# Ruin-a-Series! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 13, 2006, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615 "2006-06-13T21:40:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![YaWanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/bbce88/32.png) [@YaWanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaWanna)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615/61 "2006-06-15T19:02:04Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > If any two characters on your show have sexual chemistry, let them do the horizontal dance. Ding ding ding - we have a winner! ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615/62 "2006-06-15T19:02:42Z")
Write a really great ‘intro’ book, with good characters and a good plot. Rope people in. Get them all excited and interested. _And then don’t write the rest of it._ :mad: GRRRRRR. Although the little comment about George Lucas writing I, Shogun is going to give me nightmares. ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615/63 "2006-06-15T19:33:55Z")
Spin off a few charcters into a new storyline - add a few more interesting folk, new enemies, new envirnments, etc.; happily go along like this for a few years, then create a story arc that takes a whole season to tell, and forget all about character developement and all the other quirky things that made us like Star Trek to begin with (IMHO DS9 and Enterprise (albeit with all new characters) did this) ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615/64 "2006-06-15T19:47:12Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Let Marti Noxon produce it. I’m whooshed. Is it Angel, Buffy, or Prison Break she ruined? I did not see Angel or Buffy get ruined. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615/65 "2006-06-15T19:53:42Z")
Buffy. I lay every possible bad thing that happened in Season 6 at her feet. Irrational, maybe. But there are hordes who would agree with me. “Seeing Red”, anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615/66 "2006-06-15T20:11:36Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Buffy. I lay every possible bad thing that happened in Season 6 at her feet. Irrational, maybe. But there are hordes who would agree with me. “Seeing Red”, anyone? Hey, I _liked_ Season 6. It was my first season of Buffy. I mean, sure, it was dreary and depressing, with lots of in-fighting amongst the Scoobs, but I just figured that was the logical result of them not having an actual Big Bad to fight against that season, nothing serious to rally together to deal with, so they were able to concentrate on all their various personal greviances. But as with all things (geekdom especially), YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615/67 "2006-06-15T20:23:48Z")
At the time I was pretty new to Buffy (I started with season 6 as well and then caught up with season 1-3 during that time)…but even I knew that Marti didn’t GET Buffy. She’s a competent producer. She’s incompetent at the nuance and metaphor that Buffy relied on. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615/68 "2006-06-15T20:45:52Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > Hey, I _liked_ Season 6. It was my first season of Buffy. I mean, sure, it was dreary and depressing, with lots of in-fighting amongst the Scoobs, but I just figured that was the logical result of them not having an actual Big Bad to fight against that season, nothing serious to rally together to deal with, so they were able to concentrate on all their various personal greviances. But as with all things (geekdom especially), YMMV. I found everything from when Buffy’s mother died to maybe the last half of season 7 an unbearable downer; while I enjoyed the show greatly, I have to say that I don’t think it was necessary for the show to be quite so depressing. I guess I look to TV for a bit of escapism. ---
**Author:** ![Windwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/5e9695/32.png) [@Windwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Windwalker)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615/69 "2006-06-15T22:01:38Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Buffy. I lay every possible bad thing that happened in Season 6 at her feet. Irrational, maybe. But there are hordes who would agree with me. “Seeing Red”, anyone? Season 6 was actually my favorite season of Buffy. It was when I realized that they were not afraid of almost letting go of their tried and true formula and making the almost cheap return of Buffy have severe consequences for the relationships and tone of the show. I loved how they let it evolve to where they took the plot, instead of keeping it on a tired treadmill. I loved how painful the whole season was; very few of the cheap outs you see on a given season of series television. And back to the main topic, one tried and true way to ruin a series is to have characters forget their development over the past 6 seasons (Buffy Season 7, I’m looking at you, kid) or to have random plot twists that don’t make any sense come out of nowhere and have severe consequences for the plot/characters (hi Alias). ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615/70 "2006-06-15T23:09:11Z")
Stuck for ideas on a TV show? Babies! Everyone loves babies, don’t they? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615/71 "2006-06-15T23:19:42Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > Stuck for ideas on a TV show? Babies! Everyone loves babies, don’t they? Make sure the thirty episodes that follow the baby being born is about the new parents worrying about the baby. ---
