Episodic vs. Serialized Television. Which is More Effective?

[kguillou]

Hello all. I had made a post about this over in the Constantine boards but this is something that has been on my mind a lot lately and would love to hear your opinions on.

It seems that in this current television landscape, the most popular, most acclaimed most buzzed about television shows are the heavily serialized shows with an engrossing story that hooks you from the get go and keeps you guessing and wanting more at the end of each episode (Breaking Bad, 24, LOST, Dexter, Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Revenge, ARROW etc.) Yet, despite this, it seems there is an almost stubborn belief amongst most television networks that their shows MUST be episodic so that "anyone can jump in at any time." While maybe decade ago that would have been true, I believe that it just is not the case anymore. Episodic television, imo, is completely obsolete.

With episodic tv shows, the ones that have one and done stories in every episode, there is no sense of urgency or sense of intrigue to watch the net installment. If there's no story, no hook, no cliffhanger, what is going to prompt the viewer to eagerly anticipate the next episode? People want to be engrossed in a story, a mystery, an ongoing saga that keeps you guessing and sparks conversation. LOST was the king of that and became immensely popular because of it. Breaking Bad became a phenomenon because its strong word of mouth prompted people to get on Netflix and marathon the seasons they've missed so that they can get caught up and become a part of the discussion. You can't do that with "one and done" tv shows therefore it baffles me that these tv networks still insist that a heavily serialized show out the gte is going to hurt their shows. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D learned that lesson the hard way. It has vastly improved now but I would argue that if it had just delved immediately into its main story out the gate then more people would've been intrigued to keep tuning in.

What do you guys think about this? Is there a major downside to serialized tv that I'm not seeing?

 

[MadVillainy]

Im not sure about which is more effective but I can say that I much prefer serialized story telling when it comes to dramas.

I do think you'll get more respects/acclaim/props/whatever for a serialized show over an episodic show like Law and Order

 

[Lord]

I vastly disagree with you, episodic tv shows have their place and it's serialized tv what networks are starting to push for more. In today's work you can do a lot with an episodic tv series, not everything needs to be a continuous cliffhanger. X-Files for example had some amazing one-shot episodes, it's unfortunate that good episodic tv shows are becoming a lost art more and more.

 

[Soapy]

One isn't better than the other, it just depends on execution, what fits best for the material, and what the storytelling goals of the show are.

 

[John Locke]

Episodic is better for reruns and that is traditionally how studios make money so in that sense episodic is better. They also can last multiple seasons like Simpsons or NCIS. However serialized shows do better on DVDs and streaming sites. They have shorter seasons but can be critically acclaimed. Since both streaming and reruns still exist they both have their place.

 

[Lord]

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D learned that lesson the hard way. It has vastly improved now but I would argue that if it had just delved immediately into its main story out the gate then more people would've been intrigued to keep tuning in.

That's because the episodes were boring, Agents of SHIELD could have done anything with an episodic structure, it could be an window to explore the vaster Marvel universe, from exploring Monster Island to the cat and mouse game between SHIELD and HYDRA, lot at stuff like Fringe, or various of the spy shows from the past. It failed like that because it simply wasn't very interesting, from what i see, the average joe that had never watched any MCU film wasn't pulled in by the first episode, even those who like episodic shows, from all Whedon shows, i think it was the one with the worst start.

Some shows like Breaking Bad work best in a serialized format, but not every show works best that way, and to be frank, there are also multiple serialized shows that failed due to going through the wrong format, Blade: The Series for example was honestly more suited for episodic storylines.

 

[Prison Mike]

Episodic for comedies and serialized for really good dramas...like Breaking Bad level.

 

[Pink Ranger]

I think wonderful stories can be told via serialized television, but I don't hold with the notion that serialized storylines are inherently better and more sophisticated than episodic ones. There is a special art to being able to write a story with a beginning, middle and end that can be told in an hour.

