J.J. Abrams Admits The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy Needed A Plan
(boundingintocomics.com)
You're viewing a single comment thread. View all comments, or full comment thread.
Comments (18)
sorted by:
And this is why the new long-format television shows don't quite work right yet, either. They almost never have a plan, they have no idea how many seasons they'll be allowed to run, and still want to wander into Chris Carter Land (looking at you, Manifest.)
The best shows of the modern "everything is now a soap opera" TV era had a plan, told their story, and then fucked off before their welcome wore out. Gravity Falls is the best example of that off the top of my head, and it's a fuckin' "kid's show".
(Though I never thought I'd hear something like "Excuse me, but there's a couple of kids I have to turn into corpses" on a "kid's show".)
Anyway ... Fringe. Do something like that again, you tosser.
This is an ongoing problem with all serialized media. It's more apparent to me in a lot of shonen anime/manga. How many series are just a sequence of big bads to knock out that just meander for years without actually having anything meaningful happen? The answer: far too many.
The most basic tenet of telling a story is having a story to tell. You don't just start writing and hope for the best.
OMG, I watched Dragon Ball in its proper order a few years ago (I remembered my kids watching it back in the 90s, and I got really bored). The "Z" sequel is pretty much the epitome of that. I understand why, but still.
(Anyone else prefer it when it was still a simple chop-sockey story? I think it started to go off the rails when it turned into Wizard Wars instead.)
Dragon Ball is probably the most high profile offender. I don't know if it ever had a specific destination but the Frieza saga definitely felt like it was supposed to be the finale. The meandering definitely started all the way back in the original Dragon Ball with the perpetual martial arts tournaments though.
The Dragon Ball episodic story seems to happen to any show that doesn't have a plan. If the show goes too long, it turns into a story where every move has its own episode, and then everyone comments on it. Each team is amazed at the power, and then the other side throws down an even bigger fireball.
It's a D&D adventure where everyone got to level 20 in the first season, and now needs another god to kill.