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Shows that made their premise obsolete
Hello everyone,,
Something that I was thinking of when comparing Designated Survivor and Madam Secretary as two similarly contrived network political shows in this post.
The main takeaway is that DS basically seems to have a conspiracy plot it cannot escape, due to it being the main hook of the show (Madam Secretary on the other hand was able to just become a general politics show and let go of the conspiracy stuff). Yet, that plot was adequately finished at the end of S1 so the show risked becoming just another politics show, which would make the main hook obsolete. As a result, the show basically has to continually whip **blip** out of its ass to keep the hook (and Maggie Q, whose main relevance was to the now irrelevant conspiracy arc) relevant.
I'm wondering about other shows that started with a main hook or premise that they just totally resolved or made irrelevant but kept going. How did they fare after? Did they get better? Worse?
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It’s always interesting how some shows start with a strong premise, only to outgrow it or make it irrelevant as the story evolves. Sometimes that shift actually makes them better, while other times it leaves you wondering what the original hook was even for. I came across something similar while browsing Wayne court database it reminded me how quickly the core purpose of something can change over time. Writers probably don’t always plan for that kind of transformation, but it can either refresh a show or completely derail it. Curious which examples stood out the most to you.
Interesting discussion!
The worst example of that is definitely Prison Break... They had to contrive the plot so much once the main protagonists got out of prison.
Lost is a quite a culprit also. But instead of switching gears, they just piled on the mysteries until even the writers didn't know what was going on.
I'm sure there's tons of other example.
Vincent Quigley
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