It is important to remember that in the last golden age of network TV dramas in the 1990s, alot of the best shows were episodic, but with a serialized plot thread running through it (NYPD Blue, Homicide, Buffy, Angel, X-Files, etc.).

 

[Lord]

Yeah, i think an episodic format can do wonders when used together with a serialized plot, it just depends on what you do. Mad Men is a bit like that, as each episode is a window to the life in the 60s, while still going through various plot threads that last for multiple episodes.

Breaking Bad was masterful at serialization, but that doesn't mean every show needs to be done that way, the worst thing about popular trends are the bad copies. With superhero shows i think an episodic format is mostly the best way to go with some continuing plot threads in the background, as many adaptations are based on comics that have run for decades and have a rich history to take from.

 

[DigificWriter]

The question of which kind of storytelling model is more effective is an entirely subjective one, but I will say that personally, I tend to prefer stuff that is either completely serialized or that blends the serialized and the episodic together into what I refer to as the "Serialized Procedural" genre (examples of which would be ANGEL, Fringe, Person of Interest, NBC's Las Vegas, CBS' Vegas, CSI: New York, Flashpoint, the new Hawaii 5-0, and CBS' forthcoming Supergirl, among others).

 

[Kaleb]

I think older the generation tend to favor Episodic,Ive seen shows like Person of Interest suffer cause people have been expecting it to be an episodic series from the very begining.

 

[Boy Scout]

One isn't better than the other, it just depends on execution, what fits best for the material, and what the storytelling goals of the show are.

Retweet.

 

[The Question]

It depends on what the goal of your show is. A serialized Twilight Zone wouldn't have worked. There's no such thing as a catch-all for storytelling.

 

[Snow Queen]

It always depends on which is better for what the show is. As The Question mentions, Twilight Zone wouldn't work as a serialized show, for example. However I'm honestly bored by most serialized shows I see on today.

 

[Spider-Who?]

I think episodic television can, in some cases, be harder to pull off, or at least keep people invested. Whereas with serialized shows, you can make people tune into the next show by simply ending on a cliffhanger, you don’t get that luxury with episodic shows – you have to convince people every week that the show is good enough to watch again on that episode’s merit alone instead of out of a desire to see the next part of the story. Sure, this isn’t true all the time, and neither case is mutually exclusive, but in general I think it’s true.

X-Files is a great example of episodic television, until it tried to become serialized in it’s later seasons. Sons of Anarchy is a great example of a serialized show that started out great, but by its last season faltered completely under its own weight…the entire plot of it’s final season could have been handled in two episodes, but it was stretched completely, horrifically thin to keep the “one story one season” set up.

I personally like the mix of the two – have a plot that develops over the course of an entire season, but let each episode’s story be contained and speak for itself. Friends is a great example of this. Each episode is almost completely self-contained yet despite that, every episode builds upon the last to tell a much larger story each season.

 

[kguillou]

All very valid opinions, gentlemen. For the record I am not by any means saying that ALL tv shows should have a serialized format. I should have been clearer but I was gearing towards the more "action" and "drama" type of tv shows. I think for that genre there needs to be a strong sense of "I want to see the next piece of the puzzle" at the end of the episode so that you have the viewer hooked to watching the next episode.

Agents of Shield for example, I actually thought it had a really good pilot but it did nothing to give me a real reason to tune in the following week. The Flash did it very well, it had an excellent pilot that ended with a crazy twist that made you go "WTF?!!" and want to see episode 2.

I'm just saying, if your making a tv show thats in the action/adventure/ drama genre you cant really afford to have standalone stories especially in your pilot when you are trying to get people hooked to it.

 

[flickchick85]

I personally prefer serialized shows, but both have their place. Can't forget anthology and episodic anthology shows, either. True Detective and Black Mirror are two of the best shows out there at the moment, imo.

 

[Spider-Who?]

