4 ms·
It's hard to find a long-lasting show that doesn't devolve in the later seasons. I remember binge watching _House MD_ in college, really liked the beginning, a
by powersnail 4y ago
It's hard to find a long-lasting show that doesn't devolve in the later seasons.
I remember binge watching _House MD_ in college, really liked the beginning, and felt disappointed as the characters grew increasingly comical and less nuanced in later seasons. It's still the same show, similar vibe, similar character if we view them as symbols of personality adjectives (the sarcastic are still sarcastic, the sympathetic still sympathetic), but somehow among those similarities, the subtleties died.
At some point of the show, every angle of romance, mystery, character growth has been investigated, and none of them can come to a resolution, because, well, the show has to go on. How do you raise the stake---which is usually how you hook the audience---when they know nothing the character does will ever come to a conclusion, anything they become can be reverted in the _next season_? In fact, even the changes that have already happened in earlier seasons can be rolled back. I think this is why, in later seasons, a common complaint is that the writers are undoing everything good about the show in the beginning.
Some shows sort of avert this by replacing the main character (e.g. _Doctor Who_) and effectively telling a different story in the same universe. Does it work? Maybe. But still, I've, generally speaking, grown quite reluctant to watch TV shows that are longer than 5 seasons since then.
- PaulHoule 4y agoI think of Columbo where the first two seasons are brilliant (freaking Steven Spielberg directed the first episode!) but it quickly goes downhill but goes on for decades. (Of course, Columbo is almost impossible to binge watch because it is so formulaic. On the other hand, when I turn on the TV and catch it randomly on reruns I think 'Columbo is such a great show'.)
- jandrese 4y agoColombo comes from an era before time shifting and on demand. The formula is so much easier to overlook when you're only watching one episode a week.
- PaulHoule 4y agoColumbo was unusual in that it aired much less frequently than once a week so the formulaic nature wasn’t a problem. Today I sometimes enjoy watching off-brand OTA channels such as Comet and Charge and will tune in from time to time and get reintroduced to shows like Quantum Leap, Farscape, and Sliders and sometimes I will get into an appointment viewing habit but I am just as likely to by a box set or otherwise switch on on demand viewing. Columbo plays well in that world but who knows how long it will last.
- touisteur 4y agoThe 2 or 3 last seasons of House MD went off the rockers on the raising of stakes that you talk about, I felt. It was time to end it, but I wouldn't cut there.
- fatnoah 4y ago> I remember binge watching _House MD_ in college, really liked the beginning, and felt disappointed as the characters grew increasingly comical and less nuanced in later seasons This was Friends for me. The character Joey was the "less smart" one of the group, but often wrong in clever ways, such as confusing "moot point" with "moo point". It's like a cow's opinion, it doesn't matter. He was right and wrong at the same time. In later seasons, he turned into what could possibly be described as the dumbest person alive. The other characters had similar transformations. The nuances becamse their defining characteristics. They became caricatures of themselves.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- 7sigma 4y agoThe expanse should be a case study on how to adapt books and how to finish a series. It helped to have the authors of the books as producers and that they finished writing the books.
- MrVandemar 4y ago> I remember bing watching _House MD_ in college, really liked the beginning, and felt disappointed as the characters grew increasingly comical and less nuanced in later seasons. Also the so-called "medicine" became more and more detached from reality and frankly lunatic. Hugh Laurie's brother is an actual doctor, I wonder why he didn't grab Hugh after about Season 5 and say "none of this makes any sense anymore! It doesn't work like this, ever!"