Does a five-year story arc for a TV show actually work?

[Cmndr J Crichton]

Smallville should have ended after year 4 as originally intended. Clark was originally supposed to end his human training in high school and start his Kryptonian training in the Fortress as the series finale. I would love for that to have happened, and come back in a few years as Metropolis, the spin off to Smallville. Clark emerges from the fortress, wearing the cape, red blue and yellow and all. He flies off to meet his destiny.

 

[I am not Spock]

AtS season 6, for the most part is in comic form (After the Fall--read it, folks), The only major difference is that they killed Wesley in Not Fade Away to give him closure, whereas he wasn't supposed to die until the finale of season 6. He's a ghost in After the Fall. Amy Acker (Fred) spoiled years before the comics were written that Gunn was supposed to become a vampire in season 6. Most of that series is what season 6 would have been. The road warrior thing was only in the sense of everyone being in Hell.

Similarly, the story that was supposed to be the Faith T.V. movie got pulverized and turned into No Future For You. And the Buffy Animated Series pilot was turned into After These Messages... We'll Be Right Back!

And actually BtVS wasn't supposed to end at season 7 either. It was Sarah Michelle Gellar who wanted out. And it's quite clear from season 8 that the story wasn't over and there was a whole mess of loose ends (believe it or not) towards the end of the series about why Buffy, in particular, was in such a rut (and had just learned that the Slayer origins were demonic). Also, Fray was written before BtVS ended, and if you've read that, you know that BtVS and AtS both need some massive follow-up to link them towards that dystopian future where demons/vampires were kicked out of the dimension (but leaked back in somehow).

And as for Angel's story post-After the Fall, well... Spoilersville. The Frayverse demon exile that I won't spoil here... The Shanshu question (an unfulfilled plotline which is now on its 10th birthday!)... Lots of things still left to be answered with him.

Spike is still pretty much a baby to his new heroic journey. That story has still barely begun. Ditto with Faith.

So there's one franchise that kind of all is one story (and lately it's been marrying itself again). 11 1/2 seasons plus two comic lines (and a whole lot of extraneous earlier comics which are both canon and non-canon).

And if you've seen season 4 of AtS, it never made fans of episodic television very happy (it happens mostly in 4 weeks--it's as unforgiving to just jumping in as Heroes can be). AtS, even more than BtVS, was known for barely taking a breather on its serial storytelling. And those shows like to reference things that happened years ago all the time.

I'm a serial television fan because I have the brain for it. I like intricate, self-referencing, lengthy storytelling.

And 5 years isn't enough. Comics that matter (which I follow for BtVS, AtS and Heroes) really help. Roswell, sadly, felt like a very short 3 seasons. I'm aware of canon books that followed, but they're apparently rare/expensive beyond belief.

I even like gleaning the could-have-happened bits from BtVS and AtS non-canon comics (I really have a soft spot for the year 1 comics, especially), deleted script scenes, non-canon books, etc...

I mean, I am on a Trekkie website here. You should relate! Star Wars was the first fandom that introduced me to the world of a fandom that follows a never-ending story.

I hope Heroes keeps going in some form. I think comics would work. That's already established.

Excellent post, man! Completely agree with everything you wrote. I know BtvS and Angel were not completely planned out from the beginning, but somehow they made it all make sense at the end. I'd call them great examples of a successful arc that goes over multiple seasons. And I was sad when both ended. Thank god we got the comics to continue our fix of these amazing characters!

I prefer serialised storytelling, too. It gives you more incentive to keep watching, IMO, not less. I watch my Buffy, Angel, and Firefly DVDs much more often than even my Trek ones; because I know my attachment to this wonderful universe and its characters will be rewarded. Only DS9 out of the Treks gives me this kind of immersiveness in an arc storyline, and its characters, that I want to see.

I think there were things they did know about in advance. Willow was apparently meant to turn evil after what Glory did to Tara in season five. And then there's the clever foreshadowing of 'The Gift' as far back as 'Graduation Day' (and the nice foreshadowing of Dawn in 'Restless'). And Tara sabotaging the demon locator spell as far back as Season Four (I remember thinking why the hell she did that at the time, and when I rewatched Season 5's Family on DVD, that scene in Who Are You seemed very clever indeed).

