I would like to see a major return to episodic TV in general but that goes quadruple for Star Trek. You can really FEEL the absence of episodic TV any time you go back and watch one of these shows. Each story a complete capsule unto itself with little to no need for padding episodes or blindly needing to push characters from one place to another because it’s all one damned story. Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks have been a breath of fresh air.
I’m an outlier I guess but I preferred the short story arcs across multiple episodes to the one off’s like TNG. What Enterprise tried in the last season was ok, and when Voyager played with short arcs I really dug that. I didn’t mind Discovery but when they jumped to the future i felt like it went off the rails. I am due for a rewatch though
Honestly, I prefer shows like that.
When Stargate Universe happened, it became a serial TV show. You could no longer watch one episode by itself. It’s the only series of that franchise I don’t rewatch because of the fact.
I don’t know that started the trend, but at a certain point all shows turned into this perpetual setup with no payoff. Maybe it was Lost with it’s “mystery box” story telling that I’ve always hated.
Yep. I like when there are long running sideplots, and when the universe changes over the course of the series, but I prefer if the main focus of each episode is only one or maybe two episodes in length. Like, I don’t want it to be completely static where you could shuffle the episode play order and have it make essentially no difference, but I also don’t want an entire season to be dedicated to a single story.
It’s gotten to the point now where I won’t start a show unless I know it’s getting an ending.
Series arcs are a pain too, not everything needs it.
Severance and The Bear are two recent shows that pulled it off, Severance needs to land the season 2 though.
One of the best reasons for episodic storytelling is that bad writing doesn’t have to pollute the entire series.
Even TNG had the occasional terrible episode, but it when they shit the bed it was self-contained, and if they were wise, never mentioned again.
