The current trend in opening credits for TV shows is lots of quick cuts of slightly moving, often abstract images, which after you’ve seen two or three or twenty-three of them all blend together into one generic, bland mess. Anyone else as tired of them as I am?
A few examples:
STD
The Expanse
The Shannara Chronicles
Altered Carbon
Orphan Black
American Gods
Jessica Jones
I only hate it when it gives scenes from the episode you’re about to see. Battlestar Galactica did that. I hate spoilers.
I have never even heard of any of those shows. But they do have a similarity in the opening credits. I have never liked fast cuts anywhere in a film. Some of the ones you linked to remind me of a gimmick often used in history specials where they only have photographs to work with. They show the photo as they slowly zoom in and perhaps pan to give the slight illusion of movement. Some of the shows will do it for every photograph and it gets annoying.
Dennis
I think “Lost” had it right.
The Ken Burns effect.
Nah, The Fall Guy did it best.
It doesn’t bother me too much as long as (a) it’s relatively short and (b) the music isn’t too annoying.
Well it ain’t Archie and Edith at the piano, but it’s the thing now I guess.
Many shows don’t even have title credits anymore. Possibly a “Previously on…” straight to a cold open then a title card. After the first break, the opening credits flash over the action.
Well, they’re all sci-fi/fantasy shows, so really it’s not a fad for TV shows–it’s a fad for sci-fi/fantasy shows, and it probably makes more sense if you frame it that way.
The first one I noticed in that style was The Man in High Castle.
There is a simple reason why it looks similar. At least some of them, maybe all of them were done by the same company, Elastic.
A lot of shows use title companies to make their credit sequences. It’s a different skill than filming a show. Elastic is the hot company now.
Doesn’t bother me. I don’t usually pay attention to the opening credits. Netflix even gives me a button to bypass the credits altogether.
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Thank God for that “Skip” button. My wife and I will sit through the opening sequence when we watch the first episode of a new show, and skip it thereafter. The problem for me is that the sequence just goes on for way too long, and it’s the kind of thing you really only need to see once.
On Netflix in particular, where the entire season is available all at once, I don’t even see the point of including those extended sequences on every single episode. Nobody is going to just start watching the series cold at episode 5, as might happen with a weekly broadcast/cable show. You’ve got the entire series available, so you can start with episode 1 no matter when you start watching. So put the sequence on the first episode and then shorten it up for subsequent episodes.
Most opening credits tend to focus on the actors and setting of a show. The formula of: show the actor in a serious or action scene, then show them laughing of looking profound is what I have gotten fairly tired of.
I actually really liked that.
It wasn’t really spoilers, as you didn’t know when in the episode the scene was, and it certainly didn’t give you enough context. I liked watching the show, and as I am watching, “Oh I saw that in the opening.”, I thought that was kinda neat.
Well, until 3rd season, when the opening credits just gave you glimpses of what would turn out to be a terrible episode.
I hate when they just throw up a title card then plaster the credit over the show itself.
I also hate when they have real(ish) credits but dont’ put a performer’s credit directly over a picture/footage of that person on the screen. ‘s why half the time I don’t know any of these peoples names if I wasnt’ already familiar with them.
It might be mandated by some kind of union rule.
Hmm, mostly look like a more technically advanced cross between the credits of this newfangled show and this other newfangled show to me.
When you start getting bored by the credits of all your shows looking too much alike - probably means you’ve been watching too much TV
And I think having a skip option makes more sense than having two different lengths of credits. That way you have an option for the whole credits no matter where you pick up and start again. You could stop at episode 4 and then check out episode 5 a week later, for example. It’s good that you can choose see the whole credits if you want from the start of any episode, if you want.
I don’t really think that two-different lengths of credits would really be a useful third option. If you want to skip, you want to skip. Sure, it was useful back when a show might run long or run short to have different lengths, but I would assume this is less of a problem online.
As for why have credits at all? I’m sure that is a contract thing. The people involved want their credit.
I liked the title sequence for the first True Detective so I looked it up. Now I see the style almost everywhere, and yup it’s the same guy.