Some of the best TNG episodes were very “small.” They told a very self-contained story and you got to see some side of a character you hadn’t seen before but otherwise they didn’t have a major effect on the wider universe. That doesn’t seem to happen at all anymore. Now every show has to have a big over arching plot where every episode continues the story. Whatever happened to giving us a break?

[–] MagicShel@programming.dev 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I grew up with episodic content. Often there was absolutely no growth or change at all so you could miss any number of episodes and felt like you missed nothing. Babylon 5 came along with its epic arc and it was amazing. There were good episodes and bad ones, but if you watched everything you'd catch references and it would build up the meta-plot culminating in a season 4 that left you absolutely breathless between episodes. You couldn't miss a week or you'd miss out on information with which to speculate online. It was an incredible time.

Now with streaming everyone is doing it and all the little tropes that repeat themselves to prevent the plot from moving at a natural pace are just aggravating. The flashback episode that could've been 30 seconds of exposition. The fucking mystery where you don't know what's going on or why you should care about any of this until the last god damned episode. The episode that takes place in a shoebox to save budget for a disappointing CGI-fest. And of course the disappointing CGI-fest where you are given lasers and explosions, but nothing makes any sense and you just want to have a moment with genuine emotion and drama.

I should just go back to sitcoms, but streaming them feels weird because... nothing ever happens and it feels like watching the same thing over and over again. Well... shit.

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If you haven’t seen Parks & Rec, that’s a fantastic sitcom with an actual story arc that extends over the entire series. Great stuff!

The Good Place is another one!

[–] MagicShel@programming.dev 3 points 3 months ago

I did really like the good place. I'll give P&R a shot. The clips have always made me laugh.