5 ms·

One season was enough. I don't know about the rest of you, but I quite like small one-off or short-lived TV runs because they often set out to tell a story and

One season was enough. I don't know about the rest of you, but I quite like small one-off or short-lived TV runs because they often set out to tell a story and once their story is told, that is it. No tacked on extra seasons.

ht_th 10y ago
Agreed. Just tell a good story, take the time it needs, and be done. In my opinion, long-lived series tend to become repetitive and formulaic, escalate beyond measure because somehow there always has to be a new bigger bad (I am looking at you Stargate SG1) or more trumped up storyline. I understand the appeal to keep on going as long as it makes (a lot of) money. But as an appreciator of a good story I just move on to a fresh idea.
- spoiler 10y ago
  I am a really huge fan of Supernatural, but lately it feels like it's kinda getting out of control. On the other hand, I also don't want it cancelled!
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    I was a huge fan too. I loved it till Season 7, gave up on it after Season 9. What bugs me the most is that the things that happen don't make any remote kind of sense anymore. It had some sort of consistent plot for a while, but it started breaking apart since somewhere around S5 / S6.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  I disagree with you on SG-1, though I'd like to bring up Supernatural 'spoiler mentioned as a perfect example of what you're talking about. SG-1, compared to many other overdone shows, had one redeeming quality - the protagonists (in this case, all humans) actually progressed through the course of the show. In SG-1 humans went from 1980s level of technology in Season 1 to spaceships, teleporters and off-world colonies in Season 10. So new 'bigger bad' always made some kind of sense, and I feel there was a space for a few seasons worth of additional interesting ideas. That, or they could have simply continued Stargate: Universe. There is one series I'm really up in arms about it being recently cancelled - Person of Interest. That one was nowhere close to repetitive, it had tons and tons of space for good, intelligent story developments, and it got cancelled behind the crew's back anyway, because whatever. Fuck you, CBS, for cutting out what was probably the only thing in history of television that approached the topic of AI in a smart, realistic way (and also basically broke Snowden's revelations a year before Snowden).
  - dogma1138 10y ago
    I actually agree with the GP, SG1 was dragged for way too long until they just ran out of time they clearly expected an additional season to finish the show (the final episode was pretty underwhelming). The loss of RDA which was a major part of the appeal of the show and the constant attempts to replace/clone him for every show in the franchise afterwards was pretty lame. The constant rotation of the supporting cast also did not really help the show, and the move from a procedural format with a few long term plot lines to a fixed seasonal story arc also didn't really help the show to maintain (it's weekly) audience (most fans would agree that the Showtime seasons were the best). I did chuckle at the Farscape fan service they did in the later seasons, and there were a few fun moments but overall the show was pretty much dead around season 7. They should've let SG1 go and spun it to a few other shows, but sadly SyFy (or how ever they spell their name now) wanted to dumb things down and make it flashy and splashy which is why SG: Atlantis looked more like Sharknado than SG1. By the time they tried to bring things back to the roots with SGU they still mocked it up, SyFy promoted SGU as a worthy replacement to Battlestar Galactica and tried to appeal to it's fan base with pretty disastrous results.
  - ht_th 10y ago
