Sophomore Slump
So I guess the sophomore slump phenomenen really is true. It seems that most of the shows I've watched have been struck with it in one way or another. A recap:
Veronica Mars: The one that let me down the most :( I absolutely loved the first season, thought it was brilliant, fell in love with all the characters, thought it was artistically beautiful and got sucked into the mystery from the beginning. I had high hopes for the second season...and it just didn't work out at all. I know a lot of the fans are huge Logan/Veronica supporters and the whole Duncan/Veronica thing was the thing that got them but that wasn't the real problem for me. I just think the big mystery is not big or good enough. Veronica has so little emotional connection to the bus crash compared to Lily's murder and honestly, I could care less about it. It hasn't even played a sizable chunk in most of the episodes and it doesn't feel like its particularly well thought out. Plus unlike the first season, it doesn't have the far reaching connections to all the characters and its hard to do a fun whodunit mystery for. Another thing the show has lost is its spark, its fun and the moments that made it happy in the first season among all the bad. I like to have some warmth in the show and I'm just not seeing it, it feels like its lost the newness and friendliness it used to have. Then there's always the change in Veronica, I like season 1 Veronica so much better and now she's lost some of her edge and its harder to get into it, to relate. And back to shippiness, this whole season I wish she had been free of guys except for maybe the first few episodes because I think both her options aren't the best choice for her at this point in her life. Another thing is I think too much of season 1 has carried over to season 2, I mean, I find the Aaron Echolls things creepily fascinating but there needs to be either a separation of the seasons or the first two seasons should have been planned as one long arc. I still have hope for the show and I'm praying that next season they're make a new, better mystery thats well thought out and bring back some of the earlier elements of the show. In Rob I trust...
Grey's Anatomy: I thought this show would be the exception but then I remembered that some of the originally season 1 episodes carried over to the fall seeming to be season 2 episodes but not quite. It isn't as bad as VM. I really loved the show especially up to Make Me Lose Control (my favorite episode) and Deny...was great too. Now although I like it, its not as much a giant love. The problem is that it's lost a little bit of the friendship scenes and the funny comments and has focused too much on the D/M/A love triangle and patient stories without really developing the characters and plots. One of the things I don't like the most is that we never see Meredith with her mom anymore. That was something unique to doctor shows and added heart and emotion to the show and then it just vanished. It was definitely a season 1 arc and then disappeared this season although she did come back in, I think, the latest episode. A bit too much focus on the couples I think brought the show down a bit but then again, I love my romance so I'd say more of that is fine but less of the melodramatic type drama would be good. I still love Cristina and Burke but I think they keep making it about the milestone type things with them, keys, moving in, etc and less about their relationship and their character depth and the latter is what I want to see. And of course romance and humor. All in all though, I still enjoy the show and hey, it's better than Desperate Housewives...
Desperate Housewives: Ahh now this one is like the icon of sophomore slump, now well known in the media. I think this suffers a similar problem to Veronica Mars. They had an awesome mystery in the first season, it was all planned out and nicely revealed. But then in the second season, they first took too much time dealing with its ramifications and then their second mystery really isn't that intereting and more importantly, there's not a lot that's a mystery to viewers. It doesn't connect to the characters as well, Mary Alice's suicide affected them all just like Lily's death affected all of Neptune. Another problem is they spend too much time on individual or partnership stories rather than bringing the gang together again, sharing moments both happy and sad. It's just lost some of the edge and some of the writing seems stale or a rehash of what happened in the first season. I'm again left hoping for a better mystery and better writing next season.
Lost: Now this one reminds me more of GA. It had a great first season that I really loved although it didn't reveal enough about the mystery. But the second season hasn't really grabbed me even though it's still good. Just a bit too much carry over from the last season and its lost that newness from exploring the island for the first time feel it once had. I've stopped watching for now so I can't really comment too much more about it.
