Spoilers for the first two episodes of season 2...
So, while I am really enjoying Prodigy, I have an issue that keeps cropping up in my head and I wanted to get others' feedback on it.
I got this feeling often in the first 10 episodes of the season ("season 1") that any given episode only felt like half an episode. The story would feel like it was going somewhere, then it would either end before resolving the issues or end so quickly as to feel incomplete. Looking back, I think the stories told in season 1 were mostly told in two parts. Obviously the first two are the "pilot" and the two episodes on the telepathic planet are practically a two-parter, and the finale of "season 1" is an explicit two-parter, but beyond that even the standalone episodes (except for maybe "Time Amok", my fav of season 1) felt a little incomplete. Like there just wasn't enough time to tell a complete story, so they just had to fit in as much as they could in the time available and a few things were left out of held over to wrap up quickly in the following episode.
Now, i am getting the same feeling in the first two episodes of season 2. These two don't feel like they are a two-part story like might have been told in season 1, but instead feel like 2 half stories (or 4 quarter stories?).
In Asylum, it feels like we get about 5 minutes on the station interacting with the comms officer in only 2 scenes (the welcome and the "you betrayed me, i'm out of here" scene), but then we are suddenly whisked into the action bits, and Gwyn remembers everything, then the episode ends.
In "Let Sleeping Borg Lie" (glad they got the plural right, I so dislike it when anyone says Borgs), in the midst of discovering and discussing the living weapon, they run into a Borg adventure, then suddenly they escape and there is no more risk/thought about the Borg and the episode is over. I liked Zero's exploration of its new collective and allowing it to overcome the pull of the Borg collective, but the end of the "main" story with the Borg seemed too final - they aren't worried about the Borg following them? They don't even explain that they used the drive to get far away (even though the Borg might be able to follow using advanced Borg tech including transwarp conduits?). The Borg are just no longer an issue even though Zero had just said the Borg stasis was likely temporary. And they never attempted to explain why the Borg were sleeping to start with, and other than Janeway's initial statement that they should flee, they (mostly Janeway) seem very unconcerned about the Borg even before they know they are sleeping.
So I guess my question is: is this feeling of incomplete or truncated episodes/stories just my personal issue or do others feel this way? And if I am not alone, what is the cause? I rarely watch any TV shows targeted for kids with my own kids, so I don't know if all half-hour kids shows feel like this or if Prodigy is unique.
Is it because the animation is so expensive they can't afford any additional time for any of the niceties/conventions of normal storytelling that would provide connecting tissue between scenes or that would address some of the abruptness? I am thinking about a moment where they should have hailed the Starfleet comms array, talked to the guy over subspace, introduced themselves, and asked to come aboard. [Has there ever been a time (when comms were functional) that someone docked without first hailing the other party?] Or a scene where they should be flying through space and notice the Borg ship on sensors; or a moment where they actually should listen to Janeway's warning about the Borg and rush to stations to escape then notice the Borg are sleeping, and only then have a conversation about who the Borg are? [Come to think of it, this is at least the second time in the show that they suddenly end up practically nose to nose with something dangerous with no explanation of how they got there and with no warning. Maybe in "Starstruck"? I can't remember now.]
Or is it because though the show is presented as more episodic but still containing serialized elements (the bad guy is still alive, admiral janeway is out there following them,...) that the show feels squished/chopped up? Maybe I am approaching it expecting it should feel episodic, but they are really telling parts of the story more serialized and thus some of the conclusions for one episode don't come until a later episode. And the "episodic" storylines are just being wrapped up very quickly (the comms array, the Borg encounter) because they just don't have time to devote to them to make them feel whole.
I guess I think this show would be better served having an extra 5 or 10 minutes per episode to address some of these smaller things (maybe get some "Pillar filler" in too), but maybe that gets back to budget or that it's targeted to kids and what do they care about logical story flow, or unnecessary but interesting character beats, etc.
