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What is your favorite story arc? | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 170 comments | Search Discussion
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  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday January 20 2017, @04:24PM

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Friday January 20 2017, @04:24PM (#456584)

    I'm just saying that as an adult, rather than when I was a teenager watching reruns of trek in syndication, I don't believe that the trek utopia is likely to happen.

    I completely agree. Instead, I think the future is going to look a lot like "The Walking Dead" in a decade or three. But that doesn't mean that I want to watch that.

    I just couldn't believe they would do such a thing given the backstory of the characters. I began to think they were really just making it up as they went along.

    That's how just about every TV show that has a "story arc" operates. There's not really a way around it. (Notable exceptions are B5 and Game of Thrones.) There's no way for the writers to know how long the network will keep ordering new seasons, so they constantly write it so they can end it at the end of that season, or come back for a new one. But yeah, it makes me now want to bother watching a lot of stuff too.

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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday January 20 2017, @05:05PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 20 2017, @05:05PM (#456604) Journal

    What would be great: If new original content producers (Netflix, Amazon, HBO, etc) would produce a long form story arc in 2 or 3 seasons, all pre-ordered and paid for, that has a definitely planned ending. A logical ending that is highly satisfying.

    Yes, it might only have only 1, 2 or 3 seasons. You might not be able to drag it out for 5 or 6 years.

    But on the other hand, if it is immensely enjoyable like a great novel, then it might be watched over and over again. It might also be watched for several generations of people, just like a good book.

    I don't expect TV networks to be able to wake up to this fact. Even if they do, I don't think they can escape the trap they are in. They can't afford the risk to make a great show, several seasons long, and that it might not get high enough rating in its first run.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by TheRaven on Monday January 23 2017, @02:15PM

    by TheRaven (270) on Monday January 23 2017, @02:15PM (#457631) Journal
    It's not like Babylon 5 had all of the episodes written before the start of the first season. JMS had a show bible that contained the big-picture events and the important bits of character development, but would just ask the episode writes to make sure that they included a couple of key exchanges for each one. And they had to shrink the timeline a bit when they thought they were being cancelled at the end of Season 4, to wrap up the main arcs. There's no excuse for something like Battlestar Galactica or Lost, where they obviously had no idea where they wanted to end up.
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