    I do not disagree with you on humanities' progression in SG1, but I'd think that all these mayor shifts in technological advancement would have been better explored in separate series rather than in one big swooping race to the max. For example how Star Trek explored early space exploration in Enterprise (sans time traveling shenanigans), another era in the original series, and another one in The new generation and DS9 and Voyager. I do like the stargate universe, the Atlantis spin-off in particular, and I would like to see more of it. Maybe they can set a new series in, say, 100 years from the ending of SG1. Or maybe it is time to move on to fresh ideas. I liked the universe of The Expanse, for example, and am looking forward how they can move it forward. (I was less happy about the Dark Matter universe, or rather the story told in it, for example: one small ship with a small crew holding the balance and future of the entire (known) universe in their hands is a bit too much for me.)
    - TeMPOraL 10y ago
      Yeah, I agree. Splitting SG-1 off would work for me too. I just grow very fond of the universe (and the style, tbh. SG-1 was actually one of the things that held me together during my biggest periods of depression - I loved the sarcastic style of O'Neill). I like The Expanse too, I'm waiting for the second season, and seriously considering picking up the books it's based on.
TeMPOraL 10y ago
I generally avoid those or leave them for watching when I run out of longed-lived shows, simply because I hate it that the moment I get emotionally invested with the protagonists and the new fictional world, the show ends. Probably also why I enjoy series more than one-off movies.
ghaff 10y ago
I'm probably in the minority but I agree. I semi-joke that I have a 5 season rule (which may be more or, commonly, less) for series. Past that point I just get tired of the characters, the look, the milieu. Some shows do a better job of changing things up than others but I just find myself getting bored at that point. ADDED: And Pushing Daisies, mentioned elsewhere, is IMO a really good example of a cute, appealing show that was also rather twee and probably best appreciated in a short run.
- RileyKyeden 10y ago
  Longmire improves dramatically once you get past the A&E seasons to the first Netflix season. I'm only one episode into the latest season, but it's shaping up to be the best so far.
  - ant6n 10y ago
    It's becoming too much about the main characters, there's little detective work, it's too connected (I'm getting lost, especially with story arcs-spanning seasons), and it's too much about the main characters self-destructive tendencies rather than compelling whodunnits.
    - RileyKyeden 10y ago
      Luke Cage took my attention away (he's dreamy), but I'm a few episodes into the new Longmire season now. It looks like they're trying to get back to the crime drama premise of the show.
- ant6n 10y ago
  I would've really liked to see a third season of Pushing Daisies to wrap it up. It's true that it probably couldn't have survived many more after that.
Nelson69 10y ago
I was going to mention this. Is there anything worse than getting in to a show and then comes that shark jumping season? THey are far more obvious with binge watching too. It seems like in the old days, network series (22-24 shows per season) had a sort of peak around seasons 2-4 where everything was firing on all cylinders, nobody left, the story had enough legs to keep people wanting. If they last much longer they tended to get mediocre. Binge watching has changed it, binge watch X-files, you'll probably have to quit before the end, there is at least a solid weak season (maybe it's 6 or 7) at the time watching week to week it didn't feel that way but day to day it's really obvious. I don't have the same amount of TV time now, startup, family, etc.. eats a lot but what I like is to find a show that's been on about 3 season, has some popularity and just watch it at my leisure 2 years after everybody else. You can get a good idea if it's worth your time before you spend any on it. (Yes, I know, that makes me old and lame, but it's just TV..)
- pimlottc 10y ago
  It's definitely easier to rationalize a sinking series when you've got a whole week to do it for each episode...

