With The Acolyte wrapping up this summer, Lucasfilm is turning its attention toward the next live-action show from the galaxy far, far away: Skeleton Crew, which today received an official premiere…
This is a major problem in any disney+ series. They all look like a movie stretch into 8 episodes. Mandalorian more episodic in season 1 and Andor are the exception.
With the Kenobi show they wasted so much potential in doing this.
That should have been a movie or 10 episode 45 minute episodes at least, just because of all the extra nonsense they crammed in there.
I think the reason TNG did so well is that they had 22-27 episodes per season. This let them really take their time with character development so that a given episode could focus on a self contained story.
Which is what I’m not understanding about this new format. I dont think its better that each one is a movie. The time they had to develop characters, plus the great A plot and B plot writing is what helped make the show interesting.
I never see any shows these days with 20+ episode seasons. It almost feels like a relic of a bygone TV era. It’s too bad really.
Some of the best TNG episodes were very “small.” They told a very self-contained story and you got to see some side of a character you hadn’t seen before but otherwise they didn’t have a major effect on the wider universe. That doesn’t seem to happen at all anymore. Now every show has to have a big over arching plot where every episode continues the story. Whatever happened to giving us a break?
I grew up with episodic content. Often there was absolutely no growth or change at all so you could miss any number of episodes and felt like you missed nothing. Babylon 5 came along with its epic arc and it was amazing. There were good episodes and bad ones, but if you watched everything you’d catch references and it would build up the meta-plot culminating in a season 4 that left you absolutely breathless between episodes. You couldn’t miss a week or you’d miss out on information with which to speculate online. It was an incredible time.
Now with streaming everyone is doing it and all the little tropes that repeat themselves to prevent the plot from moving at a natural pace are just aggravating. The flashback episode that could’ve been 30 seconds of exposition. The fucking mystery where you don’t know what’s going on or why you should care about any of this until the last god damned episode. The episode that takes place in a shoebox to save budget for a disappointing CGI-fest. And of course the disappointing CGI-fest where you are given lasers and explosions, but nothing makes any sense and you just want to have a moment with genuine emotion and drama.
I should just go back to sitcoms, but streaming them feels weird because… nothing ever happens and it feels like watching the same thing over and over again. Well… shit.
I am with you there, though 8-10 episodes can be perfected these days as long as they are proper 45 minute episodes.
With that you can tell epic stories.
Not this 27 minute nonsense that Disney keeps doing with big Star Wars shows…
And with that I am forced to mention The Acolyte’s 8 episodes of ~27 minutes with a budget of $180 million…
I have to disagree with this one. The little 3 episode mini-arcs I think were ideal. Enough time to take time exploring a set of characters and to allow the situation to develop, without feeling like anything was dragging because they were trying to tell 6 episodes worth of story in 12 episodes.
I’m real tired of this 8 episode “seasons” who somehow tell less with their hour long episodes than TNG did in 30 minutes.
This is a major problem in any disney+ series. They all look like a movie stretch into 8 episodes. Mandalorian more episodic in season 1 and Andor are the exception.
With the Kenobi show they wasted so much potential in doing this. That should have been a movie or 10 episode 45 minute episodes at least, just because of all the extra nonsense they crammed in there.
TNG episodes are typically about 45 minutes.
I think the reason TNG did so well is that they had 22-27 episodes per season. This let them really take their time with character development so that a given episode could focus on a self contained story.
Which is what I’m not understanding about this new format. I dont think its better that each one is a movie. The time they had to develop characters, plus the great A plot and B plot writing is what helped make the show interesting.
I never see any shows these days with 20+ episode seasons. It almost feels like a relic of a bygone TV era. It’s too bad really.
Some of the best TNG episodes were very “small.” They told a very self-contained story and you got to see some side of a character you hadn’t seen before but otherwise they didn’t have a major effect on the wider universe. That doesn’t seem to happen at all anymore. Now every show has to have a big over arching plot where every episode continues the story. Whatever happened to giving us a break?
I grew up with episodic content. Often there was absolutely no growth or change at all so you could miss any number of episodes and felt like you missed nothing. Babylon 5 came along with its epic arc and it was amazing. There were good episodes and bad ones, but if you watched everything you’d catch references and it would build up the meta-plot culminating in a season 4 that left you absolutely breathless between episodes. You couldn’t miss a week or you’d miss out on information with which to speculate online. It was an incredible time.
Now with streaming everyone is doing it and all the little tropes that repeat themselves to prevent the plot from moving at a natural pace are just aggravating. The flashback episode that could’ve been 30 seconds of exposition. The fucking mystery where you don’t know what’s going on or why you should care about any of this until the last god damned episode. The episode that takes place in a shoebox to save budget for a disappointing CGI-fest. And of course the disappointing CGI-fest where you are given lasers and explosions, but nothing makes any sense and you just want to have a moment with genuine emotion and drama.
I should just go back to sitcoms, but streaming them feels weird because… nothing ever happens and it feels like watching the same thing over and over again. Well… shit.
If you haven’t seen Parks & Rec, that’s a fantastic sitcom with an actual story arc that extends over the entire series. Great stuff!
The Good Place is another one!
I did really like the good place. I’ll give P&R a shot. The clips have always made me laugh.
Agreed. Isn’t one episode of The Acolyte just about three Jedi’s walking through the first to a house?
I’ve only got two episodes left and in struggling to bother concluding the series.
I am with you there, though 8-10 episodes can be perfected these days as long as they are proper 45 minute episodes. With that you can tell epic stories.
Not this 27 minute nonsense that Disney keeps doing with big Star Wars shows…
And with that I am forced to mention The Acolyte’s 8 episodes of ~27 minutes with a budget of $180 million…
Had a big problem with this watching Andor.
It would have been so much better condensed into half as many episodes.
I have to disagree with this one. The little 3 episode mini-arcs I think were ideal. Enough time to take time exploring a set of characters and to allow the situation to develop, without feeling like anything was dragging because they were trying to tell 6 episodes worth of story in 12 episodes.
That’s okay.
I know some people like it and that it just wasn’t for me.
Star Wars without The Force and the Jedi/Sith just doesn’t feel like Star Wars to me, but the Nolanized version exists for those who do.