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There are very few shows that go on forever that I keep watching. I gave up on How I Met Your Mother until they were finally going to actually show how he met the mother finally. I guess I was told they did and watched the last season on Netflix or something. Otherwise, I had gotten bored. Being 'faked out' got old.
So yeah, most shows just want to keep going and overall it is the most profitable thing to do, even though it compromises whatever integrity the show had.
BB, among other things, knew when to end it. It would have had to devolve if they did not.
Yeah that's true. I didn't finish how I met your mother, but I heard the mother turns out to be a completely new woman. But if that's the case, then what was the point of the guy telling his kids stories of how met their mother, when the mother isn't even in the first two thirds of the stories, or whatever.
Are there any more good shows like BB, where it follows a structure that doesn't have the C subplots at all, and just sticks to one main interweaving plot throughout? That way I can decide if I like one story, and not have to decided if I like all these substories. But what other shows do it that way, like BB?
Are there any more good shows like BB, where it follows a structure that doesn't have the C subplots at all, and just sticks to one main interweaving plot throughout? That way I can decide if I like one story, and not have to decided if I like all these substories. But what other shows do it that way, like BB?
BB had subplots too, I don't know what you mean. Lots of sub-plots. Some people probably didn't give a hoot about Jesse's family, for instance. It never wove into the main plot at all.
I thought Hank's wife was boring, but guy friends of mine thought she was hot and her story-lines were funny. None of those ever played into the main plot. At all.
That's true, but in the last three seasons of BB, every subplot played into the main plot, or so I felt.
For the most part, one had to pay attention to every moment because it was going to be important. But TV shows are not movies. Seems like you want them to be like movies with the one plot thing.
But I gave you one show that is like BB in this sense. All the sub plots play into the main plot. Big Little Lies.
Sometimes the subplots or "filler" scenes have more to do with the overall direction of the show than we realize at the time. Writers wanting to write a more intricate story will write scenes into episodes that seem irrelevant when they play out, but will reveal themselves to be central to the resolution of the story later on, once the viewer has all the facts.
Any show with a serialized format has to have three or four different plotlines going at once. This allows the show to flow better, and to avoid having a "full stop" type point where everything seems to be completed. As one story ends, another begins, and yet another could be starting in the background.
Typically the main "A" plot is the primary draw, the story that takes up most of the screentime. Another "B" plot is busy percolating in the background, waiting to become the "A" plot once the main plotline is resolved. Depending on the time to fill, there might also be two or three "C" plots that will never likely end up dominating the show's screentime, but are thrown in just to give supporting characters time to shine, and usually to supplement or provide contrast to the main plots. If a show is heavily featuring a crime/mystery plotline, a "C" plot of a sweet romance might help keep the show from feeling totally dark. If you find yourself with several actors on contract who are not being given much to do in the "A" plot, the writers might create a "C" plot for them because they are contractually obligated to appear in every episode. In some cases the supporting actors can become more popular than the leads, so giving them their own plotlines will allow viewers to see more of them than they would if they were simply there to service the plots of the lead actors (think Jack and Karen on Will and Grace).
I think also that sometimes writers are competing for air time and using plots by more than one person appeases multiple writers.
Basically I've been trying to get into more TV shows lately, but one thing I've noticed that I find kind of annoying is that a lot of shows will introduce a main plot, but then put that plot on hold in favor of all these other subplots, involving all the characters. I find this kind of annoying cause then I have to wait till who knows when to get back into the main plot again.
....
A huge part of real life is gobbled up in sub-plots too. Just read through C-D and you will have zero problem seeing lives swallowed up in all manner of sub-plots.
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I think also that sometimes writers are competing for air time and using plots by more than one person appeases multiple writers.
