Friday open thread: 5+1

[dolorosa_12]

Until snowflake_challenge is over, I'm going to piggyback on their prompts and use them for my own each Friday. Today's prompt is:

Choose Your Challenge: we will give you the challenge of making a list (who doesn't love lists?!?) and then you get to choose what list to make.

Five Things! The five things are totally up to you.



I can never resist making a 'five things' list into a 'five times she did, and one time she didn't' list, so that's what I've done here. Feel free to use my own list topic, or make your own 5 (+1) things list in the comments.



1. I always list Veronica Mars as the answer to this question. This show — a pastiche of noirish detective fiction, set in a California high school, with an emphasis on both class (and extreme inequalities), small town politics and classroom politics, with a generally excellent cast with excellent chemistry with one another, and fabulously quippy dialogue, executed flawlessly — is one of my very favourites: but with a catch. Its first season is one of my favourite pieces of TV storytelling — it's close to perfect (some early 2000s issues with race and gender aside), it's complete and self-contained — and subsequent seasons and a movie never really reach the same heights. There are moments that I enjoy in all of the later seasons, but the seasons themselves are ultimately unnecessary, and in many cases undermine what made the first season so magical to begin with.

2. The Musketeers (BBC), an extremely loose retelling of Dumas's novel. It's got a pretty cast, the first season is light-hearted, swashbuckling good fun, and Peter Capaldi is a fantastic scenery-chewing villain whose antagonism with our heroes works really well, because he's opposed to them personally, but all of them ultimately are working towards the same goal, and periodically have to work grudgingly together. And then Capaldi got cast as the Doctor, his replacement was awful, and it became a much, much darker show, instead of the silly, tropey action adventure of the first season.

3. Broadchurch. This British prestige crime drama was televisual gold — critically acclaimed, popular with viewers, and telling an interesting story that looked with fresh eyes at the old trope of a crime taking place in a picturesque, close-knit small town, and cracking the town's facade wide open in a way that exposes everyone's secrets and makes everyone culpable. The denouement was devastating, it completed the story perfectly, and nothing more really needed to be said ... and then the showrunners made two more seasons.

4. Being Human (British original version), a wonderful miniseries about a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost living as housemates and muddling along with problems both supernatural and mundane, designed as a kind of metaphor for the trials and tribulations of life as a Millennial in the early 2000s. There were some dark moments, but it was a cosy kind of show, and although the characters had flaws, they felt like fundamentally decent people — or people who had the potential to be decent if they made an effort. After the first season, the show took a turn to the melodramatic, ramped up the angst, and made some characterisation decisions that fundamentally changed what the show was about ... which I hated.

5. Pretty Little Liars. This was another take on the 'picturesque small town is ruptured by the death/disappearance of a beautiful teenage girl, and this crime destabilises everything and somehow implicates everyone' subgenre, with Twin Peaks being its obvious ancestor. It did two things really well: it made this a story about the (then novel) digital lives of teenagers taking place largely outside of adult awareness (the quartet of teenage girl central characters are being harassed via text messages about their supposed involvement in their friend's disappearance by an unknown bully who knows all their secrets and vulnerabilities), and although it was incredibly soapy and melodramatic, it took seriously the lives, friendships and sexuality of teenage girls and made these the heart of the story. At its best, the show was extraordinary — a similar blend of complex, serialised television with long arcs with decent payoffs, good chemistry between most of the main cast, and an ability to mix humour, ridiculous situations, and heart-wrenching emotion to Buffy at its best. The first few seasons leading up to the reveal of the identity of the girls' digital bully are really accomplished writing, and among my favourite TV shows of all times. And then the show decided to keep going, introducing new antagonists and increasingly convoluted justifications for these new anonymous bullies to be bullying the four girls, ultimately degenerating into repellent transphobia such that I cannot recommend the show in its entirety.

And the one show that was cruelly cancelled too soon? Always, and forever Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which was wonderful, and deserved so much more!

What about you?

Comments

season, season, season ack...

[nyctanthes]

My one season and done (and thank goodness for that) show is Sharp Objects. When it was well-received, HBO wanted to renew it, but Amy Adams said no. Very glad for that.

Also! Cowboy Bebop (the original anime) was a single season, twenty-six eps. It's perfect.

For number three, while Amazon might renew Deadloch, the one season we've had is wonderful. I don't think I want more.

To round out the five things list (though these didn't stick to one season:)
American Vandal & Stranger Things

Re: season, season, season ack...

[dolorosa_12]

I'm really relieved to hear that about Sharp Objects — it was perfect as it was, and like you I see no reason for it to have continued beyond that.