Thoughts?
So, while I am really enjoying Prodigy, I have an issue that keeps cropping up in my head and I wanted to get others' feedback on it.
I got this feeling often in the first 10 episodes of the season ("season 1") that any given episode only felt like half an episode. The story would feel like it was going somewhere, then it would either end before resolving the issues or end so quickly as to feel incomplete. Looking back, I think the stories told in season 1 were mostly told in two parts. Obviously the first two are the "pilot" and the two episodes on the telepathic planet are practically a two-parter, and the finale of "season 1" is an explicit two-parter, but beyond that even the standalone episodes (except for maybe "Time Amok", my fav of season 1) felt a little incomplete. Like there just wasn't enough time to tell a complete story, so they just had to fit in as much as they could in the time available and a few things were left out of held over to wrap up quickly in the following episode.
Now, i am getting the same feeling in the first two episodes of season 2. These two don't feel like they are a two-part story like might have been told in season 1, but instead feel like 2 half stories (or 4 quarter stories?).
In Asylum, it feels like we get about 5 minutes on the station interacting with the comms officer in only 2 scenes (the welcome and the "you betrayed me, i'm out of here" scene), but then we are suddenly whisked into the action bits, and Gwyn remembers everything, then the episode ends.
In "Let Sleeping Borg Lie" (glad they got the plural right, I so dislike it when anyone says Borgs), in the midst of discovering and discussing the living weapon, they run into a Borg adventure, then suddenly they escape and there is no more risk/thought about the Borg and the episode is over. I liked Zero's exploration of its new collective and allowing it to overcome the pull of the Borg collective, but the end of the "main" story with the Borg seemed too final - they aren't worried about the Borg following them? They don't even explain that they used the drive to get far away (even though the Borg might be able to follow using advanced Borg tech including transwarp conduits?). The Borg are just no longer an issue even though Zero had just said the Borg stasis was likely temporary. And they never attempted to explain why the Borg were sleeping to start with, and other than Janeway's initial statement that they should flee, they (mostly Janeway) seem very unconcerned about the Borg even before they know they are sleeping.
So I guess my question is: is this feeling of incomplete or truncated episodes/stories just my personal issue or do others feel this way? And if I am not alone, what is the cause? I rarely watch any TV shows targeted for kids with my own kids, so I don't know if all half-hour kids shows feel like this or if Prodigy is unique.
Is it because the animation is so expensive they can't afford any additional time for any of the niceties/conventions of normal storytelling that would provide connecting tissue between scenes or that would address some of the abruptness? I am thinking about a moment where they should have hailed the Starfleet comms array, talked to the guy over subspace, introduced themselves, and asked to come aboard. [Has there ever been a time (when comms were functional) that someone docked without first hailing the other party?] Or a scene where they should be flying through space and notice the Borg ship on sensors; or a moment where they actually should listen to Janeway's warning about the Borg and rush to stations to escape then notice the Borg are sleeping, and only then have a conversation about who the Borg are? [Come to think of it, this is at least the second time in the show that they suddenly end up practically nose to nose with something dangerous with no explanation of how they got there and with no warning. Maybe in "Starstruck"? I can't remember now.]
Or is it because though the show is presented as more episodic but still containing serialized elements (the bad guy is still alive, admiral janeway is out there following them,...) that the show feels squished/chopped up? Maybe I am approaching it expecting it should feel episodic, but they are really telling parts of the story more serialized and thus some of the conclusions for one episode don't come until a later episode. And the "episodic" storylines are just being wrapped up very quickly (the comms array, the Borg encounter) because they just don't have time to devote to them to make them feel whole.
I guess I think this show would be better served having an extra 5 or 10 minutes per episode to address some of these smaller things (maybe get some "Pillar filler" in too), but maybe that gets back to budget or that it's targeted to kids and what do they care about logical story flow, or unnecessary but interesting character beats, etc.
Thoughts?
