Series Such As The Duffer Brothers' Hit and Yellowjackets Have Become Overstretched. I Advocate For the One-and-Done Show
Many viewers know this disappointment. The second series of your top TV show has just begun streaming, and your mind is full of hopeful expectation. Season one ended flawlessly: upcoming stories were hinted at provocatively, and a main character had – cliffhanger! – been offed (or had they?). After the season wrapped, you were perusing Reddit threads with other hardcores to find some Easter egg clues illuminating what would happen next.
Unfortunately, the return episode disappoints. It seems as if the creative team was swapped for algorithms. In episode two, a beloved actor's character acts in a way that viewers recognize as jarringly uncharacteristic. By episode five, it becomes obvious the creators forgot concerning narrative arcs clearly established previously. As the underwhelming ending arrives, you privately hope it had ended sooner.
The Downside of Too Many Seasons
Regretting a show's continuation is hindsight; audiences frequently rally against early axings. Take Kaos, a delightfully satirical take on Greek mythology starring Jeff Goldblum, which was binned by Netflix due to low viewing figures. Yet audiences can console themselves that the program avoided a disappointing second season.
Looking back at the horror-mystery show Yellowjackets, I now wish it had been a limited series. The debut offered a richly imaginative setup, and its 10 episodes were note-perfect. Aircraft disaster leaves a teen girls' team isolated in 1996. Top-notch cast members (featuring Juliette Lewis, Lauren Ambrose and Sophie Thatcher) played the characters across timelines. Several prize nominations followed, and the showrunners proudly announced there would be five seasons to develop the plot thoroughly. But last week, it was announced that it would end with season four. I felt grateful as a viewer.
Gaten Matarazzo, Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin and Noah Schnapp in the forthcoming fifth season of Stranger Things.
The show has made narrative choices that have undermined its heart. In place of exploring post-rescue life, and watching how they deal with their horrific new secrets, we were taken in directions that bloated the original premise. This involved a wearying pattern of introducing peripheral figures (including the flat character Callie) who added little to the overarching plot. It's disappointing, and as a viewer, it is depressing to see your favorite show morph slowly into a hate-watch.
An Increasing Pattern
However, Yellowjackets isn't alone. Shows such as Emily in Paris, House of the Dragon, Squid Game and Stranger Things lack original impact, and settled into familiar patterns. At times, programs must stop while successful.
Actually, benefits come from self-contained series. Looking at Sharp Objects, I May Destroy You, and Adolescence, TV creators know when to stop when the story has naturally reached an endpoint. But the game is over when shows such as Big Little Lies, originally a limited series, return repeatedly with declining quality. Hopefully, Adolescence’s producers have thought twice about that rumoured season two.
The Perfect Example
I desired Yellowjackets as a single-season show, occupying our minds endlessly, mysteries intact. The best program I've seen succeeded this way. My So-Called Life, the quintessential youth program, lasted for only one season but achieved film-like breadth: the roles were challenging and multifaceted, the cinematography was perfectly autumnal, 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 never having real, definitive answers to the open-ended questions from your teenage years. Following 18 excellent installments (plus one weak one), I was heartbroken and took to writing season two fan fiction myself to answer some of those questions. Despite existing on obsolete equipment, it shows how series resonate profoundly.
The Unique Connection
When producers honor the special viewer-program bond, more series can conclude appropriately.
- This writer focuses on cultural topics.
