Pretty much it. Just getting into the last season and the writing and pacing is bad. Things don’t make sense, it’s disjointed. Like the characters are just saying lines and not telling a story.
Pretty much it. Just getting into the last season and the writing and pacing is bad. Things don’t make sense, it’s disjointed. Like the characters are just saying lines and not telling a story.
I’ve noticed a lot of shows seem to follow a pattern: a big budget great first season that makes a bunch of hype and draws people in, with the budget and quality dropping off significantly afterwards. It makes a good impression and draws in fans, then hopes those people don’t re-evaluate their opinions as it goes.
Like, just look at the costumes Yennifer. In season 1 she has ridiculously intricate fantastical custom lace dresses, and by season 3 she’s wearing things that look like the production crew picked them up at the local Kohl’s.
Another example would be Arcane. The first season was great- it establishes the world with great cinematography, detailed backgrounds and background characters, and the main characters are well-written with very clear and consistent motivations. The second season has the characters just do random dramatic things, often going against their own established motivations and personalities. The backgrounds, especially for the fight scenes, are often just generic looking smoke or fog so that they didn’t have to draw details.
It kind of reminds me of how big blockbusters often have direct-to-tv sequels or TV shows that suck. Except now it’s TV shows where the “big budget” part is Season 1 instead of a movie.
The sequence about this in Invincible is amazing
Yeah, not sure why they do that. Why draw people in to only have all but the most hardcore fans walk away? Seems like a real waste of money and time. I could understand in a long running series that’s played out and they’re running out of ideas and viewers; but a short, limited episode series? Why not see it through?
They are banking on first impression bias. They put in a lot of effort to get the audience to think “wow this is a great show. It’s well-executed and I like these characters and want to see where it goes”.
A lot of people drop off with the drop in quality, but my guess is that more people stay to continue watching than they would have if the budget has been so low from the start. In effect, the big budget of season 1 becomes more about marketing than it is about actually making art.
Hm. Guess I just view it differently. If I’m a fan of the story, writing, and characters I’ll stick with the media as long as they’re good. If the quality changes I’m gone.
I mean, I agee with you. But I think enough of the masses don’t notice that it still makes financial sense for Netflix, and probably other streaming services, to continue doing.
And it doesn’t have to work forever. Just getting a bunch of extra views on some cheap slop for a couple of seasons is probably good for their finances, at least in the short-term. In the long-term they would probably prefer mid-budget shows that go for 10 seasons, but those are hard to come by and don’t make the needle move up as much for this quarter.
And also I think you’re on to something with AI and the writer’s strikes from a few years ago. It seems there is better writing on YouTube, or even Instagram back when I used to use it, than a lot of these “professional” productions.
Could also be partly contractual. “We have a contract for four seasons of (show), but we don’t want to put any effort into it and we’ve already hired everyone and paid them.” Kind of thing.
Strange, that the wheel of time series started pretty bad. It actually got quite good by the third season. Just in time for cancellation
It’s not just TV series in my mind. I’ve seen dozens of movies that start with a great premise, rockin’ right along and then run out of steam near the end. Comedies are the worst. Best jokes and plot up front, then filler for the rest.
Those movies don’t have enough content for a feature length show and TV shows often don’t have enough content to go beyond a season.