This is not to say that seasons after the first one are bad, but sometimes I feel as though later seasons exist because of the show’s popularity and not because the creator had more to say (The Last of Us, even though I love Part II). Also, it’s okay to have an open-ended ending with loose ends, leave it to our imagination on what’s going to happen next (Westworld).
This is only unpopular with producers and studio owners
Ironically, I feel like I only ever get one season of a show that’s good and it gets cancelled. I personally am sick to death of a series starting over from the beginning. I’m talking to you Superman and Batman. We know the beginning story already, move on to something new. Books and old movies/series exist to tell us what you already did in Season One.
The BBC has got you!
Our current obsession with sequels and prequels is terrible. The thing about a good story, with good characters, is that it typically starts around the time The Most Interesting Thing is happening to the characters, and concludes around the time the Most Interesting Thing is also wrapping up. That’s why the book/movie/game/song exists, to tell about this time The Most Interesting Things happened to these people. By definition then, a prequel tells some lesser story that leads up to the MIT. If the prequel was the most interesting story, then it would be the story, not a spinoff.
Same shit with sequels. You’ve told the story, the characters are done. If there was more, you should have finished telling that story. Now obviously, there’s long stories that have smaller arcs and take place over several installments.
Like Lord of the Rings. 3 (technically 6) books that tell one overarching story, a very interesting one. Each book has a story, but the whole set also has an overall story that wraps up nicely. The Hobbit, the OG, also tells one whole interesting story. Note how LotR isn’t also Bilbo’s story. Now note how the movies fucked this up by turning the Hobbit from its own story into a LotR prequel, as though actually all these films are Gandalf’s story, or something like that.
The current trend of grinding every iota of money out of any idea, based on Lore and not characters or big ideas, has sucked all the meaning and import out of these things.
Terminator the Sarah Conner Chronicles ended on a cliffhanger and then got cancelled. I was mad at the time, but now I like it. The show was good, and if they continued on they would have eventually ruined it and turned it into: Buffy the Terminator Slayer.
Buffy the Terminator Slayer
*studio exec frantically types notes on phone
It kind of depends on the story being told.
Some stories may set up some interesting ideas/concepts that could become good stories in their own right.
However there are things that are better left just being suggested and left to the consumer’s imagination, rather than outright explained.
For example, Yakuza 0 was a fantastic way of handling extra backstory stuff, especially for Majima’s side of things. It gave players insight as to why the wacky batshit character is the way he is through the rest of the series. It also gives insight into Kiryu and Nishki’s relationship, adding more weight to what happens in the first game.
I think a poor example would be the way that Metal Gear Solid V expanded on the Cobra Unit from 3. It explained that their previously unexplained supernatural abilities were actually just due to one of V’s plot devices. It took away from the mystique of leaving the cobra units abilities and replaced it with something pretty mundane.
I think there are too many variables for that to be true. The Leftovers went downhill after season 1 and I would be ok if all following seasons never existed. However, I think Twin Peaks season 3 is one of the greatest things ever broadcast…and that came out 25 years after season 2
It’s fine to have that opinion, but I wholeheartedly disagree. Often the thing you love about a show is the story and the characters and the world. When a good show ends, you often want more. More story, more of that world, more of that universe, more of those characters, etc.
The only thing worse than a bad story is a really, really good story that ends way too quickly. It’s like having one bite of a really good meal. I mean that bite was amazing, but fuck you for showing me what I could have, and then not letting me have it. I’d have preferred not having that bite in the first place.
