Sophomore slump or sophomore surge?
July 20, 2018 7:41 PM Subscribe
I watch weekly shows week to week for two reasons: 1) I am too impatient to wait until the full season is available for streaming and 2) I like to let the episodes fester for a week. I get to really think about and discuss and analyze. That doesn’t happen between episodes when I binge.
I agree that a major problem is that most concepts are really only good for one season. It seems like the UK is much more willing to have a hit show be only one season than the US where we have to pump as much money out of a series until it’s limping along and dies a slow painful death.
posted by LizBoBiz at 11:59 PM on July 20, 2018 [5 favorites]
I agree that a major problem is that most concepts are really only good for one season. It seems like the UK is much more willing to have a hit show be only one season than the US where we have to pump as much money out of a series until it’s limping along and dies a slow painful death.
posted by LizBoBiz at 11:59 PM on July 20, 2018 [5 favorites]
I think there's a lot of pressure from the network that once they have a hit, they keep it on well past its expiry date. Arrested Development springs to mind, S1-3 were perfection and should be preserved in amber for all time, S4-5 have been patchy to say the least and have never recovered the initial magic. Having written that, I may have just given an example of the sophomore surge.
I like the UK/European tendency to give shows shorter seasons of 6-8 episodes, they don't waste your time trying to pad out to 22 episode seasons and leave enough good material for S2; Luther, Broadchurch and the Fall all come to mind as good examples of this.
posted by arcticseal at 2:20 AM on July 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
I like the UK/European tendency to give shows shorter seasons of 6-8 episodes, they don't waste your time trying to pad out to 22 episode seasons and leave enough good material for S2; Luther, Broadchurch and the Fall all come to mind as good examples of this.
posted by arcticseal at 2:20 AM on July 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
I suspect he didn't actually just sit and watch but had his phone or tablet out while it was running.
Alan Sepinwall has been a professional tv critic for many years, I am sure he pays better attention than many of us.
posted by leesh at 6:41 AM on July 21, 2018 [5 favorites]
Alan Sepinwall has been a professional tv critic for many years, I am sure he pays better attention than many of us.
posted by leesh at 6:41 AM on July 21, 2018 [5 favorites]
Oh man. I guess I’ve hit that point where I get all huffy about critics not knowing what they’re talking about, but this...is kind of a good example. This is not someone who knows enough about writing — like, by actually having done it — to comment on it.
He keeps using story and plot interchangeably, and they are very much not the same thing. “And then THIS happened, and then THIS, and then...” is a structure that has never worked, ever, and that he thinks it works for season 1 in a drama means he can’t really identify the problems in these disappointing season 2s. And his own examples contradict his arguments — The Good Place is a comedy that is notable for relentless burning through story at a dramatic rate while playing with character and characterization as part of the central theme of the show, rejecting out right episodic conventions that tell you you have to get 100 episodes out of your premise. They just decided not to do that, and the results are fantastic, but this has nothing to do with any of the arguments presented so much that it has to do with Michael Schur being able to write his own ticket while at the possible? peak of his powers.
*inhales*
There are actually books on how episodic storytelling differs from storytelling for movies or miniseries which have, IMO, a lot more to say about why some of these shows face planted in season 2.
No excuse for Westworld, though. They just disappeared up their own asses for no apparent reason.
posted by schadenfrau at 6:47 AM on July 21, 2018 [4 favorites]
He keeps using story and plot interchangeably, and they are very much not the same thing. “And then THIS happened, and then THIS, and then...” is a structure that has never worked, ever, and that he thinks it works for season 1 in a drama means he can’t really identify the problems in these disappointing season 2s. And his own examples contradict his arguments — The Good Place is a comedy that is notable for relentless burning through story at a dramatic rate while playing with character and characterization as part of the central theme of the show, rejecting out right episodic conventions that tell you you have to get 100 episodes out of your premise. They just decided not to do that, and the results are fantastic, but this has nothing to do with any of the arguments presented so much that it has to do with Michael Schur being able to write his own ticket while at the possible? peak of his powers.
*inhales*
There are actually books on how episodic storytelling differs from storytelling for movies or miniseries which have, IMO, a lot more to say about why some of these shows face planted in season 2.
No excuse for Westworld, though. They just disappeared up their own asses for no apparent reason.
posted by schadenfrau at 6:47 AM on July 21, 2018 [4 favorites]
(He is right about the fact that some — most — premises are suited for limited runs, but not for the reasons he lists.)
posted by schadenfrau at 6:50 AM on July 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by schadenfrau at 6:50 AM on July 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'm with you, I rather enjoyed S2 of Luke Cage.
posted by arcticseal at 5:29 AM on July 23, 2018
posted by arcticseal at 5:29 AM on July 23, 2018
Kinda reminds me of an article posted to MeFi years back about "expanding universe" vs. "steady state" shows. (sadly, the OP link is dead, though the MeFi thread is still alive) The idea was that some shows are "expanding universe" : as seasons progress, more and more "stuff" is introduced. Think new characters, plot devices, premises -- basically anything that becomes part of the show's history or mythology. The opposite of this is "steady state," where the most essential elements are introduced up-front, and not much is added over time. One observation was that the most extreme "expanding universe" shows tend to have the least-satisfying conclusions, because it becomes impossible to tie up all the loose ends in a satisfactory way.
Bringing this back to the Sepinwall essay, I'd say some of these "sophomore slumps" are shows that never found a comfortable place on the "expanding universe / steady state" continuum : either they tried to expand too much, or they didn't have anywhere to expand to.
posted by panama joe at 8:46 AM on July 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
Bringing this back to the Sepinwall essay, I'd say some of these "sophomore slumps" are shows that never found a comfortable place on the "expanding universe / steady state" continuum : either they tried to expand too much, or they didn't have anywhere to expand to.
posted by panama joe at 8:46 AM on July 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
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