When I was posted overseas, I ...

Question: When I was posted overseas, I found myself an avid watcher of a Brazilian telenovela called Terra Nostra. Luckily, I know some Spanish and was able to get the gist of the dialogue using Spanish and English cognates. It was a great story and made me realize that I'd like to see a series that had a beginning and an end. My question: Don't you think the telenovela format would be a welcome change from TV shows that you start to get invested in, such as Threshold or Love Monkey, just as they're prematurely canceled? Or do you think it would be more like a longer miniseries, such as Roots or North and South? Of course, Centennial doesn't count because they switched that around so much I lost track of when it was on. Maybe it was too long?
Answer: If the networks' experiments with the telenovela format means a sideways return to the old-style miniseries, I'm all for it. (Actually, I've been saying for a long time that many of HBO's acclaimed dramas, most notably The Wire and Rome, might work better scheduled as miniseries, since they play better in big gulps rather than weekly hour increments.) I do like the idea of a serialized story being presented with an endgame already on the horizon, but remember, that didn't stop Fox from killing Reunion midway through what was always intended to be a single-season-long mystery. Let's hope the networks don't yank these telenovela soaps before they come to their natural end. Given that some of these are expected to air in the summer, when less is at stake, that might not be such a problem.