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Post by The Curmudgeon on Jan 5, 2015 11:09:48 GMT 2
Maybe it's a sign I'm spoiled rotten with the sheer volume of quality TV that is available now, but I am growing increasingly bored and frustrated with weekly episodic TV shows. You know the type of thing I mean, and they're technically good TV programs, but the likes of the Mentalist (even though that's more than outstayed its welcome at this point), Elementary, the Blacklist.. a new case every week, a new story, with only the last couple of episodes of a 22 episode season that are actually worth a damn and progress the whole story in any real way. Man am I tired of that shit.
I'm becoming far more interested in TV shows like Fargo or the Soprano's, that have one whole story that the show gradually progresses through week by week rather than these "one and done" shows, and there's nothing particularly wrong with the type of format CSI etc have, I just find them all so.. pointless.
Am I alone in that?
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Post by trashcanman on Jan 6, 2015 0:11:06 GMT 2
It's all good. From a strictly artistic standpoint, the trophy is going to go too a show that treats itself like a novel, but I think there's something to be said for episodic runs of television. Sometimes, a smaller self-contained story can be absolutely amazing or an arc that slowly builds itself in the background over the course of other stories before smashing through in time for an epic payoff.. Shows like The Twilight Zone, Supernatural, and The Simpsons have done great things with episodic formats in the past.
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Post by Ben on Jan 22, 2015 4:36:40 GMT 2
I'm late to the party on this one (as usual), but I've avoided the kind of shows you're talking about like the plague since I grew tired of CSI and Criminal Minds years ago. CSI generally did (and maybe still does) a good job not following the same format for each episode, but Criminal Minds had a damn template it never deviated from. Someone gets killed or abducted, the team gets called, they're confused, someone else dies, the team works harder, someone ELSE gets abducted, the team makes a breakthrough at the crucial moment, and the person who was abducted is saved at the last minute. It got so damn tedious I wouldn't have watched for money.
Having said that, I think the episodic format works much better for half hour long shows, for whatever reason, and in comedy as opposed to drama.
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Post by The Curmudgeon on Jan 22, 2015 13:30:27 GMT 2
Totally agree with the half hour format working. The sitcom format is perfect for it (the Simpson's especially), and I can happily sit and watch ten episodes of a great sitcom in a row. It's the only real format I can "binge watch" on.
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