 

[sojourner]

One of the best payoffs in B5 is Vir getting his wish.

 

[chrisspringob]

Why do you think some people take shots at creating them in the first place?

Because of how it can work, pretty much. I think Babylon 5 best illustrated this in the "War Without End" two-parter, where plot threads from the past, present and future suddenly crystallize and ram together in very interesting ways. It's all slow burn then payoff! Without such elements I doubt B5 would be remembered as fondly as it is, if at all. That degree of intertextuality is very appealing - a few lines from a year ago spell out implications addressed a year later; your final act suggested in the first episode, and so on.

In theory, essentially, TV can give us novels in cinematic form. That's a pretty great idea on paper, though the execution - real life being a messy business - could be and is frought.

Yep. B5 was the rare case in which the creator actually took the time to do an immense amount of advance planning of the story. The result is a series that actually feels like a novel for television, with a beginning, middle, and end (though yes, of course there are some rough edges), in a way that virtually no other long-running TV series does.

Obviously, I understand why most TV writers don't go as far as JMS did in terms of planning, but I wish more of them did. Because with most TV series with story arcs, it soon becomes painfully obvious that the writers don't really know where they're going with any of their ideas, and the continuity becomes an incoherent jumble.

 

[iguana_tonante]

I would say that Angel got a pretty 5 years run, too.

But it wasn't planned that way. It was pretty clear from watching that they were expecting to have a 6th season. The end of Season 5 is incredibly rushed and ends with a frickin' cliffhanger!

Oh, I agree they were fully expecting a season 6. But I supposed the OP was talking about series that have 5 seasons planned at least.

 

[Gaith]

I'm tired of the "Don't worry, it gets better in Season 2" dynamic that shows have these days. Why do we need to wait for it to get better in Season 2? Why couldn't you have made it awesome right from the start?

QFT.

I think it's helpful to start with at least some idea of where everything's heading. The West Wing, for example, had a built-in seven-year, two-term time limit for most of the core cast at least. Rome always knew its characters' fates; the only question was the pace at which they'd get there. And Carnivale supposedly had a six-year run planned out. Sure, it had some slow spots, but there isn't a single episode that doesn't move the story forward at least a tad, and you've got to give them credit for that.

The problem with Smallville, as others have noted, is that it didn't have any set schedule, and it dithered far too much. That Lionel survived until the seventh season is insanity.

And Enterprise was even worse, with seemingly no initial plans whatsoever, apart from the utterly rubbish Temporal Cold War.

Every show is different, according to its structure. A show like Scrubs could theoretically go on forever; heck, ER did. But it helps to have some concept of a direction and destination, no matter how flexible.

 

[Joe Washington]

I agree with everything you said. Especially the part about Lionel. The more I think about it, the more I wish Smallville went in this direction I imagined it could have gone if it wasn't so twisted by so much of the crap that ruined it: http://trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=106552

 

[RobertScorpio]

Here is how I grade the arcing shows that I have seen..

Lost..this show was great at the start, lagged in the middle, but is back on track and, I think, will have a successful conclusion.

BAB-5...started off great, ended great (season 4). Then was brought back and ruined its legacy.

DS9. I am not sure who much was planned or whatever, but ultimately I liked the show better than the other modern treks..so it worked for me.

Heroes...started off great, and just became 'okay'. I was really into this past season, thought Knepper was the best part of the show..but the ending was so flat, I think they should cancel it.

The Machans..Only had once season but..oh..what a season!!! (okay, far from a successful show, it was ahead of its time)

ROB

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Well, LOST was originally intended to only be 5 seasons, and I think that would have been successful if it had been able to play out.

What's this based on? I've heard it mentioned before, but don't know where. As I understand it, the writers never had an idea how long the show would last and didn't plan things out based on any kind of pacing.

