Programs Including Stranger Things and Yellowjackets Are Growing Overextended. I'm All For the Single-Season Show

Many viewers know this disappointment. The follow-up season of your favorite TV show has just begun streaming, and your mind is full of hopeful expectation. The debut season ended with such precision: upcoming stories were hinted at provocatively, and a key figure faced a shocking fate – or did they?. In the months since the finale, you delved into fan discussions with dedicated fans to decode subtle references pointing toward upcoming twists.

But the new season opener falls flat. It seems as if the creative team was swapped for algorithms. Cut to the second episode, your favorite cast member has done something that fans unanimously declare inconsistent. Halfway through the season, the writers appear to have memory loss around the storylines aggressively signposted in season one. By the lackluster conclusion, you privately hope it had ended sooner.

The Pitfall of Too Many Seasons

Wishing for cancellation can only be retrospective; viewers usually oppose premature cancellations. Consider Kaos, a clever mythological satire featuring Jeff Goldblum, axed by Netflix because of weak audience numbers. But perhaps these fans will rest better with the knowledge their enjoyment of the series won’t have been muddied by a sophomore slump.

Reflecting on Yellowjackets, I currently desire it was a one-season story. The first season boasted an inventive concept, and every episode hit the right marks. A 1996 plane crash strands a female soccer team in wilderness. Excellent actors (featuring Juliette Lewis, Lauren Ambrose and Sophie Thatcher) depicted the survivors in dual eras. Several prize nominations followed, creators confidently planned five seasons to develop the plot thoroughly. However, a season four finale was just confirmed. I felt grateful as a viewer.

Young actors prepare for Stranger Things' next chapter.

The show has made narrative choices that have undermined its heart. Rather than leading with the girls’ return home, and their coping with awful experiences, the story grew padded and excessive. A fatiguing tendency emerged of highlighting added personalities (including the flat character Callie) with minimal impact on the main narrative. It's disappointing, and as a viewer, it is depressing to see your favorite show morph slowly into a hate-watch.

A Common Phenomenon

However, Yellowjackets isn't alone. Series like Emily in Paris, House of the Dragon, Squid Game and Stranger Things no longer surprise audiences, and fallen headfirst into expected or comfortable cliches. At times, programs must stop while successful.

Actually, benefits come from self-contained series. Considering Sharp Objects, I May Destroy You, and Adolescence, writers understand when narratives find completion. Yet the spell breaks for programs including Big Little Lies, first conceived as self-contained, extend endlessly with reduced impact. Hopefully, Adolescence’s producers have thought twice about that rumoured season two.

The Perfect Example

I preferred Yellowjackets as a limited run, occupying our minds endlessly, cliffhangers and all. My top series ever followed this pattern. My So-Called Life, the ideal adolescent show, ran for just one year yet felt epic in scale: the roles were challenging and multifaceted, the filming captured a fall aesthetic, and the dialogue was untethered from the normal “teen speak written by a 35-year-old” trope. Its final episode was bitterly unresolved, yet this mirrors real life accurately of youth queries staying forever open. After 18 perfect episodes (and one dodgy one), I felt devastated and created my own continuation to answer some of those questions. It might only live on an old hard drive, it demonstrates television's powerful connection.

The Unique Connection

If writers recall the sacred audience-series connection, more shows can end gracefully.

• This writer focuses on cultural topics.