Shows Like Stranger Things and The Survival Drama Have Become Bloated. I Advocate For the Limited Series
It's an all-too-familiar feeling. The second series of your favorite TV show premieres online, and optimism runs high. The debut season ended so perfectly: upcoming stories were hinted at provocatively, and a key figure faced a shocking fate – or did they?. In the months since the finale, you delved into fan discussions with other hardcores to find some Easter egg clues pointing toward upcoming twists.
Unfortunately, the return episode disappoints. It seems as if the creative team was swapped for algorithms. By the next installment, a beloved actor's character acts in a way that fans unanimously declare inconsistent. By episode five, it becomes obvious the creators forgot concerning narrative arcs clearly established previously. By the lackluster conclusion, you silently wish that the show had just been cancelled.
The Curse of Prolonged Runs
Wishing for cancellation can only be retrospective; most fans protest when their favorite shows are canned before they can get off the ground. Take Kaos, an amusing Greek myth parody starring Jeff Goldblum, which Netflix dropped over poor ratings. But perhaps these fans will rest better with the knowledge the program avoided a disappointing second season.
Reflecting on Yellowjackets, I currently desire it was a one-season story. The debut offered a richly imaginative setup, with ten flawless installments. Aircraft disaster leaves a teen girls' team isolated in 1996. Top-notch cast members (featuring Juliette Lewis, Lauren Ambrose and Sophie Thatcher) depicted the survivors in dual eras. Several prize nominations followed, and the showrunners proudly announced there would be five seasons to develop the plot thoroughly. Recently, news broke of a season four conclusion. This news brought me relief.
The Stranger Things cast returns for season five.
The show has made narrative choices that have undermined its heart. Rather than leading with the girls’ return home, and their coping with awful experiences, the story grew padded and excessive. This involved a wearying pattern of introducing peripheral figures (like the underdeveloped daughter Callie) with minimal impact on the main narrative. It's aggravating, and witnessing a great series decline into annoyance is disheartening.
An Increasing Pattern
However, Yellowjackets isn't alone. Series like Emily in Paris, House of the Dragon, Squid Game and Stranger Things lack original impact, and embraced predictable tropes. Sometimes shows need to quit when they are ahead.
Indeed, pleasures exist in single-season stories. From Sharp Objects to I May Destroy You to Adolescence, producers recognize appropriate conclusion points. Yet the spell breaks for programs including Big Little Lies, first conceived as self-contained, extend endlessly with reduced impact. Maybe Adolescence's creators hesitated about continuing.
The Ideal Model
I preferred Yellowjackets as a limited run, residing permanently in our thoughts, mysteries intact. My top series ever followed this pattern. My So-Called Life, the ideal adolescent show, lasted for only one season but was cinematic in its scope: the roles were challenging and multifaceted, the visuals were beautifully seasonal, and the dialogue was untethered from the normal “teen speak written by a 35-year-old” trope. The ending left questions unanswered, but that is perfectly in keeping with the reality of youth queries staying forever open. After 18 perfect episodes (and one dodgy one), I felt devastated and created my own continuation to address unfinished business. Despite existing on obsolete equipment, but it speaks to how deeply TV shows can chime with us.
The Special Relationship
If writers recall the sacred audience-series connection, more series can conclude appropriately.
- Priya Elan focuses on cultural topics.
