TV Shows are all doomed to fail according to how much success they have.
There are SO MANY great first seasons of shows.
The great first season often has a cliffhanger, and the writers likely have some fun ideas on where to take that cliffhanger.
And if they do a great job with the cliffhanger arc in season 2, the show is picked up for season 3.
By season 4/5 the show is a shell of itself, the characters are all dating each other, and the stakes from the first season don’t really exist anymore.
Once I realized this (nearly) inevitable pattern, it became hard for me to get excited about any ‘great’ new shows with a killer first season.
Movies tell a full story in one shot. And so historically, they stand on their own even with great success. But they are starting to fall into the same trap. Franchises squeeze more out of the same character and are pressured to add the same cliffhangers.
Sure there are great sequels, but once you’re on that 5th installment … Things start getting played out no matter how great the original characters and story were. Even the king of movie sequels, James Cameron (Terminator 2, Aliens), is shelling out diminishing returns with the Avatar sequels.
Anyway, here’s hoping James will again work on an original idea one day…
[prompt] "Avatar 47: Blue people doing more stuff"
