https://deadline.com/2020/09/alan-arkin-exits-not-returning-the-kominsky-method-netflix-series-third-final-season-1234583045/#comments
I am so sad at this, that show is gold. It is so funny and relevant, and plus it has all kinds of great actors and actresses in it - and great roles for them too.
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His absence made a huge difference. Reiser couldn't fill the gap Arkin left, and the final season wasn't very good.
shareThe show was fatally ruined.
The friendship IS the show.
Reiser was a poor replacement.
And it seriously jumped the shark with the tone and the comedy. Arkin's daughter became a pathetic attempt at a funny character while in season 2 she managed to be interesting and real. Same for Jane Seymore, from classy lady to trashy trying to get some cheap laughs. Totally shifted tone. The scientologist dead horse beating grandson was just plain retarded writing, while he was ok interacting with Arkin.
Also, the final bit with Sandy losing somebody dear when he gets his 15 minutes of fame was a clear fit for the demise of his agent, not his ex wife, who was absent so far in the story.
Lorre is a dickhead. He keeps replacing the leads to prove HE is the show And everybody else is replaceable. Fuck him. Charlie Sheen already proved him wrong.
Only this time it was a great show he fucked up.
Sadly I agree with all of your criticisms.
I think they could have done OK without Alan Arkin if they had some thought in show to shift and redefine the show. It would be interesting to know what happened. Did Arkin quit for health reasons or because of Douglas. Or for money, or writing reasons? Perhaps it was his leaving that caused them to have to rewrite the third season to try to write around him and that doomed it.
I wonder if Lorre wrote the third season.
I read, not sure if it is true, that he really spent a lot of time on S1 and S2, and I' guessing this was just meant to be a 2 season series, but the success had them coming back for the money.
> Lorre is a dickhead
I don't know why you would have to say that.
I get your don't like some of his decisions, but you don't know the story behind them or what the network pushed him to do, or if he just plain blew it in certain decisions. Why make it so personal. He created a lot of entertaining TV. The only think I really liked that he did, funny as 2.5men was, was this Kominsky Method, it was really well done. S3 did make a mess of it.
1- the first 2 seasons are brilliant, he is the creator, who is to blame for the abysmal decline if not him?
2- the first 2 seasons of this show are the only good thing this greedy hack has ever produced. The rest is vulgar crap, made even worse by his personal problems/ege issues, hence he is a dickhead.
Whatever, I don't gain anything by raging about someone I don't know who was nice enough and talented enough to create and put together something that I really enjoyed and thought had socially redeeming entertainment value ... except for S3 on which we agree.
I was unhappy with it. It would be interesting if there was an article of interview that explains what happened. I kind of felt from some of the interviews I've watched on YT that they cast had issues with each other. Maybe that is why Arkin cut and ran, or maybe he is sick, or did not want to get sick with Covid.
Cast issues would be a surprise, Arkin seemed to have great chemistry with the rest of the cast. Covid might explain it, but again the producer should have gone the extra mile to ensure his and everybody else's safety. Or just waited for him.
Anyway, it's a total fuckup and since Arkin is still alive and working I blame Lorre for it, he was lucky enough to capture lightning in a bottle with s1 s2, but he couldn't keep it any longer, for whatsoever reason.
I feel like creatively there was no reason for a season 3 without Arkin. It's not like it was a show with a bunch of hanging plots that needed to be wrapped up for the audience. In fact most of the season was based around Norman's death and the money he left. I can't even remember Sandy's cancer from season 2 being mentioned again, but maybe I'm wrong.
From a practical standpoint, if Netflix offers a season 3 I don't blame them for taking it. That's a lot of jobs and not everybody on the cast/crew is Chuck Lorre or Michael Douglas.
I recall being worried when Arkin didn't return for Season Three.
Arkin had been in great health and working in movies and prestige TV as "an old man" for years -- the idea that he "just couldn't do this" was alarming. A clue that he might not last much longer.
This has happened with other actors over the years. It is heartening to see them work older...and older...and older. And then one day, they are still alive, but they aren't working anymore. And then they die.
A bad sign.
Fair bet that Arkin isn't receptive to doing further seasons of this series
shareHa. Yes. Time has caught up to the OP.
But there is always AI to look forward to!
Except: they keep saying they could bring back actors like James Stewart and Humphrey Bogart.
Who would care about guys who look like that NOW?