What's with cliffhangers and on going plots in Animated shows these days?

[Leofan26]

I've been noticing a trend lately, shows like Star Vs the Forces of Evil or Milo Murphey's Law or Steven Universe or Duck Tales 2017 have on going arcs and end with cliffhangers.

We've also got Hey Arnold Jungle Movie the way that started.

Maybe it's just the shows I've been watching, I wasn't exactly a fan of Be Cool Scooby Doo LOL.

[ProactiveMan]

That's interesting. I haven't seen any of those shows so I have no idea, but I wonder if it's the influence of streaming content delivery platforms or something? People tend to watch things in big chunks nowadays, rather than a half hour at a time. Maybe the ongoing plots are a way of keeping people's interest without seeming repetitive, and the cliff hangers are there to keep you on the hook for next season.

It may be the influence of anime too. Even though a lot of anime TV shows are very repetitive, they tend to have open-ended story arks. Even when I was a kid, stuff like The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Mysterious Cities of Gold had plots that never seemed to end. They did eventually, and the endings were pretty lame.

[sdp]

Not only cartoon but even regular shows have become very season arc oriented and I can't believe I'm saying it but it is a shame.

Gone are good character driven episodes or single original ideas and when we do get them all fans shout is how it's a worthless "filler" episode. Shows also think that having a season arc means stretching a plot for the whole season instead of a fun on going story that unfolds which leads to shows feeling slow as stuff that should be resolved in an episode or two now goes on for the entire year.


The right way to do it is to have a mix like it was done before.

[dl316bh]

I don't think that much has changed, it's just that the writing quality has increased, when it comes to cartoons, so everything is actually integrated better as a whole. But the approach hasn't exactly come out of nowhere. Even just within the fandom this forum is centered around, the 2003 TMNT cartoon had season long arcs that wove in and out.

There's still a mix. I'm a little confused by the perception that there isn't. Hell, Milo Murphy's Law just had an episode that was entirely about Elliot, the bittest of all bit characters, trying to become school safety inspector not that long ago.

Live action TV, however, does have a lot of serialized shows, lately, but then, I feel like that's just sort of how a lot of TV shows are and have been for a long time, barring sitcoms or things designed to have a lot of "of the week" episodes.

Originally Posted by Leofan26

I've been noticing a trend lately, shows like Star Vs the Forces of Evil or Milo Murphey's Law or Steven Universe or Duck Tales 2017 have on going arcs and end with cliffhangers.

Ongoing arcs are not a bad thing, and I'm a little surprised you're calling out shows like Milo Murphy's Law and Star vs the Forces of Evil on that. They have things that carry on after they've happened, but both shows have plenty of one and done episodes that don't tie to anything bigger. Especially Milo Murphy's Law, which is almost all that, aside from the time agents B-story. It's essentially another Phineas and Ferb, where some stuff may carry, but only a little, and every episode is a new scheme/adventure.

[Leofan26]

Yes, I'm well a wear those two shows still have one episode format time to time but lately they've had arcs.

I don't know if you've seen the recent episode but it was left on a cliffhanger with it being dark and interacting with Phineas and Ferb characters.

Milo's home and friends being taken in prison by those plant guy's from Missing Milo special and them wanting to wipe out the human race and replacing them. I have a feeling the crossover special will be an episode arc with Milo's group working with Phineas group to save the world.

Than Star Vs Forces of evil, it has on going arcs with villains and Star's characters development, season 3 looks great.

I've been liking shows like this

I haven't watched live action shows since in my opinion The Flash kind of went down hill quality wise and Arrow. I am curious about Titans though, too bad you have to flipping Pay to watch it now, not just cable UGH!