I think I feel the same as you about Deadloch, and I definitely feel the same way about Stranger Things. I'm still watching it, for the sake of completeness, but I had assumed the previous season would be the last, and was honestly disappointed when I realised it was going to end on another cliffhanger, and that it wasn't going to end.

[wearing_tearing]

I so agree with Veronica Mars! The other seasons didn't live up to season 1 in terms of mystery and character development and the movie just made me mad.

Re Broadchurch: I had lots of issues with what they did with season 2 as an aftermath of what happened in season 1 since it lessened some of the impact of the big reveal, but the crime investigation in season 3 was pretty good.

[dolorosa_12]

Season 3 of Broadchurch was definitely better than season 2, but I still feel there was no reason for either to exist. And I agree entirely with what you say about Veronica Mars.

[wearing_tearing]

Yeah, I think sometimes networks and creators try to hold on to the magic that existed in the first season of a show and don't realize that the reason it was so good was because it was self-contained.

[muccamukk]

There were some good Milady bits in season two of The Musketeers, but that's all I've got on that one. I never did watch season three. *sighs* I used to be SO into that show.

[dolorosa_12]

I watched the whole thing until the bitter end, and I wish I hadn't — as you say, after season 1 it really had very little to recommend it. Unlike the other shows I've listed here, it's not as if it was complete after one season, it's more that it changed direction so comprehensively that everything I liked about it was gone.

[skygiants]

Terminator: SCC is also my top choice always for 'cancelled too soon!' I was so excited for whatever the third season was going to hold -- really cruel to open up such interesting storytelling possibilities and then yank it away.

[dolorosa_12]

It had so much to recommend it — it was excellent television, they'd obviously set up what promised to be a fantastic third season, and then it was cancelled. I'll always regret that we never got to see how they planned for things to unfold.

[kore]

I love your tags!

From what I remember, the choice was between Dollhouse and Sarah Connor Chronicles because the network could not take two shows with a female lead, and the network went with Dollhouse. That has to be one of the cruellest things done by TV executives ever.

[dolorosa_12]

I remember that detail about Dollhouse versus T:TSCC, and at the time I was one of those diehard Whedonistas who felt Joss could do no wrong, so I remember feeling mildly annoyed about the cancellation, but relieved that at least the Whedon show was saved. But in hindsight T:TSCC was the vastly superior show on every level, and the decision was the wrong one.

I love your tags!

Thank you! I've had a librarian's mind and obsession with categorisation since long before I actually became a librarian, and tagging definitely falls under that heading for me: I want a system that allows me to find everything I've posted that falls under whatever specific categories I've assigned it! I've long since left Tumblr, and I never really clicked with it, but the one thing I love about Tumblr culture is poetic and allusive tags. They're useless as a system enabling readers to find anything, but they're great for helping me keep track of things. I love having an umbrella tag for fiction about supernatural beings in our own world setting, fiction about vampires, postapocalyptic/dystopian fiction, and so on. And it always delights me when people spot that!

[thawrecka]

That first season of VMars really is spectacular. I only watched s1, s2 and the movie, and I agree that the first season is the best and the rest really doesn't match up.

[dolorosa_12]

It's just such a dramatic drop in terms of quality, whereas the first season is pretty much perfect. I feel as if the later seasons and movie almost undermine what was being said and done in the first season.

[justanorthernlight]

I've always resented Star Wars Rebels for basically becoming The Clone Wars 2.0 after the first season. The Clone Wars is okay as it's own thing, but Rebels s1 was a season-arc found family romp with an excellent villain (voiced by Jason Isaacs), and The Clone Wars was much looser tapestry of less-connected stories and I much preferred the Rebels arc format. Also, the introduction of TCW characters in Rebels really made the found family elements (and the characters I actually cared about) take a back seat.

I agree with you about The Three Musketeers. I actually refused to watch Capaldi's Doctor Who run because of it.

[dolorosa_12]

I'm not familiar with the Star Wars shows you mention, but any instance in which a show fundamentally changes its tone and emphases is bound to be disappointed, so your feelings about this seem entirely justified.

I never watched Doctor Who to begin with, so there was nothing for me to boycott there. I don't blame him for taking the role — presumably it was better paid and higher profile, plus I think he was a huge Whovian, making playing the Doctor kind of a dream role — but wow did his departure change The Musketeers for the worse!

