Why Shows Need at Least Two Seasons

So, I love television, After a long day of work, it’s nice to escape into these made-up worlds for an episode or

twelve. As a TV fan I know that one of the worst feelings is when a new show starts, and either you love it from the start, or maybe you think I’m not sure but I can see the potential, and hopefully the cast and crew will figure out the issues, figure out what they want the show to be and by the second season everything will be figured out and oh wait the show’s been canceled after the first season, Well shit. Yes, there are a bunch of shows that either get to tell their full story and conclude it when they wanted to and it’s great, or ya know the shows goes on way longer then it should and they live long enough to see themselves become the villain but that’s a story for another day. I have had it happen to me a few times where I watch a show and fall in love with it right away only for it to be canceled to soon, or watch a new show where I’m thinking, well it’s not great but the creators are still trying to figure out what the show is and I can see the potential for the show moving forward, only for them to not get the chance, and it’s the worst feeling because you put in a lot of time and emotion into this show and it feels like you did it for nothing. So let’s talk about the idea that a show needs around two seasons in order to figure stuff out and become great, and let’s use the recently (okay not very recently but whatever) released the second season of Netflix’s popular comic book show, The Umbrella Academy.

The Umbrella Academy is a superhero show about seven (well six living one dead) who were all born on the same day at the same hour by women who earlier that day showed no signs of pregnancy (yes I know there were 43 kids but we're not discussing that right now). Anyway, they were adopted by one Reginald Hargreaves thinking that these kids were special and that he may be able to turn them into a superhero team…which was accurate, and through a lot of neglect and abuse the kids became The Umbrella Academy a world-famous superhero team. The shows start when five of them are adults and have drifted apart and are….some traumatized and less than functional human beings are brought back together by their father's death. When one of their siblings comes back after being stuck in the future for a few decades (Don’t ask it makes sense), he lets them know that they must stop the upcoming apocalypse..which is coming in eight days. There’s also some other stuff going on like some time-traveling assassins, One of the siblings finding out she actually had power after years of thinking she was normal, and some other stuff but that the lists of it. The seasons end with the “normal sibling,” Vanya, fully embracing her powers, and blowing up the moon causing the apocalypse, and the siblings attempting to travel back in time in order to stop it… and set up season two.

While the first season did receive praise, and people did seem to really like it (I mean it did get another season), there were several criticisms of the season. The biggest ones were about tone and pacing. Full disclosure I actually really enjoyed the first season of the show, I enjoyed the characters, the way they deal with their powers, and the neglect they suffered at the hands of their father, and how they interact with each other, and the stuff going on around them. I do however agree with people who say they have issues about the pacing and tone. Most of the episodes in season 1 are around 50 minutes and at some point, you feel that and any show, but especially a superhero show should not make you feel how long it is. Look at Marvel as an example, those movies are always over 2 hours (maybe 3) and it never feels that long. There were points in the first seasons of TUA that I was getting a bit bored and hoping that it would get better. Fortunately, as the show went on the plot began moving a bit and I wanted to see how the season ended. The other big issue was the tone, which also made the season feel like it was dragging a bit. It goes between wanting to be an intense dark superhero show, and a show with fun action scenes, matched with awesome music, and comedy one-liners. This isn’t a bad thing and a lot of shows do this, but the problem with season one is they don’t flow while watching the show, I found the comedy and some of the actions felt out of place and pulled me out of the show for a bit. I enjoyed them sure, but it still felt weird. A good example is in the final episode where the siblings are in the bowling alley. It starts out with a pretty good action scene and then suddenly “Saturday Night,” by Bay City Rollers, starts playing. Again just out of place. Now, this is something that a showrunner can read about from critics and think, huh, that’s a good point, let me make a note of that for season 2.WHICH THEY DO OMG THE SECOND SEASON IS SO GOOD.

After trying to stop the apocalypse in season one the gang fails (Thanks Luther), five uses his time-traveling power and takes the family to the 1960s. Once there they are separated and land between the years 1961-1963…oh and the apocalypse is now going to happen in 1963 so now we have to stop that. Watching this series you can tell the showrunners listen to critics and the audience and worked on fixing the tone and pacing The episodes are all under an hour which really helps and watching the season felt like a breeze. The drama and comedy tones also meld a lot better and it doesn’t feel like to different show every 20 minutes, but a show that understands when it’s time to be funny, like the scene in the saloon with the best siblings (Don’t at me), and when its time to be serious like the scene between Ben and Vanya where Ben finally let’s go.

So in conclusion, a show's first season is a simple presentation of what the show is and wants to be and the audience decides what they like and dislike. The second season is more important because it allows the creators to flesh out plot points and actors to figure out their characters more and gel more with their team. By the time a third season rolls around if your show is good, everything will come together into something magical. What do you guys think?