Episodic VS Serialized storytelling in Xena: Warrior Princess and other TV shows of the 90's/00's - What is today's generation of audience and fandom missing in watching a TV show? What does cancellation culture do to the engagement of any storytelling?
It's true. Xena's format was very much the same as many actual sci-fi TV shows of the time like Star Trek: Voyager, The X Files, Sliders...
Even Buffy to some degree. Although I would never class that as sci-fi. That was known as 'monster-of-the-week'. Which is different still.
But yes, episodic was a self-contained story in one episode and the next episode would be something entirely different. Possibly even a different tone or genre. There was very little serialized storytelling.
So it meant that you could stop watching Xena whenever and then pick back up with it whenever. Binge-watching wasn't a thing then. There was no necessity to consume the entire season all in one go. No rush out of the anxiety that the show might suddenly just get axed.
None of that bullshit. The worst we had was wondering whether the network would permit it to carry on into another season. But that current season would be fully produced and ready to be aired with a conclusion. They wouldn't leave you on a cliffhanger unless it was purposeful for them to, knowing they would return in a new season.
Yes, the landscape for TV art/entertainment was entirely different to what it is now. It allowed for so much. Had so much more freedom.
We've gone backwards when it comes to that freedom. No doubts about it. But there is a legitimate and justifiable reason for why seasons aren't that long anymore. It's not just about budget. It's about the worker's safety and well-being. Lucy and Renee were thoroughly exhausted by the time of Season 6. They loved the show but they wanted it to end because they wanted a break. A significant break to be with their families and to pursue other interests and opportunities. We may miss the episodic structure of 22-24 episodes per season but there's good reason why that's all stopped at least for their sakes.
Now the question of... does a season have to be as short form as it is nowadays is really a question better to be asked of the network or streaming service because it really is more down to them why a TV show can only exist for a couple of episodes and then get axed just like that without a conclusion for that season's serialized storytelling because obviously they have the content to be aired or I guess... activated... they just refuse to let it be. Axed means cancellation. Means no more episodes. Not even if they've already been done.
That's different. That's not legitimate or justifiable for safeguarding.
That's just fucked up and not appreciating their viewership who have invested their time, attention and money into watching that TV show nor appreciating their employees who have worked their asses off to deliver this piece of TV art/entertainment to best quality they could.
22-24 episodes is too much. Understandable. But 8-10 is too short. I think I watched a TV show that was 6 episodes long once. It was a self-contained short story in a miniseries so that was fine. But TV shows are getting shorter and shorter within a season without the plan of having it be a self-contained short story. In fact they're meant to be much longer than a few episodes but the network or streaming service just axes it right out of the blue and there's nothing the showrunners can do to dispute that or prevent that from happening. It's hard work wasted. It's resources wasted. It's money wasted. It's just senseless waste over and over again and yet the excuse always seems to be to save money because "It's too expensive". But there is nothing "too expensive" about letting a show continue its story if that content has already been written, produced and filmed. There's just no reason to just stop airing all the episodes for that season's story. Only to not continue it into a new season which hasn't been done yet. It might have been conceived already but there's no tangible evidence of its existence yet. That makes sense. It sucks but it makes sense. What doesn't make any sense is having a cancellation follow through immediately as soon as it's announced to the showrunner - which is what is happening now a lot of the time and it's fucked up and needs to stop because nobody is fucking happy about it happening this way.
There is a happy medium as far as how long a TV show should be within a season when it's serialized storytelling. 12-15 episodes.
The other option is to go back to the episodic format and structure once again. That way you're not really wasting anything nor does the audience feel like they're missing out on anything. "Episodic" means a self-contained story in that episode and something different next time. Same characters but a different story each time. Each episode.
Going back to Xena - that was in a time when they were just moving out of episodic and moving into serialized so sometimes you would have the episodic story leave narrative tidbits that would continue into a future episode at some point down the line. Then you would have the much more consistent situation of a two-episodic narrative arc or even a trilogy narrative arc. Then the most consistent situation would be a character arc where the storytelling might be different episode to episode but the representation and development for a specific lead character would be continuous within those episodes.
So they could do what they did with Xena and other TV shows of the time again... it's just will people accept it going back to that format?
A lot of people are used to serialized storytelling now. They're used to stories carrying across multiple episodes if not the entire season. They're used to genres, themes and tones always being the same and never a mix-and-match of whatever they could come up with. They're not used to what you get in Xena or The X Files or Buffy or Charmed.
They might not be used to it... but they do want it because they don't know what they're missing without it. They don't know the freedom of it. They don't know the crazy fun and shenanigans of what THAT is.
It could go back to this if they're really struggling for another option. A way to satisfy both the network or streaming service and the fans.
Because just cancelling a serialized story out of the blue like that is not good enough. It's a really shitty thing to do to both the fans and the showrunner and everybody that has put time and effort into it.
These people are not going to give up on their passion. Be it on the creative side or the consuming side. Creator and consumer alike. So either we come up with better solutions... or we start a fucking riot because I am not being apart of this cancellation culture anymore.
I've had enough. I either want them to make it 12-15 eps per season or to go back to the episodic format and structure I know so well. I don't want to start watching a TV show, get invested in the stories, the characters, the themes and the dynamics for it to be fucking axed.
What is the point in that? Why do people accept that? It's not right. You expect a consumer. I expect to consume the full fucking thing.
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy at this point. We're just in a loop with it. And I don't know about you guys but I want to get out of this loop.