FWIW, my theory on Lost. I figure in season one, they planned some ultimate resolutions (what we're seeing now) and the tailies (which were set up on day 1). Throughout the first season, the hatch was invented and the idea of the others was as well. As season 2 developed, the idea of exploring the Others became developed and they knew what to do for season 3. During this time, they found out how long the show would last and planned out the steps to get there (Season 4 and the beginning of season 5). I think they expanded the idea of season 5 to include the other stuff to cater to people who wanted the mythology explained. Season 6 is just the logical continuation of Season 5 to reach the goals they had in Season 1. I'd argue that the show needed a minimum of 3 years to tell the basic story and somewhere between 5 and 6 to tell the full story they have now.

 

[RoJoHen]

^Okay, maybe it wasn't planned for 5 years right off the bat, but I do believe at some point during Season 2-3 that they figured out what story they wanted to tell and how long they needed to tell it. They decided on 5 years, but the network pushed for 6. I don't have a source; this is just what I've gathered over the years.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I heard that it was a fight between three seasons of 24 or 2 seasons of 24 without breaks in the middle of seasons. As they weren't keen on writing 24 episodes straight through (and perhaps thought they had more story to tell), they compromised and did three seasons of 16.

 

[Lindley]

I would say that Angel got a pretty 5 years run, too.

But it wasn't planned that way. It was pretty clear from watching that they were expecting to have a 6th season. The end of Season 5 is incredibly rushed and ends with a frickin' cliffhanger!

Technically yes, but it's one of those cliffhangers that works remarkably well as an actual ending. They had time to change it when the word came down, and they chose not to. I can respect that.

 

[Dorian Thompson]

Supernatural seems to have worked out pretty well. Except for that bit of network interference by actually renewing it for an unexpected sixth season since the 2 leads are contracted for six. At least the showrunner is sticking with his 5 year plan and isn't stretching out the planned arc for the fifth season, praise be. They'll go "smaller and more intimate" for season six. That's the only way to do it, methinks. Thank heavens the two leads won't sign on after season six.

 

[BrotherBenny]

Heroes ends on a cliffhanger but it hasn't been officially renewed as far as I know.

I think that after the knowledge that the majority of arc shows don't work, people who are coming up need to have the B5 plan in mind. JMS wrote an out for every major character in case they needed to leave the show and had the bare bones notes to rewrite the show to take that into consideration.

IMHO, the biggest reason why shows don't succeed today is because the network executives who look over the shoulder of the showrunners interfere in various ways. (1) They schedule the shows badly, break the season in half with a several month gap, or just mix up the scheduling so no one knows when it's on week to week; (2) They want the characters and relationships changed to better suit the demographic - and usually end up losing all their viewers and show gets canned.

That's just my experience, YMMV.

 

[paudemge]

I would actually like to see some shorter arcs, maybe 1 year arcs, you have a story that is told over 1 tv season and that is it. Story is over, no worries about renewals or anything.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

I'm probably in the minority, but i think Sara Connor Chronicles ended kind of prematurely, i know it was because of ratings and FOX likes to get axe happy. But season 3 would have explored more on John in a future where he's not the rebel leader he was told majority of his life growing up. And why the the T1000 was against skynet. I dunno I thought it was a real interesting direction they were going, but then it ended. And that is 10x the cliffhanger Heroes ended on if that truly is the series finale. Which I still think they should have went the 5 years gone route from the get-go.

With Lost even though it's 6 seasons, if they still did 22 to 24 episodes let's see, season 1 had 24, season 2 had 23, season 3 had 22, season 4 had 13 (writers strike), season 5 had 16 and this season will have 18, who knows how many filler duds we would have gotten, let's just say I'm happy they chose to write towards an ending and settle on 6 seasons.

A show that I see could be heading towards a pretty epic 5 seasons is Dexter, that is if they renew for another but I heard it was gonna end at 5

Mad Men is about to approach it's 4th and is something I can really only see going on for 5 seasons as well, 6 at the most.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

I would actually like to see some shorter arcs, maybe 1 year arcs, you have a story that is told over 1 tv season and that is it. Story is over, no worries about renewals or anything.

Flash Forward just might be the show for you. If you don't watch it already.

 

[BrotherBenny]

Yeah, one thing I hate is that shows which should be a single/two season/s are bought back because ratings are high, but the new stories suck, the ratings go down and it's cancelled. More effort should be put into developing 1-2 season shows.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

No.