Are American tv shows stuck in Act 2 for their entire runtime between season 1 and final season?
Season 1s are great, setup, some payoff, a bit of lead into the overarching story. Then season 2 to X. The heroes win and then lose in the final episode, cliffhanger to next season. People get bored. Final season is announced and they wrap up the show.
It can certainly seem that way sometimes. Shows like The Handmaid's Tale have been circling the drain of their own premise for a few years now. A big part of it, I think, is that they want to keep their main cast for as long as possible, which limits the options of what can happen.
Give me a mini-series, or even an anthology series, any day.
Couldn’t agree more. The final season was such nonsense it soured the whole show and I’ve never bothered to watch it through again (ignoring the incessant “tell not show” with being told how brilliant Sherlock is but never really showing that, and how the mysteries were never deductible by the audience).
Look at Black Mirror. The British seasons are some of the best TV ever made. The American (Netflix) seasons have often been meh or downright awful, and derivative of the original seasons.
I still don't get why so many were relating handmaids tale to real life. Just as annoying as those who think everything is 1984. Its a YA series, and not a particularly great one at that.
Do you really not see the parallels to real life of a religiously-ruled country who has enshrined in law ways to take control of fertile women's reproductive rights? Really?
The US is becoming more and more Giléad with every passing day.