Is serialization the best idea for sci-fi right now?

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

A lot of serialized format also tends to be pretty excessive.

There was another show that had 13 episodes per season and generally brought mature themes all over the screen. It was a little show called The Sopranos. There wasn't much like it before on commonly accessible television. A lot of people were drawn to the unbarred content and the appeal just tended to be a marketable trend.

And like many others that came after it, it's ending was pure junk.

Ah yes, a most controversial ending there.

[Mecha82]

2) She IS part of a coven of bonified, genuine, Satanic, WITCHES (and warlocks). Their version of Thanksgiving involves cannibalism. Their MO is supposed to be freaky and unsettling, that's where the horror comes from.

So they are going with that stereotype set by Bible instead of more accurate Neo Pagan type witches.

[ProfessorDetective]

2) She IS part of a coven of bonified, genuine, Satanic, WITCHES (and warlocks). Their version of Thanksgiving involves cannibalism. Their MO is supposed to be freaky and unsettling, that's where the horror comes from.

So they are going with that stereotype set by Bible instead of more accurate Neo Pagan type witches.

Most of the Church of Night's schtick is literally INVERTING Catholicism, just to stick it to 'the False God', as they refer to Him. It'd be hilarious if it weren't played dead serious. This stuff ain't Neo-Pagan, it ain't even PAGAN. They are Satanic, pure and simple.

Oh, they're also REALLY sexist, which comes up a lot.

[Zargon]

Serialization? No, not really. I guess "serialization" is sort of the popular thing for now....or, at least ''they" think it is.

Though few, if any, shows come close to B5 Level of serialization. Most shows do "serialization" poorly.....like Star Trek Discovery. They have a vague plot...if you want to call it that...then just do random messes of sort of stories..then have a sudden Star Wars like explosion filled pointless ending. And you sure don't get any real change or character arcs or character building, like in B5 or DS9.

Really, it's just more about making a good show.

[Mecha82]

2) She IS part of a coven of bonified, genuine, Satanic, WITCHES (and warlocks). Their version of Thanksgiving involves cannibalism. Their MO is supposed to be freaky and unsettling, that's where the horror comes from.

So they are going with that stereotype set by Bible instead of more accurate Neo Pagan type witches.

Most of the Church of Night's schtick is literally INVERTING Catholicism, just to stick it to 'the False God', as they refer to Him. It'd be hilarious if it weren't played dead serious. This stuff ain't Neo-Pagan, it ain't even PAGAN. They are Satanic, pure and simple.

Oh, they're also REALLY sexist, which comes up a lot.

Yeah well they aren't wicca witches that are Neo-Pagan witches but something that based on Bible is evil and in league with Satan. Sure inverting Catholicism is one way people stick it to Christian God worshiped also by both Jewish and Muslims. Not that I have dog in the fight so to speak since I am Atheist and I don't believe in any of that but still.

[Kinky Vorlon]

The problem is that there is a tension between story telling and commercial interests. If you're a studio and you're green lighting a show, you want it to run a profit for as long as possible (unless you're at Fox). When you're telling a story, there are definite points in the story (introduction, rising action, climax, denoument, storytelling 101 stuff). If you have a set story and it's good for 3 seasons, what happens when the show's a massive hit and the studio wants more? You have to scupper what you planned and you get into a case of diminishing returns.

[Fianna]

Not necessarily. You might still be able to tell the story you want over those three seasons; you'd just know that, after you were done, another showrunner would come in and do something else with it in Season 4.

That doesn't have to be a bad thing. If you treat each season of a TV show as its own unit (as so many of them do now), then a TV show that runs longer than it should have is no different from a book or movie that gets way too many sequels. The original 1954 Gojira is still held up as a classic, despite the variable quality and often radically different tone and style of the many sequels that came after.

[Darth Wedgius]

I don't know if serialization is the best approach for a sci fi TV series, but I do like some element of serialization in my shows nowadays. I want some stand-alone episodes in there, too, though.

Story arcs aren't without downsides, though. If a story arc goes on too long, viewers can gather that Voyager isn't going home until there are enough episodes for syndication, intelligent people with resources aren't going to defeat the mindless zombies armed with teeth and fingernails, and, most importantly, the castaways are never getting off that island.

If the story arc ends, what do you do? SG-1 completed its first story arc by getting tech to defend Earth and defeating the Goa'uld System Lords, got some mileage out of the aftermath of the collapse of the galactic political order, and kudos for dealing with that, but then they had to do a story arc reset by bringing in the Ori. If B5 was a novel, then season 5 was the afterword.

Which was a shame because I was still enjoying those shows, but at that point I couldn't enjoy them as much. As opposed to TOS or TNG, where there were always new worlds and new civilizations.

[Deledrius]

I think that for an episodic format/medium, the answer lies somewhere in between. There are pros and cons at either extreme, but a show needs to be flexible. Too far serialized and you can make a mess of things real fast and be unable to recover. Too far episodic and the show will quickly become stale and uninteresting.

[Yukaphile]

^ This in a nutshell.