Queen's Gambit/Talking About The Mini-Series Format In General (Part 1)

I watched the Queen's Gambit in November and I need to talk about it. So I decided to combine my need to fangirl over it with an explanation of why I think the Mini-Series format is amazing and should be incorporated into more shows. I'm not going to get into the Queen's Gambit until Part 2, so there won't be any spoilers for that in this post. I will be mentioning other shows in this post but I don't think anything I will say requires a spoiler warning.

 Obviously the mini-series format doesn't work for every show, but I feel like a lot of shows could benefit from it and I'm going to get into some of my reasons. I've tried really hard to keep this as short as possible.

Most of the time, shows tend to have a very solid 1st season, although I guess it depends on the show. One example could be the tv show Once Upon A Time. While I wouldn't call it a strong show by any means, the first season had a very clever concept with Storybrooke. Storybrooke is a town set in the 'real' world, and it is inhabited by fairytale characters who don't remember they're fairytale characters. Henry, the adopted son of the Evil Queen from the Snow White fairytale, has a book that makes him realize what is going on. He brings his biological mom Emma, daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming back to Storybrooke to break the curse on the town that is making everyone forget who they really are. The concept is solid, but after all of this gets resolved by the end of season 1, they had to find find another plotline. This was fine for a couple more seasons but by then, they pretty much had to use the same different plotlines over and over again but with different characters. Things just became kind of stupid, I still watched it, but it was still stupid. I don't mean to offend anyone that loves this show, it's just my personal perspective and opinion. Obviously not everything was terrible all the time.

The problem is, the original vision had been accomplished by the end of the 1st season because honestly dragging it out longer would have been kind of ridiculous. This happens to a lot of shows because they don't know if they will be renewed or canceled at first. The shows get renewed for another season and then the writers have to scramble to find something to fill it with. Sometimes shows just go on too long. Mini-Series are essentially the original concept, the solid 1st season if you will, without the extra filler stuff.

A show that seems to have prepared for this is Stranger Things. Each season is almost it's own Mini-Series in a way, but it all cohesively works together. Despite some of my issues with the 3rd season, they still seem to be following the basic format for each season.

Shows usually carry on because the people watching care about different characters and what have you. Sometimes there is a slow-burn relationship that takes seasons to finally go anywhere. Sometimes it's something else. When shows go on for an unspecified amount of time, they can't stay anywhere too long. They have to add in some relationship drama to drag out the conclusion a little longer. Someone dies and then comes back later, but in the meantime you deal with the fallout. These plotlines are all fine, but eventually it gets too over-used and then everything starts to feel like filler. 

Movies and T.V. shows are hard to make, so I completely understand when shows just get dumb. There's  just not much else the writers can do anymore. Which is why I think the shows shouldn't be as long as they are. A Mini-Series doesn't necessarily have to be one season. Mini-Series don't even have to be sorted into seasons. As far as I know, Stranger Things only plans to make 4 seasons which means there will be a conclusion to everything and the show will end there. It's not necessary a mini-series, but it is prepared as if it were. 

On the other hand, shows like Blacklist lose sight of the concept that made it a good show. The initial concept was that Redington, a man involved in an incredible criminal network, makes a deal with the FBI saying that he will help them find the criminals that are on his personal 'blacklist'. The character dynamics that keep the show interesting become so twisted up in the 'shocking' reveals or changes that the characters sort of lose what made them compelling or made you like them. (As far as I've heard anyway, I haven't watched all of it. I'm currently somewhere in the 3rd season)

Do I watch too much tv? Probably. That's not the point.
Then again maybe it is

Eventually, despite the draw of the money, some shows just need to end. And I know while Mini-Series don't have the financial gain of a unlimited length show, the integrity of it gets lost. Mini-series are like long movies. They get to have the depth of a show and the cohesion of a movie. It's the best of both world's when it's done right.

Essentially my point is that shows eventually just end up feeling like a cheap money grab. Which, to be fair, they sort of are. To be honest, I like a lot of trash shows, but my point is, even trash shows can be decent given a little bit of structural respect. Shows can have the dimension that you can lack in the short length of a film, but the story needs to be respected. Hence why I feel like Mini-Series have more integrity. Obviously this isn't true for everything. My argument is that maybe we can use this format a little more and these are some of my personal reasons why. Part of what confuses me about some tv shows and movies is that they spend enormous amounts of money on something that feels 'cheap' to gain a bunch of money, when sometimes they can spend less or even the same amount for something that is actually good.

To be fair, some shows like Community do absolutely ridiculous things for 6 seasons but it works perfectly fine in their case. I will watch everyone having a melt-down because Annie can't find her purple pen multiple times. Not everything has to be about an over-arching plot. Some shows like Xfiles, don't even know what their over-arching plot is. Are aliens real? Was it faked? What is the government really hiding? Was Mulder's sister plotline number 3 the correct timeline? Was it that time he hugged a ghost version of his sister? Who even knows what the heck is actually going on anymore? Personally I'm here for Mulder/Scully's interactions and I don't particularly care about much else. Give me the monster of the week episodes, I don't care about the government conspiracy ones much. I will watch literal seasons of that.

Gilmore Girls is another show that goes on for 7 seasons and while there were some dumb plotlines, the show just worked well.

Derry Girls is currently only 2 season and there's about 6 episodes a season. It's short, but it's so good, and that part of the reason I like it. Shorter things tend to get more care and attention.

Some shows like the Mandalorian have an over-arching plot, and really the only thing we actually care about is Baby Yoda's and Mando's interactions. We will happily watch a hundred side quests just to see Mando be a dad.

I don't mean to offend anyone. Like whatever show you want, I just complain about a lot of things and this is a big one for me. 

At the end of the day it is just a movie/tv show, but I also care about them even though they aren't actually real. Though the show itself may not be real, but it can reflect processes and a whole multitude of other things. 

Anyways, I'll be fangirling about The Queen's Gambit and attempting to point out the reasons why I think it is an incredibly solid, well done mini-series in Part 2 hopefully.

Rant over. For now. I complain a lot. 

What do you guys think?