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posts about #storyarcs more → 
What's The Matter With Story Arcs On Television?
San Francisco, 4:41 AM
Thu Dec 10
24 posts in the last 24 hours
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08/29/09
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08/29/09
Now, it seems like if I didn't watch an episode of Fringe, I'm screwed. I think there's an economic issue, as well: producers are beginning to think of broadcasts as trailers for the eventual DVD. It may seem like the evolution of TV, but I think it's a little like a new species growing a tail where it didn't need one.
08/29/09
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08/29/09
Yes. Vastely.
Peoples attention spans and demand for complexcity has gone up vastely. We demand more, and we are getting given more.
Its still possible to tell a great story as a one off (Blink but its easier to get consistently high quality with arcs.
Note; Arcs do have to be planned though. They arnt just making-stuff-up-as-you-go.
08/29/09
Also unlike BSG or Heroes they need to know where they are going with the story...
08/29/09
08/29/09
I dunno. Sitcoms rarely have arcs, and they're still popular.
08/28/09
After a season of stand alone shows, seasons 2 and 3 really stand out as having a great arc, something that really isn't found in cartoons.
08/29/09
But even then, the individual episodes are fantastic. I think that the Venture episodes *resonate* with each other, but each individual episode stands on its own. The characters are so well-defined that you get them right away as archetypes, but they can still have hidden complexities.
08/29/09
As well, having thought about it some more, I don't think the Venture Bros. really does have arcs in the classical sense. Sure, there is continuity, but the "arc" leads nowhere. You *know* that the Monarch will never succeed in killing the Ventures, and that the Guild will always be at odds with the OSI. In fact, the Ventures actively made fun of the idea of continuing stories with the Mummy episode, in which the situation with Brock and the bros. played second fiddle to the contest between Rusty and Orpheus.
08/28/09
Worst arc*s*? Thank you Heroes Seasons 2 and 3.
(Hiro, Ando and baby Matt? WTF?!)
08/29/09
08/29/09
Unfortunately, my infatuation with arc storytelling set me up for such disappointment with shows like X-Files and BSG ("I wasted so much time on THAT?). But now I spend less time obsessing and I just roll with the story. And every now and then something like Farscape comes along and does the arc thing mostly right.
08/28/09
08/29/09
X-Files is a textbook example of why series-long arcs are in the end doomed to failure. They require 1)a monomaniacal showrunner who is committed to the long haul 2) actors who are wiling to remain on the show for the duration, no matter how popular they get, and 3) an audience willing to stick through it all. Getting all three conditions in one show is like turning lead into gold.
Don't forget, in literal terms an arc has an end point in which it must descend. Nothing can be sustained forever.
08/28/09
The macro arc can work, but rarely does. BSG got a little convoluted, as did B5. And Lost is just a mess. I quit watching at the beginning of Season3 when it became obvious that there was not going to be any sort of satisfactory conclusion and would instead be some sort of magic hand wave (oh, did we forget to mention for the first 4 years that this was a time travel story? oops!)
American shows adopting the BBC system of short series with a beginning middle and end would go a long way to solve this issue. If Lost were on the BBC, it'd have made sense, because it would have only been 13 episodes long. No room for vamping or extended pointless flashbacks.
08/29/09
Someone wasnt paying attention.
08/29/09
08/29/09
Well, technically you don't see the monster, but you know what I mean.
08/28/09
Someone could pick up an episode in mid-stream and not be completely lost, while long-term viewers would have motivation to stick with every episode.
For me, I think HBO and Showtime do it best with their shows usually having a solid conclusion to the major storyline at each season's end. Of course, story details from one season will influence the next and there is an arc-of-sorts from season to season, but there's still quite a bit of satisfaction from having things mostly wrapped up at the end of a finite run of 12 to 15 shows, rather than having to wait years for some sort of resolution.
This also forces the writers to better plan their stories and avoids the 'making-it-up-as-we-go-along-and-clearly-have-no-idea-how-to-end-it' syndrome, otherwise known as the Battlestar Effect.
08/29/09
Watching the old TNG eps on DVD (most for the first time) I think TNG used the HIll Street Blues formula (which was also pioneered by St. Elsewhere) to great effect.
08/29/09
Okay, back to sci-fi.
08/28/09
In other news, my computer randomly started playing the audio from Babylon 5 one day while my girlfriend and I were watching Chuck.
I don't own anything Babylon 5 related.
08/29/09
Personaly, I choose to believe the Tardis lifeform is related to the warewolf/adapted lifeform seen earlier. (Remember in that eppisode the line "you have the touch of the wolf about you" is used).
Sure, its retconing on my part, but it makes more sense to me.
08/28/09
Shows these days go the opposite direction....there's too much emphasis on a story within one episode, that it seems to jump all over the place when you watch the whole season or series.
I wish more television shows would do multi-episode arcs, or did what DS9 did...Season 7-9 was all one story arc. It made a much better show.
08/29/09
Reboot had fantastic arcs.
I also loved Deamon Rising, even though that was more a tv-movie esq thing, it neatly wrapped in with much earlier stuff.