Queer as Folk: The first season was just amazing and the beginning of season 2 was great partly because it continued the aftereffects of that last episode. Then up to 106 reestablishing the Brian/Justin relationship was good. But after that, the storylines get a bit blurred in my mind and I don't remember many interesting things that happened. I enjoyed the episodes and some of the individual parts were amazing, but a bunch of the storylines especially from 111-115 didn't interest me too much. I will say that after that, I started to enjoy it more, mostly because it seemed like it was going somewhere. And compared to later seasons, it was still a fun season and had some good things going for it.
The O.C: Another show that had an amazing first season and then started becoming stale and melodramatic. I absolutely loved the Ryan/Seth friendship (and more...) and how they set it up. I could even put up with Marissa and some of the drama because it was funny and entertaining and you could tell the family loved each other. It had some good issues, the characters developed, it was fresh and intriguing to see the characters interact. Season 2 just lost some of that, becoming too focused on romantic relationships in disregard of friendships and losing the fun it had before.
Smallville: I would almost say this is the exception except that I still think the first season of the show had more good moments and fun friendship scenes as well as sad scenes and comic book mythos to it. It just had this youthful, original feel to it that it lost in latter seasons even if they did have some standout episodes (ex. Insurgence, Shattered (s3)). Sure the first season had a lot of freak of the week episodes, but so did every season after and at least they weren't too bad to watch in the beginning. Also Clark wasn't as much of a jerk then.
Firefly: "What?!" You say, "It didn't have a second season." And that's exactly why it disappoints :(
So my conclusion for why the sophomore slump occurs? I think the writers develop a great setup in the beginning and plan that out for the season and then are left out of ideas for the next. They carry the first season too much into the second and cause the second season to lack its own focus. As ideas are used up, the storylines become a bit too much like the old ones. Less time is taken for friendly character interaction and as characters get on the wrong sides of each other, it becomes harder for good feelings to prevail. Characters change to the point that we start losing the love we had for who they were in the first place. New characters can keep the original ones apart and take away the core of the show instead of adding freshness.
I find it ironic that people overlook things about the first season for the reason that the show is finding its legs but yet the first season is often better than the first. And the third season can go either way, good or bad. Here's hoping that my shows will turn out on the good side. Or else new better pilot shows will rise to take their place.
Veronica Mars: The one that let me down the most :( I absolutely loved the first season, thought it was brilliant, fell in love with all the characters, thought it was artistically beautiful and got sucked into the mystery from the beginning. I had high hopes for the second season...and it just didn't work out at all. I know a lot of the fans are huge Logan/Veronica supporters and the whole Duncan/Veronica thing was the thing that got them but that wasn't the real problem for me. I just think the big mystery is not big or good enough. Veronica has so little emotional connection to the bus crash compared to Lily's murder and honestly, I could care less about it. It hasn't even played a sizable chunk in most of the episodes and it doesn't feel like its particularly well thought out. Plus unlike the first season, it doesn't have the far reaching connections to all the characters and its hard to do a fun whodunit mystery for. Another thing the show has lost is its spark, its fun and the moments that made it happy in the first season among all the bad. I like to have some warmth in the show and I'm just not seeing it, it feels like its lost the newness and friendliness it used to have. Then there's always the change in Veronica, I like season 1 Veronica so much better and now she's lost some of her edge and its harder to get into it, to relate. And back to shippiness, this whole season I wish she had been free of guys except for maybe the first few episodes because I think both her options aren't the best choice for her at this point in her life. Another thing is I think too much of season 1 has carried over to season 2, I mean, I find the Aaron Echolls things creepily fascinating but there needs to be either a separation of the seasons or the first two seasons should have been planned as one long arc. I still have hope for the show and I'm praying that next season they're make a new, better mystery thats well thought out and bring back some of the earlier elements of the show. In Rob I trust...
