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What is your favorite story arc?
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And tomorrow will be like today, only more so.
-- Isaiah 56:12, New Standard Version
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 17 2017, @08:58PM
Only DS9 and Enterprise had actual season-length or longer arcs, the other series were episodic with the occasional two-parter and callbacks or recurring characters.
And I for the most part consider that a good thing, I'm just so burnt out on arcs in TV series. I like being able to jump around the series at random and not have to keep continuity in mind. I can back and watch TOS, TNG, or even Voyager at any time but have trouble getting back into DS9 and never liked Enterprise.
I think that the overemphasis on arcs in TV series these days is a big reason why I don't watch anymore TV, I simply don't have the patience to follow multiple storylines for years at a time and "binge-watching" bores me. I don't bother starting with established series as I don't want to go back and catch up on years of lore.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday January 17 2017, @10:35PM
I like being able to jump around the series at random and not have to keep continuity in mind.
Because its expensive. I was badgered (in a friendly way) into trying to watch B5 and its just so incredibly expensive and after 10-20 hours I gave up. Yeah I'm sure the experience between hours 110 and 120 are sublime, but I don't have 110 hours laying around to get to that point.
I had a similar experience with "Sopranos" where I tried to break in around episode 70 and all I got out of it was they say fuck a lot and theres like 10 seconds of nudity and its extremely violent and I'd rather watch paint dry. I'm sure if I invested 70 hours to get to episode 70, then watched episode 70, its downright Shakespearean in its brilliance but its too expensive, so oh well.
I have another sleep deprived weird suggestion of a "story arc". "Adventure Time". Nobody said it had to be above room temp IQ and its gets a laugh occasionally.
(Score: 2) by theluggage on Tuesday January 24 2017, @01:27PM
I was badgered (in a friendly way) into trying to watch B5 and its just so incredibly expensive and after 10-20 hours I gave up.
Well, when B5 was being produced, the target audience was still people watching the latest episode every week over 5 years, not binge-watching. Also, unlike (say) Game of Thrones, B5 was carefully constructed with episode arcs and season arcs in addition to the "big picture" arc. It only morphed into a serial when JMS thought it was cancelled and crammed the conclusion into season 4.
Problem is, though, the traditional US network season of 20+ episodes is to long a serial drama designed for binge-watching. Its notable that current shows like Game of Thrones, Stranger Things and the Netflix/Marvel shows are going for shorter 8 or 10-episode "seasons" - and (with the exception of GOT) they finish the story at the end of the season (with just enough loose ends for the next season). The latter is critical - even if the show gets cancelled, you get a satisfying conclusion.
Game of Thrones' flaw is that the writers don't seem to be capable of resolving a plot line other than suddenly having all the protagonists arbitrarily killed. There's only so many "Red Weddings" you can pull without it getting tedious - and now they've resorted bringing a character back from the dead (and not as an ice zombie) which is always a plot-weakening move.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 27 2017, @01:05PM
uhm... GOT comes from a series of books, so don't blame the writers of the show, blame the writer of the books.
I haven't actually read the books or watched the series, so I'm not saying they're good or bad, I just wanted you to blame the appropriate person.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Monday January 30 2017, @05:23PM
The most recent series wasn't based on a book, because George R. R. Martin still hasn't finished writing it. After the second book, I said I wouldn't read any of the rest until he'd finished, but then I saw the complete set for a couple of pounds in a charity shop and relented. The last one finishes with a cliff hangar, but by that point I really don't care. He's killed off most of the likeable characters (which, I suppose, is realistic: it's a fairly brutal world) and there's no sign of any of the story lines being resolved other than by all of the participants dying. The pacing of the TV adaptations made the books feel brisk in comparison.
That said, and back on topic, the story arc in his Tuf Voyaging [wikipedia.org] collection of short stories is the best thing I've read by George R. R. Martin. The only other thing I've read in the same universe was Dying of the Light, which was fairly mediocre. It's a shame that the quality of his early work seems to be a lot higher than his later work.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday January 18 2017, @06:36PM
I was a B5 fan when DS9 came out. At that time in my life I didn't have time to follow both. So it was B5.
A few years ago I watched DS9 on Netflix. Enjoyed it greatly. For some months now I've been considering watching it again.
I thought they did a few screwups like with the doctor character.
They did have a few very ingenious episodes.
I appreciated that it had a pretty good ending instead of a cliffhanger or just abruptly end.
I find TV hard to watch now. I am mostly interested in a story with an arc. And an actual ending. Basically what I want is a really good book in TV form. I hope new content producers (Netflix, Amazon, HBO, etc) might start doing this. A movie is just a book in very short TV form. Miniseries is better. Multiple seasons is better.
But I don't want to waste my time starting to watch it unless I know or am pretty sure it's going to be worth it.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.