LogFAQs > #967393805

I'm middle ground. Serialization is the best thing that has happened to TV storytelling. It has given us all of best TV shows of this era and its part of the reason we are in the golden age of television. But just because a story is serialized doesn't mean that the episode isn't important. A lot of the binge shows of this era have gone all in for long form story-telling at the expense of the episode. Episodes themselves don't have any specific story to tell or thematic elements outside of the long-form or arc story of the show. They are more like arbitrary hour long blocks of a single story. The Netflix Marvel shows are really bad about this. Every episode blends together without identity and it makes the shows claustrophobic and small. The characters, the world, the story have no time to breathe.

Episodes being their own defined thing also let creators get more creative with their story telling. It let's them cover more subject matter without the slavish pull towards the master arc. BtVS was one of the pioneers of serialized television, but it never came at the cost of the episode. And while there were probably a few too many non-arc episodes by modern standards, the television episode gave us things like Hush, The Body, and Once More With Feeling. Episodes that felt like nothing else in the show, while also moving the arc forward. And I'm not saying that every show needs a musical episode (please no), I struggle to even name or identify individual episodes of any of the Netflix Marvel series. I would just settle for a couple of Jessica investigates a weird case that's unrelated to the Kilgrave. Explore the world and the characters you created with a different lense.

To their credit, the best of today's TV, like the aforementioned BCS, still very much cherish the episode. Each one has a specific story to tell, with specific themes, and specific feelings. They do this while still moving the ball forward on the arc. So it's hardly like the art of the episode is dead, you just have to look for it harder.