Do the seasons two part finales and openers get less as the show goes on?

[tim0122]

Seasons 3-6 end with a cliffhanger that is concluded in the next season. They start with arguably TNG's best two-parter, continue with Redemption and Time's Arrow, and conclude with Descent.

I just finished Descent part II. I was struck by how, for me, the two-parters become less as the show goes on. None are bad, and the first three are good to great. But while it's great, Redemption isn't as good as Best of Both Worlds; while good and fun, Time's Arrow isn't as good as Redemption; and Descent is a pretty lackluster, normal two-parter that doesn't stand out as a season finale and season opener. For me anyway.

Does anybody else agree? Did these two, parters go down in quality for you?

 

[Uncle Sock]

They sure do. Descent in particular was a horrible episode. One of the worst for me. Time's Arrow is another snoozefest.

 

[Paul Weaver]

Descent has some great parts - most notably Commander Crusher actually being in command, and using her experience from Suspicions, and Nechayev chewing out Picard

 

[Mojochi]

I suppose they did. TBH, I feel like there were mid-season 2-parters that were better than the season enders. Gambit is better than Descent. Chain of Command is better than Time's Arrow. I mean, gawd, imagine they'd ended season 5 with Chain of Command Pt1 instead. We'd have lost our damn minds.

 

[suarezguy]

Sure "Descent" was a weak pair of episodes, though mostly just the second one, and pretty much nothing would approach "The Best of Both Worlds", but I would say "Redemption" and "Time's Arrow" were pretty comparable. The having to have cliffhangers to bridge the seasons felt at least a bit forced to me but with that having ones that are so-so also didn't feel particularly damaging, in particular between 5 and 6 and 6 and 7 those do feel like intentionally brief/slight gaps.

"Chain of Command" is yes a lot better but kind of feels better for being a bit more epic in where you would less expect it to (?) and yet (?) not trying too hard to be huge epic, both "Unification" and "Chain of Command" benefit from being mid-season pretty soon after conclusion of other two-parter, though I do think "Gambit" was really bad.

 

[Mojochi]

The worst thing BoBW ever did was to be so successful that it imposed the need to have something like it at the end of every season thereafter. I think we'd have been fine without that. HTF was any other story going to live up to human annihilation?

 

[Tallguy]

I have grown very weary of the "Two Part Finale" pattern over the decades. Especially as shows have become more serialized and many (most?) episodes are cliff-hangery. Now it's just another cliff hanger only I have to wait for A YEAR or MORE for the resolution. (I very much had the same issue with Lost and nuBSG.)

I rather enjoy the Buffy model (which the first season of SNW kind of adopted as did Disco, if memory serves): Wrap up the Big Story for the season and then take a left turn at the end for some tidbit to be resolved (and as a leaping off point for next season).

Best of Both Worlds is, of course, one of the greatest two part cliff hangers of all time. It was Star Trek's Who Shot J.R. (Look it up.)

 

[Paul Weaver]

It was Star Trek's Who Shot J.R. (Look it up.)

Or for more modern audiences, "Who Shot Mr Burns".

Of course Burns came far later than BOBW, but then Groundhog Day was after Cause and Effect

I don't think Dallas has the same resonance with the public as the Simpsons has, which is still going, and has been going for nearly 40 years

 

[tim0122]

The worst thing BoBW ever did was to be so successful that it imposed the need to have something like it at the end of every season thereafter. I think we'd have been fine without that. HTF was any other story going to live up to human annihilation?

I'm with the cliffhanger season finale, but they also should've mixed it with epic, single-episode finales that would've felt special without the need for an extended story.

Then it feels less like they're having to follow BOBW, which is too great to try to better or match every season thereafter.