I'm wondering if shows have a limited lifetime for being interesting - if they run for a while and then the writers run out of ideas or decide they have to do something "original" or "serious" and totally change the dynamic of it.
You're a bloody puppet! You're a wee little puppet man!
Spike ,'Smile Time'
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Toddson - Mar 31, 2017 8:02:44 am PDT #380 of 2020
Friends don't let friends read "Atlas Shrugged"
Jessica - Mar 31, 2017 8:51:27 am PDT #381 of 2020
If I want to become a cloud of bats, does each bat need a separate vaccination?
I'm wondering if shows have a limited lifetime for being interesting
I think high concept shows definitely do, or at least it's more of a challenge to keep them going over the long term. Once the big Thing introduced in the premiere is solved, the characters need a Next Thing which is almost never as strong a concept as the first one. (You can see it even in shows that stay good, like BtVS S4+. You can't be working to solve the problem of "high school is hell" anymore if you graduate/blow up the school!)
Connie Neil - Mar 31, 2017 8:59:38 am PDT #382 of 2020
brillig
My annoyance is that the Next Thing has to be bigger and bigger. "The world's going to end! Yay, we stopped it! Oh, no, the world's going to end again, but this time bigger!" There has to be a way to have a smaller crisis and still be interesting. "The city's going to be destroyed! Yeah, but it's not the world, is it? Hey, the people in that city care!"
Toddson - Mar 31, 2017 8:59:49 am PDT #383 of 2020
Friends don't let friends read "Atlas Shrugged"
Especially if you blow up the school twice?
Fred Pete - Mar 31, 2017 9:30:02 am PDT #384 of 2020
Ann, that's a ferret.
Part of the problem in BtVS may have been that the "high school is hell" theme only works for 3-4 seasons at most. Everyone attends high school, so it's relatively easy to keep a cohesive cast together. But then the characters have to graduate, and it's hard to keep a coherent theme going.
After graduation, in a realistic world, the group would have gone their separate ways -- maybe Buffy still goes to UC-Sunnydale, but Willow goes off to Stanford or someplace even farther away. Cordelia finds a social contact -- hers or her father's -- to take pity on her and give her something to keep her going. Maybe Xander joins the Navy, and Oz and the band go to L.A. to seek a recording deal. At that point, keeping the group together feels more and more artificial.
Steph L. - Mar 31, 2017 9:31:42 am PDT #385 of 2020
the hardest to learn / was the least complicated
My annoyance is that the Next Thing has to be bigger and bigger.
See also, the Harry Dresden books.
Connie Neil - Mar 31, 2017 9:52:38 am PDT #386 of 2020
brillig
You could do a story about how individual tragedies get overwhelmed by big events, but that might be too grim for popcorn TV.
Dana - Mar 31, 2017 11:41:41 am PDT #387 of 2020
"I'm useless alone." // "We're all useless alone. It's a good thing you're not alone."
The STAR Labs team has never heard of local anesthesia?
Seriously. (I already got spoiled and knew this episode was going to annoy me, so I'm primed to be annoyed.)
DXMachina - Mar 31, 2017 12:11:13 pm PDT #388 of 2020
You always do this. We get tipsy, and you take advantage of my love of the scientific method.
See also, the Harry Dresden books.
Hah! I was thinking the exact same thing.
Steph L. - Mar 31, 2017 12:19:24 pm PDT #389 of 2020
the hardest to learn / was the least complicated
Though, don't get me wrong, I can't wait for the next book.