#and unlike other exemplary 'twist' endings the story and sense of rising action in S2 isn't strong enough on its own | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

birb-reblogs · 27 days

Text

I often see some variation of ppl saying 'I loved the last episode of CW season 2 but the rest of the season was [bad/forgettable/draggy]' or similarly, 'Season 2 was rushed/ruined by executive meddling and needed more seasons to tell its story' and like... I really don't agree w/ either of these points? All of S2's exposition and plot happens at the tail end of the season, and even if the season finale was spectacular and executed perfectly, that's terrible pacing and story structure.

S2's runtime was 264 minutes; 190 minutes of that were episodes 1-8, and 74 minutes made up the finale. 190 minutes out of 264 is 71%, which is to say that much of the fandom agrees that 71% of the season was completely skippable at best to unenjoyable at worst. Imagine if a friend recommended a 10 chapter book to you, and promised you that it got good but only after the first 7 chapters- if it hadn't dropped all at once on a streaming platform, I kind of doubt CW S2 would've retained viewership going into the finale at all.

Revealing the big secret of the General/tnwk backstory and then concluding that storyline all within one episode was a whirlwind, and there's no reason for it to have been paced so jarringly outside of a desire for shock value and a dramatic twist. CW's backstory sets the stage for the series, but the impact of the 'tragedy' and the potential to explore the different characters' motivations, development, and interactions in the present is kneecaped by having its delivery be so truncated (to say nothing of the character writing). Even if you like the bones of the story, where's the time to develop these ideas and the sense of build up/payoff.

#trying v hard to not veer into character writing territory or other crits here lmao #like my point is about pacing and how even if you loved what the show did with tnwk/the woman/the general #it would've been better if the narrative didn't withhold important exposition from the viewer for the sake of saving it for a twist #imagine if we learned the truth of tnwk/tg's backstory at the beginning of S2 and S2 was written to include/expand on that dynamic and lore #instead it feels like the story is wasting time until we get to a reveal abt smth that happened entirely in the past aaaannnd then it ends #and unlike other exemplary 'twist' endings the story and sense of rising action in S2 isn't strong enough on its own #b/c S2 spends most of its time meandering and goofing around (which S1 did too! but it balanced it so much better!)#I have a lot of feefees and frustrations abt this show and I rarely talk abt them outside vaguely salty tags on my art LMAO #my post #text post

1 note · View note