you would think the answer is no, and the delay will result in longer wait times for many of these shows. But that’s something many fans have gotten used to over the past few years as more and more series have had to include gap years with no new episodes delivered. On HBO, both Game of Thrones and Westworld have featured gap years, but the end result is something visually beyond what most shows on TV can muster.

When it comes to the special effects side of things, the shutdown hasn’t affected production as much. The VFX industry still employs thousands of people who are now working from home. “It’s business as usual,” said Antony Hunt. He’s the CEO at VFX Cinesite Group, which has worked on everything from the Avengers movies to Netflix’s The Witcher to Amazon’s The Wheel of Time, both of which are on a shooting hiatus. “We’re a good, strong business; we’ve been around through the digital age of the film industry since the beginning, and we’ll continue to be for another 25 years.”

These professionals can use this extra time to polish their visual effects, making sure they look the way they’re supposed to look without any rush. And delays have improved visual quality before. Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson took to Twitter to remind everyone of how the 1980-81 writer’s strike in Hollywood allowed VFX pros time to put finishing touches on Blade Runner, which set a benchmark for special effects at the time:

Long breaks can help with storylines, too. For example, the popular Adult Swim show Rick and Morty has famously gone through long hiatuses between new episodes while the writers work on perfecting the new scripts. This forced shutdown has lots of writers working from home in their pajamas, but they can still communicate with their team and start prepping for the seasons to come. If all goes well, that will result in a stronger story foundation overall.

Rafe Judkins, the showrunner on Amazon’s Wheel of Time series, recently chatted with fans online and gave us some insight into how that process works:

"For me, the first thing I said to the studio and network when we were starting this whole process was that ‘I wanna have every script written before we start prep even. Prep is what you do for six months before you start shooting, working out with customs, findings locations, there is so much involved with prep. We had all eight scripts going into prep which is a huge gift and a bonus. The nice thing about this is that we will now have all eight scrips going into prep for season 2 which will let us do such a better job with it and it lets me focus more on the scripts and the editing that we’re doing right now because we’re not shooting. I’m still working 12 hours a day somehow and it can fill unlimited amounts of time, so to just have to focus on editing and writing of season 2 during this time is actually good because I can give more time to all of that and everyone can give more focus to it."

Too often, shows and movies and video games are rushed out the door to hit a deadline, which means they’re not given the level of polish they need expectations. The new crop of TV shows may be pushed back a bit, but this delay will give the cast and crew time to get everything just how it’s supposed to be. So when these shows finally do come out, they’ll be something to remember.

Of course, none of this is to minimize the plights of the people who have been put out of work by the shutdowns, and if studios are forced to cancel shows rather than putting them on hold, it won’t be good for anyone. But we hope we’ve managed to find some bright side during this long period of (seeming) inactivity. In the long run, it could be a gift to viewers.

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