After just three seasons, terrific “Dogs” will depart

For TV buffs, that Billy Joel song title seems accurate: Only the good die young.
Earlier this year, the wondrous “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” voluntarily ended after just four seasons. Now we learn that “Reservation Dogs” (shown here) will do the same after three.
No, that’s not fair. Not in a world where “Alice” had nine seasons, “My Three Sons” had 12, “Ozzie and Harriet” had 14. “Ozzie,” in fact, had 435 episodes; when “Reservation Dogs” finishes its final season – starting Aug. 2 on Hulu – it will have had 28.
The problem is basic: Great shows are done by talented people who want to keep the quality high and leave before it drops, even a tad. Bland shows are done by people who don’t notice or don’t care.
And yes, “Reservation Dogs” has often been great.
It didn’t seem that way at first. This was a low-budget, no-name show filmed in a bootstrap, indie-film way. Four youths drifted through their small town, occasionally noting their native-American roots.
But at the core were too gifsted men. Sterlin Harjo, 43, has Seminole and Muscogee roots and grew up in an Oklahoma town of 6,000; he made low-budget films, both scripted and documentary. Taika Waititi, 47, has Te Whanau-a-Apanui roots and grew up in New Zealand; he started with low-budgeters, then went on to two Thor movies plu “Jojo Rabbit” and “What We Do in the Shadows.”
They created the first TV series filmed entirely in Oklahoma and the first with only indigenous writers and directors. Young actors were at the core, with occasional moments for veterans. Slowly and subtly, “Reservation Dogs” gave us characters with immense depth.
The awards have followed. After both seasons, “Reservation Dogs” was chosen by the American Film Institute for one of the 10 Program of the Year awards. Only two others – HBO’s “Hacks” and “White Lotus” – made both lists.
The show also won a Peabody Award and was nominated for best comedy by the Golden Globes, Critics Choice and the Television Critics Association.
And now it has decided to make this the final season. Harjo said that the characters will show up elsewhere, but “the season three finale is the perfect series finale.”
Try, for a moment, to remember “Petticoat Junction” or “Coke Time with Eddie Fisher” or “Who Said That?” Each of those lasted seven primetime seasons – as many as “Reservation Dogs” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” combined. Too often, the good die young.