**Author:** ![EastCoastPearl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/aeb1de/32.png) [@EastCoastPearl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EastCoastPearl)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615/72 "2006-06-15T23:32:35Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > > [@asterion](#): > > > > Wait half a decade between each book before making the fourth book in the series one that feels like nothing but tedious backstory for 800 pages, followed by a fifth book that’s basically _Seven Samurai_ or _The Magnificent Seven_ and so long that one could actually watch both movies in the time it takes to read it while starting to insert previous works into this one (as well as far more blatant references to other books that make even less sense), then insert yourself into the next one (and not as a Mary Sue either), and then timeloop the end of the series. > > > > I really wish I had stopped reading after book three. And book two is my favorite by far. > > Which series is this? I must know so I can avoid it at all costs. This sounds suspiciously like Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615/73 "2006-06-16T00:09:04Z")
> [@EastCoastPearl](#): > > This sounds suspiciously like Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. That was it. As I said, I wish I had just stopped with The Waste Lands or maybe the first couple chapters of Wizard and Glass. Some might argue that my synoposis is unfair and perhaps it is. But that’s how I remember it more than a year after reading it. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615/74 "2006-06-16T00:47:07Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > That was it. As I said, I wish I had just stopped with The Waste Lands or maybe the first couple chapters of Wizard and Glass. > > Some might argue that my synoposis is unfair and perhaps it is. But that’s how I remember it more than a year after reading it. Oh, I entirely agree. But the first three, especially _The Drawing of the Three_ and _The Wastelands_, are so damned good. Grrr! ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615/75 "2006-06-16T02:38:08Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Write a really great ‘intro’ book, with good characters and a good plot. Rope people in. Get them all excited and interested. > > _And then don’t write the rest of it._ > > :mad: > > GRRRRRR. > > Although the little comment about George Lucas writing I, Shogun is going to give me nightmares. Oh. Sorry. I meant Orson Scott Card, whom I love as an author, collaborating with Kathryn Kidd to write Lovelock in 1994 - and then apparently never going back to it again. Perhaps he’ll stil write it. I don’t hold out much hope though. ---
**Author:** ![ChordedZither](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9c0ed/32.png) [@ChordedZither](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChordedZither)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615/76 "2006-06-16T03:16:51Z")
Take any good TV series and spin off a new show featuring all of the main characters as infants or young children. Who wouldn’t want to watch [ul] [li] _My Name is Earl and I’m in the 3rd Grade_, or [/li][li]_CSI - Potty Training_, or [/li][li]_Cheers - The Lemonade Stand (Where Everybody Knows Your Name)_, or [/li][li]_Young Darth Vader_ - oops, that one’s actually been done.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![H3Knuckles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@H3Knuckles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/H3Knuckles)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615/77 "2006-06-16T03:27:55Z")
Make an X-Men story, right? A big major event, a multi-crossover if it’s the comics. Make it a new twist on the series long-running, powerful, interesting outlook on the nature of prejudice against a growing minority, and then, at the end… Take almost every mutant’s powers away, thus sidestepping the entire issue! It’ll be **awesome** :rolleyes: …Oh, wait, it’s [already](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376994/) [happened](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_%28comics%29) :smack: PS. Sorry, just had to say it ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615/78 "2006-06-16T06:26:56Z")
> [@anyrose](#): > > Spin off a few charcters into a new storyline - add a few more interesting folk, new enemies, new envirnments, etc.; happily go along like this for a few years, then create a story arc that takes a whole season to tell, and forget all about character developement and all the other quirky things that made us like Star Trek to begin with (IMHO DS9 and Enterprise (albeit with all new characters) did this) Are you honestly trying to say that _Star Trek_ or \*The Next Generation \*had more character development than _Deep Space Nine_? That Geordi was fleshed out more than Jake? Or that Chekov was more fully realized than Nog, Rom, Leeta, Zek, Ishka, Brunt, Damar, Weyoun, the female founder, Dukat, Winn, Shakar, Bareil, Martok, Vic, or any of the the other semi-regulars that were given more lines than anyone on the original series not named Kirk, Spock, or McCoy combined? Even Morn, a character that never speaks a word during the entire series, has a backstory to rival Uhura’s. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615/79 "2006-06-16T12:04:38Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Make sure the thirty episodes that follow the baby being born is about the new parents worrying about the baby. And five episodes after THAT, the child is facing the trama of starting first grade. Ten episodes later, child is either going on his first date or coming out of the closet. Have a major character discover he (or she) either has a child they know nothing about, or maybe a half-sibling. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615/80 "2006-06-16T12:22:31Z")
Make your television series very good and very funny, but also make it very quick-witted, deadpan and subtle, so that the Small-Canid Network that runs it will cancel it after the 2nd season because the public just doesn’t get it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ruin-a-series/360615.md?page=5)