ht_th 10y ago

Agreed. Just tell a good story, take the time it needs, and be done. In my opinion, long-lived series tend to become repetitive and formulaic, escalate beyond measure because somehow there always has to be a new bigger bad (I am looking at you Stargate SG1) or more trumped up storyline. I understand the appeal to keep on going as long as it makes (a lot of) money. But as an appreciator of a good story I just move on to a fresh idea.

spoiler 10y ago
I am a really huge fan of Supernatural, but lately it feels like it's kinda getting out of control. On the other hand, I also don't want it cancelled!
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  I was a huge fan too. I loved it till Season 7, gave up on it after Season 9. What bugs me the most is that the things that happen don't make any remote kind of sense anymore. It had some sort of consistent plot for a while, but it started breaking apart since somewhere around S5 / S6.
TeMPOraL 10y ago
I disagree with you on SG-1, though I'd like to bring up Supernatural 'spoiler mentioned as a perfect example of what you're talking about. SG-1, compared to many other overdone shows, had one redeeming quality - the protagonists (in this case, all humans) actually progressed through the course of the show. In SG-1 humans went from 1980s level of technology in Season 1 to spaceships, teleporters and off-world colonies in Season 10. So new 'bigger bad' always made some kind of sense, and I feel there was a space for a few seasons worth of additional interesting ideas. That, or they could have simply continued Stargate: Universe. There is one series I'm really up in arms about it being recently cancelled - Person of Interest. That one was nowhere close to repetitive, it had tons and tons of space for good, intelligent story developments, and it got cancelled behind the crew's back anyway, because whatever. Fuck you, CBS, for cutting out what was probably the only thing in history of television that approached the topic of AI in a smart, realistic way (and also basically broke Snowden's revelations a year before Snowden).
- dogma1138 10y ago
  I actually agree with the GP, SG1 was dragged for way too long until they just ran out of time they clearly expected an additional season to finish the show (the final episode was pretty underwhelming). The loss of RDA which was a major part of the appeal of the show and the constant attempts to replace/clone him for every show in the franchise afterwards was pretty lame. The constant rotation of the supporting cast also did not really help the show, and the move from a procedural format with a few long term plot lines to a fixed seasonal story arc also didn't really help the show to maintain (it's weekly) audience (most fans would agree that the Showtime seasons were the best). I did chuckle at the Farscape fan service they did in the later seasons, and there were a few fun moments but overall the show was pretty much dead around season 7. They should've let SG1 go and spun it to a few other shows, but sadly SyFy (or how ever they spell their name now) wanted to dumb things down and make it flashy and splashy which is why SG: Atlantis looked more like Sharknado than SG1. By the time they tried to bring things back to the roots with SGU they still mocked it up, SyFy promoted SGU as a worthy replacement to Battlestar Galactica and tried to appeal to it's fan base with pretty disastrous results.
- ht_th 10y ago
  I do not disagree with you on humanities' progression in SG1, but I'd think that all these mayor shifts in technological advancement would have been better explored in separate series rather than in one big swooping race to the max. For example how Star Trek explored early space exploration in Enterprise (sans time traveling shenanigans), another era in the original series, and another one in The new generation and DS9 and Voyager. I do like the stargate universe, the Atlantis spin-off in particular, and I would like to see more of it. Maybe they can set a new series in, say, 100 years from the ending of SG1. Or maybe it is time to move on to fresh ideas. I liked the universe of The Expanse, for example, and am looking forward how they can move it forward. (I was less happy about the Dark Matter universe, or rather the story told in it, for example: one small ship with a small crew holding the balance and future of the entire (known) universe in their hands is a bit too much for me.)
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    Yeah, I agree. Splitting SG-1 off would work for me too. I just grow very fond of the universe (and the style, tbh. SG-1 was actually one of the things that held me together during my biggest periods of depression - I loved the sarcastic style of O'Neill). I like The Expanse too, I'm waiting for the second season, and seriously considering picking up the books it's based on.

TeMPOraL 10y ago

I generally avoid those or leave them for watching when I run out of longed-lived shows, simply because I hate it that the moment I get emotionally invested with the protagonists and the new fictional world, the show ends. Probably also why I enjoy series more than one-off movies.

ghaff 10y ago

I'm probably in the minority but I agree. I semi-joke that I have a 5 season rule (which may be more or, commonly, less) for series. Past that point I just get tired of the characters, the look, the milieu. Some shows do a better job of changing things up than others but I just find myself getting bored at that point. ADDED: And Pushing Daisies, mentioned elsewhere, is IMO a really good example of a cute, appealing show that was also rather twee and probably best appreciated in a short run.

RileyKyeden 10y ago
Longmire improves dramatically once you get past the A&E seasons to the first Netflix season. I'm only one episode into the latest season, but it's shaping up to be the best so far.
- ant6n 10y ago
  It's becoming too much about the main characters, there's little detective work, it's too connected (I'm getting lost, especially with story arcs-spanning seasons), and it's too much about the main characters self-destructive tendencies rather than compelling whodunnits.
  - RileyKyeden 10y ago
    Luke Cage took my attention away (he's dreamy), but I'm a few episodes into the new Longmire season now. It looks like they're trying to get back to the crime drama premise of the show.
ant6n 10y ago
I would've really liked to see a third season of Pushing Daisies to wrap it up. It's true that it probably couldn't have survived many more after that.

Nelson69 10y ago

I was going to mention this. Is there anything worse than getting in to a show and then comes that shark jumping season? THey are far more obvious with binge watching too. It seems like in the old days, network series (22-24 shows per season) had a sort of peak around seasons 2-4 where everything was firing on all cylinders, nobody left, the story had enough legs to keep people wanting. If they last much longer they tended to get mediocre. Binge watching has changed it, binge watch X-files, you'll probably have to quit before the end, there is at least a solid weak season (maybe it's 6 or 7) at the time watching week to week it didn't feel that way but day to day it's really obvious. I don't have the same amount of TV time now, startup, family, etc.. eats a lot but what I like is to find a show that's been on about 3 season, has some popularity and just watch it at my leisure 2 years after everybody else. You can get a good idea if it's worth your time before you spend any on it. (Yes, I know, that makes me old and lame, but it's just TV..)

pimlottc 10y ago
It's definitely easier to rationalize a sinking series when you've got a whole week to do it for each episode...