Post by H-Virus on Dec 27, 2012 11:50:21 GMT -5
If there's one thing I've always hated in television shows, it's when something big happens that radically changes the lives of certain (or all) characters, and could potentially push the show into new and interesting directions in the future, only for everything to be completely resolved in the last three minutes of the episode so that everything is right back to the way it was when the episode started. I love shows like Futurama, but it's one of the biggest offenders in situations like this.
An example would be the episode 'Proposition Infinity'. Kif breaks up with Amy because she's always flirting with 'bad boys'. Amy ends up in a relationship with Bender, but since human-robot relationships are forbidden, they spend the episode rallying to legalize it, which they succeed in doing. It seems like things are actually going to work out for them. Then, in the last 30 seconds of the show, Bender dumps Amy because he doesn't want a monogamous relationship, Kif shows up on a motorcycle, and he and Amy ride off into the sunset together. The End.
There's dozens of other episodes that do this, but that one ticked me off especially, because not only was it disappointing, it was also f***ing lazy! There was a lot of things they could have done with that if they had only left it in place for a few episodes instead of immediately bashing the Reset Button.
Of course, there's also comics, where the idea of stasis vs change is a bit murkier, due in parts to longevity of the books and the quality of the writers. You can have people who like the idea of exploring new relationships, putting new characters into somebody else's costume, or otherwise taking comic titles into bold new directions (even if it' means killing off a beloved character or breaking up an otherwise happy relationship). But you can also find people who hate the idea of anything they're familiar with being tampered with, no matter how insignificant it might be (remember when people found out that Wonder Woman was going to start wearing pants!?)
So yeah, on the whole, which style do you prefer more? Keeping things familiar, or branching away from the source?
An example would be the episode 'Proposition Infinity'. Kif breaks up with Amy because she's always flirting with 'bad boys'. Amy ends up in a relationship with Bender, but since human-robot relationships are forbidden, they spend the episode rallying to legalize it, which they succeed in doing. It seems like things are actually going to work out for them. Then, in the last 30 seconds of the show, Bender dumps Amy because he doesn't want a monogamous relationship, Kif shows up on a motorcycle, and he and Amy ride off into the sunset together. The End.
There's dozens of other episodes that do this, but that one ticked me off especially, because not only was it disappointing, it was also f***ing lazy! There was a lot of things they could have done with that if they had only left it in place for a few episodes instead of immediately bashing the Reset Button.
Of course, there's also comics, where the idea of stasis vs change is a bit murkier, due in parts to longevity of the books and the quality of the writers. You can have people who like the idea of exploring new relationships, putting new characters into somebody else's costume, or otherwise taking comic titles into bold new directions (even if it' means killing off a beloved character or breaking up an otherwise happy relationship). But you can also find people who hate the idea of anything they're familiar with being tampered with, no matter how insignificant it might be (remember when people found out that Wonder Woman was going to start wearing pants!?)
So yeah, on the whole, which style do you prefer more? Keeping things familiar, or branching away from the source?