![]() ![]() It was as if every episode were a second episode. Pilot episodes provided setups, and established series often took their premises and character relationships for granted, assuming that viewers would know the basics but little else. Major life events and dramatic choices that you'd think would have far-reaching ripple effects might occur one week and then be totally ignored the following week, and sometimes for the rest of the series. DVRs and streaming services had yet to come online, so producers could not expect that viewers would be able to see every episode of a series.īut the results could be dramatically frustrating, if not downright weird. There were reasons for this, of course: Broadcast networks, which produced the vast majority of scripted series, sought to appeal to the largest possible number of people, and execs generally feared that multi-episode storylines would not only confuse existing viewers who missed an installment or two, but also prevent new viewers from jumping in. Sure, there were exceptions - Hill Street Blues, Twin Peaks, soap operas - but the default for many if not most scripted series was that each episode existed in a kind of narrative vacuum. Remember what TV was like before the "golden age"? Even on long-running, critically acclaimed series, just about every episode had to stand entirely alone, with few references, if any, to previous events. Serialization used to be a lot more rare on TV With its finely tuned balance of episodic mystery and series-connecting mythology, it paved the way for today’s binge-watchable serials, and helped prove that TV viewers could follow complex storylines that played out over the course of years - even as it worked to ensure that each episode was a satisfying experience unto itself. ![]()
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