More and more television showrunners are pulling double duty as directors of their shows, foregoing the practice of bringing in guest directors. Alec Berg and Mike Judge alternated writing and directing episodes of season two of Silicon Valley. Sam Esmail took over directing duties for the second season of Mr. Robot. Does the lack of guest directors help or hurt a show's quality?
Interesting topic, but I don't necessarily agree with it. In most cases, the showrunner is the head writer, and is therefore not necessarily someone with sufficient directorial talent, experience, or inclination to bring their shows to life. An example that comes to mind is Vince Gilligan directing the final episode of Breaking Bad, which (despite being a thoroughly satisfying conclusion to an objectively perfect show) if viewed on its own, is one of the weaker episodes of the series. It begs the question as to how much better it might have been if he had let Michelle McLaren or Rian Johnson take the helm. – ProtoCanon8 years ago
What are the duties of showrunners? Are they too different from director's? Maybe these are questions that should be addressed first. However, this topic doesn't fit quit right with this magazine's themes. – T. Palomino2 years ago