Grey's Anatomy: I thought this show would be the exception but then I remembered that some of the originally season 1 episodes carried over to the fall seeming to be season 2 episodes but not quite. It isn't as bad as VM. I really loved the show especially up to Make Me Lose Control (my favorite episode) and Deny...was great too. Now although I like it, its not as much a giant love. The problem is that it's lost a little bit of the friendship scenes and the funny comments and has focused too much on the D/M/A love triangle and patient stories without really developing the characters and plots. One of the things I don't like the most is that we never see Meredith with her mom anymore. That was something unique to doctor shows and added heart and emotion to the show and then it just vanished. It was definitely a season 1 arc and then disappeared this season although she did come back in, I think, the latest episode. A bit too much focus on the couples I think brought the show down a bit but then again, I love my romance so I'd say more of that is fine but less of the melodramatic type drama would be good. I still love Cristina and Burke but I think they keep making it about the milestone type things with them, keys, moving in, etc and less about their relationship and their character depth and the latter is what I want to see. And of course romance and humor. All in all though, I still enjoy the show and hey, it's better than Desperate Housewives...
Desperate Housewives: Ahh now this one is like the icon of sophomore slump, now well known in the media. I think this suffers a similar problem to Veronica Mars. They had an awesome mystery in the first season, it was all planned out and nicely revealed. But then in the second season, they first took too much time dealing with its ramifications and then their second mystery really isn't that intereting and more importantly, there's not a lot that's a mystery to viewers. It doesn't connect to the characters as well, Mary Alice's suicide affected them all just like Lily's death affected all of Neptune. Another problem is they spend too much time on individual or partnership stories rather than bringing the gang together again, sharing moments both happy and sad. It's just lost some of the edge and some of the writing seems stale or a rehash of what happened in the first season. I'm again left hoping for a better mystery and better writing next season.
Lost: Now this one reminds me more of GA. It had a great first season that I really loved although it didn't reveal enough about the mystery. But the second season hasn't really grabbed me even though it's still good. Just a bit too much carry over from the last season and its lost that newness from exploring the island for the first time feel it once had. I've stopped watching for now so I can't really comment too much more about it.
Queer as Folk: The first season was just amazing and the beginning of season 2 was great partly because it continued the aftereffects of that last episode. Then up to 106 reestablishing the Brian/Justin relationship was good. But after that, the storylines get a bit blurred in my mind and I don't remember many interesting things that happened. I enjoyed the episodes and some of the individual parts were amazing, but a bunch of the storylines especially from 111-115 didn't interest me too much. I will say that after that, I started to enjoy it more, mostly because it seemed like it was going somewhere. And compared to later seasons, it was still a fun season and had some good things going for it.
The O.C: Another show that had an amazing first season and then started becoming stale and melodramatic. I absolutely loved the Ryan/Seth friendship (and more...) and how they set it up. I could even put up with Marissa and some of the drama because it was funny and entertaining and you could tell the family loved each other. It had some good issues, the characters developed, it was fresh and intriguing to see the characters interact. Season 2 just lost some of that, becoming too focused on romantic relationships in disregard of friendships and losing the fun it had before.
Smallville: I would almost say this is the exception except that I still think the first season of the show had more good moments and fun friendship scenes as well as sad scenes and comic book mythos to it. It just had this youthful, original feel to it that it lost in latter seasons even if they did have some standout episodes (ex. Insurgence, Shattered (s3)). Sure the first season had a lot of freak of the week episodes, but so did every season after and at least they weren't too bad to watch in the beginning. Also Clark wasn't as much of a jerk then.
Firefly: "What?!" You say, "It didn't have a second season." And that's exactly why it disappoints :(
So my conclusion for why the sophomore slump occurs? I think the writers develop a great setup in the beginning and plan that out for the season and then are left out of ideas for the next. They carry the first season too much into the second and cause the second season to lack its own focus. As ideas are used up, the storylines become a bit too much like the old ones. Less time is taken for friendly character interaction and as characters get on the wrong sides of each other, it becomes harder for good feelings to prevail. Characters change to the point that we start losing the love we had for who they were in the first place. New characters can keep the original ones apart and take away the core of the show instead of adding freshness.
I find it ironic that people overlook things about the first season for the reason that the show is finding its legs but yet the first season is often better than the first. And the third season can go either way, good or bad. Here's hoping that my shows will turn out on the good side. Or else new better pilot shows will rise to take their place.