With so many shows starting and stopping, it appears that writers are writing TV series as if they were a 2 hour movie stretched into 8, 10, or more hours to tell a story. And so far it seems to be working, at least for now. But how long can this last?
Let’s take a look at the newest installment on television which is ABC’s The River. It is going to be 8 episodes and is filmed in the style of Paranormal Activity. The problem is the show could have either been a 2 hour movie or even a 4 hour mini-series. So far it is just plodding along and not really getting any closer to the answer of where Cole is at.
And that is the problem with TV shows like this. They are too long and filled with filler episodes that don’t move the story along and for the viewer these shows become boring and plodding. Am I expected to buy into a show that clearly could have been told fully in fewer hours? And am I expected to also buy that said show will benefit from a season 2?
It is frustrating for viewers and is probably why ratings are suffering for a show like Alcatraz. It too is a show that seems to be plodding slowly along, with hardly any type closure, and as each episode exposes the criminals, there is still no rhyme or reason as to why inmates and guards were taken. Don’t get me wrong Alcatraz is interesting and good, but too many shows like it are trying to give the viewers a Lost aspect.
I am probably one of the few people in the world who gave up on Lost. It was too long and too many questions left unanswered for me to be truly invested in the show. The River, Alcatraz and even the new Touch have that same element which makes the shows almost cookie cutter generic in the case of storytelling. Even Once Upon a Time suffers from this, filler episodes to fill in between the big payoff of what is really going on in the town of Storybrooke. In fact, while I love this show as well, I’d have preferred a tighter, sharper storytelling to get to crux of the problem: will the people ever know who they really are? Meaning this show could have benefited from a shorter season run to get the job done.
Case in point is American Horror Story. It too suffers from the fact that it might have been better served as a movie, yet it will have a season 2. Not only did the show work, it had a short season run which made the storytelling sharp and to the point, with no filler episodes to fill the void of a longer run series. Can it succeed past two seasons? Who knows, but I for one look forward to checking it out.
If networks are going to go this route for TV series, then either make them a one season series such as a Telenovela on Spanish television or make them mini-series, which Syfy channel has done with several of its series in the past decade, such as Taken, Tin Man, and The Lost Room, while short has a beginning, middle and an end.
Maybe this is happening because of the gluttony of reality television which is cheaper to make and yet most don’t have any real substance yet more and more seem to be popping up on so many channels. Maybe writers and producers feel that they have to make TV shows this way in order to compete. I honestly don’t know but as a viewer of television, I prefer my series to actually run like a series with several seasons to tell me the story.
What do you think?
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