[justanorthernlight]

I was already a bit frustrated with Doctor Who by the end of Matt Smith's run, and I'm also in the US so my boycott was more no longer putting in the effort to pirate it, lol. I understand it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Capaldi, but taking the Cardinal out of a Musketeers adaptation just doesn't work! They would have been better off recasting the Cardinal and pretending like it was the same character all along.

[charlottenewtons]

Agreed with all of these (although I haven't seen Being Human). Veronica Mars never could quite hit the heights of season 1 again. The Musketeers had such a noticeable tonal shift that I never even bothered watching season 3. I liked season 3 of Broadchurch but it wasn't something essential. I think Pretty Little Liars is the one that frustrates me the most. The first 2 seasons were so enjoyable. Even the stuff I wasn't fond of - namely the Aria/Ezra relationship - at least had some kind of stakes.

My most recent cancelled too soon show would be Paper Girls. Amazon never even bothered to promote it, I only found it existed by accident.

[dolorosa_12]

I agree with your assessment of all the shows — as you say, season 3 of Broadchurch was a vast improvement on season 2, but there was no real reason for it to exist, as season 1 was complete and perfect as it was. I think our opinion of Veronica Mars is fairly universal. There are moments I enjoyed in the later seasons, and as a Logan/Veronica shipper, the pure, fan-servicey existence of the movie brings me joy, but there was a serious dip in quality after season 1, and it never really picked up.

Weirdly with Pretty Little Liars I actually didn't mind the Aria/Ezra relationship (in fiction; obviously in real life I'd be appalled, and I think Ezra's actor felt similarly — I remember interviews where he said he was shocked that the relationship was played as romantic, when, as he said, 'my character is a predator!') — the one I found frustrating was Spencer/Toby. I feel that the showrunners caved a lot to fan pressure, so when a character or ship was popular with fans, they'd retcon any reveals that painted the character in a bad light, and handwave away any of the character's wrongdoing.

Paper Girls has been on my list of things to watch for ages — as you say, it seemed to appear without fanfare, and disappear without a trace.

[charlottenewtons]

My objection to Aria/Ezra was less to do with the morality aspect, more that I just found them really dull. Their scenes always seemed totally separate from all the other plots and I never thought they really knew what to with Ezra. They were always trying to throw various things at him - he comes from a rich family! He has a secret child! - but nothing ever stuck. I totally agree about Spencer/Toby. They never worked for me after the A reveal and IMO the actor playing Toby wasn't very good either. You're absolutely right that the writing was driven by shipper preferences, coming back to Aria/Ezra, this was really shown when they decided to hint that Ezra was A (which would have made the most sense out of all of the love interests who were A suspects) and then walked back on it because they didn't want the Aria/Ezra shippers to stop watching the show. Which was a real shame because both the actors seemed so excited about it in the interviews I saw.

[dolorosa_12]

Their scenes always were removed from all the other plots, and I think they boxed themselves into a corner due to the fact that Ezra was Aria's (and all the other characters') teacher. You could incorporate all the other love interests or secondary characters into the main plot more easily, because they were the four girls' peers at school — there was a reason for them to be in the same place, hanging out together. It was much more difficult to put Ezra in the same space as the other characters, experiencing the same things.

Toby's actor was the weakest of the bunch, which really didn't help, as you say, and it was even more obvious as he was mostly playing against Spencer's actor, who was probably the best of the four main girls.

[charlottenewtons]

It was much more difficult to put Ezra in the same space as the other characters, experiencing the same things.

Very true and I remember the few times they did have him interact with the other love interests it just looked odd, like what is this grown man doing hanging out with a bunch of high schoolers?

[lirazel]

This is really interesting. I think you're right about 1, 2, and 4, and yet I wouldn't give up season 2 of VMars (I'd give up the rest) or much of Musketeers or BH after season 1. It's complicated!

Totally agreed about Broadchurch, though!

For me, the answer is Killing Eve. I didn't watch after the first season, and I don't feel the need to. The first season just worked perfectly well.

[dolorosa_12]

I like some bits of season 2 ov Veronica Mars, but I disliked the conclusion, who the villain was, and how it meant that a lot of stuff that happened in season 1 was retconned.

I watched Killing Eve to the end, and I regret it. As you say, the first season was great, and the remainder ... not so much.

[lirazel]

Agreed that the retconning was a very bad idea. A very bad idea!

Well, I'm sorry you regret it, but it's nice to know I made the right decision.

[scintilla10]

Veronica Mars is always one of my answers to this question, too! What a spectacular first season.

I also wish we got more T:TSCC.

[dolorosa_12]

That definitely seems to be a popular sentiment around these parts, judging from the comments!