All very valid opinions, gentlemen. For the record I am not by any means saying that ALL tv shows should have a serialized format. I should have been clearer but I was gearing towards the more "action" and "drama" type of tv shows. I think for that genre there needs to be a strong sense of "I want to see the next piece of the puzzle" at the end of the episode so that you have the viewer hooked to watching the next episode.

Agents of Shield for example, I actually thought it had a really good pilot but it did nothing to give me a real reason to tune in the following week. The Flash did it very well, it had an excellent pilot that ended with a crazy twist that made you go "WTF?!!" and want to see episode 2.

I'm just saying, if your making a tv show thats in the action/adventure/ drama genre you cant really afford to have standalone stories especially in your pilot when you are trying to get people hooked to it.

I don't know what it is, but I just can't get behind Marvel's TV shows...both Agents of Shield and Agent Carter leave me feeling "meh". I don't know if its the stories, production design or what, but the shows don't sit right with me at all.

 

[Pink Ranger]

It's interesting here the parallels between TV and the comic book industry. About a decade ago, out of casual interest I took a course in comic book production, and back then the multi-issue story arcs were all the rage (the Morrisons, the Smiths, etc.). Everyone I knew wanting to get into the business had about a million ideas for 10-issue story arcs for their favorite properties.

Then the instructor told us that the best way to get an editor's attention is to compose a story that can be told in a single issue, with a beginning, middle and end in 20 pages or less. In many ways that's better writing than having the luxury of telling drawn-out stories over several episodes, and I think there are parallels to be drawn in television as well.

 

[flickchick85]

I don't know what it is, but I just can't get behind Marvel's TV shows...both Agents of Shield and Agent Carter leave me feeling "meh". I don't know if its the stories, production design or what, but the shows don't sit right with me at all.

I enjoy all of the DC and Marvel shows to a certain extent (and I do actually love Agent Carter), but they ALL give me a feeling of, "man, this could be better," and I think it's because over the last decade I've been spoiled by cable and premium cable television shows which are as good or BETTER than movies. So I can't help but think, "why can't one of these superhero shows be of that caliber?" And intellectually, I know the answer - because premium cable has more money backing it, which means more expensive sets/effects/talent, and more flexible production schedules allowing for more time to be spent on refining it to make it the best possible product (hell Game of Thrones was in development for 4 years at HBO with all the re-writes and re-shoots they did before it ever actually premiered). But still, I can't help but feel like I'm "settling" with the current state of superhero TV.

That's why all my hopes are on the upcoming crop of Marvel's Netflix shows. Netflix is essentially premium cable with all the money and production time benefits that come with it, so those could mark the beginning of a "Golden Age" for superhero TV to go with our Golden Age of Superhero movies we've been seeing the last few years.

 

[dark_b]

if its episodic it has to be for a short season. if its a big story and over 20 episodes i am out. it never works.

 

[Lord]

I'm not sure Agents of SHIELD and Carter feeling underwhelming has anything to do with all the latest great serialized shows, for example, while it's not exactly my thing, i don't feel like shows such as Hawaii Five-0 have the same problem, that one follows the old formula but i feel like it works realy well. The same is true with various other shows, but with Agents i think there's something that's not quite clicking right, and i'm not realy sure what, even their pilot episodes were a bit underwhelming to me, while most shows, even those with an episodic structure, pull you in almost right from the start.

 

[marcvader]

I don't know what it is, but I just can't get behind Marvel's TV shows...both Agents of Shield and Agent Carter leave me feeling "meh". I don't know if its the stories, production design or what, but the shows don't sit right with me at all.

Interestingly enough I have the same issue with the DC related ones. I've tried watching each series but can't get in to it.

 

[Spider-Who?]

Interestingly enough I have the same issue with the DC related ones. I've tried watching each series but can't get in to it.

Oh, I didn't count the DC ones because I think they're terrible and don't watch them at all, haha. With the Marvel ones, I at least try to watch them

 

[Pink Ranger]

Serialized structures can often be used as a crutch for poor writing or poor storytelling. Think about the worst seasons of shows like Lost or 24.