https://www.gonnageek.com/show/on-the-bubble/
The 9 Elements of Highly Rewatchable TV Shows (part 3/3):
Element 7: Mix of story arc lengths [00:55]
Element 8: Hidden details, easter eggs, and foreshadowing [02:34]
Element 9: Sticking to key themes [04:10]
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Episode Transcript (RAW)
9 elements of highly rewatchable TV shows. This is part 3, guys. Thank you for joining us for part 1 and 2. Today, we finish off the series with 3 more elements that we feel make for the most rewatchable TV shows. So if you haven't done so, let us know what you think of the series.
Let us know if you think we missed anything or if maybe we should have given more or less attention to a certain element. Our contact details are in the show notes. Shout out to the Gunna Geek Network. Now let's jump in and talk some television.
Element number 7, and our first element for today, for what makes a really rewatchable TV show is shows that keep bringing me back have a mix of story arc lengths throughout each season. So we've been using Lost in Space 2018 as our example through this series, and they did have, for the most part, quite long arcs. But within those longer arcs, they would have mini stories about different characters where they would highlight a certain character and their journey. And those longer arcs were punctuated by some really fantastic mid season finales, I guess you'd call them, A kind of crescendo for a mini arc within the larger arc, a dramatic set point for the second half of the longer arc. So I think they did that really well.
And this is 1 thing that I think Buffy the Vampire Slayer absolutely nailed, having rewatched that show a bajillion times. They had lots of mini stories and mini arcs and minor bosses or minor bad guys, 1 off antagonists that were pretty threatening throughout entire seasons where there was a longer story arc running at the same time. And The Key and Buffy and also Lost in Space did this well. It didn't feel like an a and b story. It felt like 2 a stories.
They did both types of arcs well, and I think that's important for highly rewatchable TV shows. Rewatchable shows tend to have loads of hidden details, easter eggs, and complex foreshadowing. Think Lost might be the ultimate example of this, I think, that comes to mind. But even if it's jokes that are hidden inside other jokes, Letter Kenny, Curb Your Enthusiasm both come to mind as having jokes inside jokes inside jokes. Highly rewatchable shows do have an element of the Easter egg factor.
Hidden details that keep you coming back again and again. You might hear that you've missed an Easter egg, and that brings you back to the show. You're thinking, I actually don't remember that at all. I didn't pick up that bit of foreshadowing there. Once again, Buffy, massive with the foreshadowing.
Some of that seems like retroactive foreshadowing at times when I hear people from the show talking about how they did that. Did you really foreshadow that, or was that just convenience in retrospect? But different topic for a different day. Another show would be Farscape. Lots of symbolism in Farscape that you don't notice until you've seen the show many, many times.
We'll talk about Farscape at some point in the future, but that's a show where so much was happening in the visuals that you don't pick up on the first time. And that sense of deeper discovery is really important to keep people coming back and also talking about the show over the long term, particularly when the show's been off the air for 5, 10, 20 years. The depth of the show and the writing and the symbolism, the foreshadowing, that bears fruit over the long term. So we've now come to our final element, and this is, in my opinion, the most important element for rewatchable TV shows, yet maybe the hardest to capture in words, to articulate. But I'm gonna have a go.
I'm not 1 for lacking words, but today, I feel like I would definitely lack the words. But how I've described this element, our last element for today, Highly rewatchable shows never give up or abandon their key theme. And I think an example might be Chuck, a highly controversial ending to the series. Overall, I think a really, really great and incredibly rewatchable show. But even with all the criticism that was leveled at the show throughout that final season, 1 thing that Chuck never did was give up on the key theme, that being a good person is strength, and always trying to see the best in people isn't a weakness.
An everyday guy can save the world. They held fast to that theme. Lost in space? The theme is family. That fighting to save each other and stay together no matter what and no matter how hard it gets is worth the fight.
So those are 2 examples of sticking to theme, but I think this might be easier to understand if we look at the opposite. Take Supergirl. The theme of Supergirl of honesty, integrity, love for family, love for friends, and always trying to do the right thing. That, I feel, was a little bit lost in the final season. And it's not that the themes that the show chose to pursue in the final seasons didn't have their own value.
They were a little bit more obvious and politically motivated themes. And I do have to say, I actually agree with the themes for the most part that they were trying to portray through the show. Just it felt like a thematic disconnect from the previous seasons, where sacrifice and family and love and always trying to do the right thing were at the core of Supergirl. Because the key themes changed and maybe weren't handled with the same attention and thoroughness of the key themes of the first 5 seasons, it feels like a standalone kind of detached entity. And that was something I think that could have been avoided if anyone in that room was reminding the writers and the team, let's make sure we don't abandon the themes we built this show upon and this character upon in this universe.
And I'll just finish up by saying, it's not that key themes can't expand, they can't change, they can't modernize if the show is a very long running show. Just the verisimilitude has to be there. It has to feel plausible, real, and consistent with the universe, with the characters, and with the development of how those key themes, those newer themes came to exist within the show when perhaps they hadn't before. There needs to be an organic and understandable path to new key themes being introduced into a TV show. Righto, guys.
Thank you so much for joining me on this 3 part journey. Why I broke this into 3 parts is something I'm examining my own thought process around. I probably should have just recorded it all at once. The thing is when you're recording in your house, guys, and you're surrounded by neighbors, you have to pick a little chunk of time where everything is quiet. And getting 10 minutes of quiet is a lot easier than getting 30 or 40 minutes of quiet.
Righto. Well, hopefully, haven't wished that the last 10 minutes of your life was quiet instead of listening to my voice. Thanks again to the Gunner Geek Network. Check out the official Gunner Geek show. Thanks again, and I'll talk to you again soon.
Bye for now.