Shows Like The Duffer Brothers' Hit and Yellowjackets Have Become Bloated. I Strongly Prefer the Limited Series
It's an all-too-familiar feeling. Season two of your favorite TV show has just begun streaming, and your mind is full of hopeful expectation. Season one ended flawlessly: future plotlines were teased tantalisingly, and a protagonist met a mysterious end – or so it seemed. After the season wrapped, you were perusing Reddit threads with other hardcores to decode subtle references shedding light on future developments.
Unfortunately, the return episode disappoints. It seems as if the creative team was swapped for algorithms. In episode two, a key performer makes a choice that viewers recognize as jarringly uncharacteristic. By episode five, the writers appear to have memory loss regarding plot points heavily emphasized earlier. And by the disappointing finale, you long for an earlier termination.
The Curse of Prolonged Runs
Regretting a show's continuation is hindsight; audiences frequently rally against early axings. Look at Kaos, an amusing Greek myth parody starring Jeff Goldblum, axed by Netflix because of weak audience numbers. But perhaps these fans will rest better with the knowledge the program avoided a disappointing second season.
Looking back at the horror-mystery show Yellowjackets, I currently desire it was a one-season story. Season one had a creatively abundant premise, and every episode hit the right marks. In 1996, a plane carrying an all-girl high school football team crashes in the middle of nowhere. Excellent actors (with Juliette Lewis, Lauren Ambrose and Sophie Thatcher) played the characters across timelines. Numerous awards recognition occurred, producers originally mapped out a five-season arc to fully explore the narrative. But last week, it was announced that it would end with season four. This news brought me relief.
Young actors prepare for Stranger Things' next chapter.
Story decisions have weakened the core. Instead of focusing on the survivors' reintegration, and their coping with awful experiences, we were taken in directions that bloated the original premise. This involved a wearying pattern of introducing peripheral figures (such as Shauna’s two-dimensional daughter Callie) who added little to the overarching plot. It’s frustrating, and watching a beloved program become tedious is sad.
A Common Phenomenon
But it’s not only Yellowjackets. Programs including Emily in Paris, House of the Dragon, Squid Game and Stranger Things no longer surprise audiences, and embraced predictable tropes. Sometimes shows need to quit when they are ahead.
The thing is, there are joys to be had in a limited, “one-and-done” series. From Sharp Objects to I May Destroy You to Adolescence, TV creators know when to stop when the story has naturally reached an endpoint. However, the magic fades with series like Big Little Lies, originally a limited series, extend endlessly with reduced impact. Hopefully, Adolescence’s producers have thought twice about that rumoured season two.
The Supreme Instance
I desired Yellowjackets as a single-season show, residing permanently in our thoughts, mysteries intact. The best program I've seen succeeded this way. This beloved 90s drama, the quintessential youth program, lasted for only one season but was cinematic in its scope: the personalities were complex and inconsistent, the filming captured a fall aesthetic, 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. Following 18 excellent installments (plus one weak one), I felt devastated and created my own continuation to answer some of those questions. Though stored on outdated technology, it demonstrates television's powerful connection.
The Special Relationship
If writers recall the sacred audience-series connection, more series can conclude appropriately.
- This writer focuses on cultural topics.
