US audiences and serial TV
During some conversations with other fans, I've sometimes said that the reason US audiences have a predisposition against televised stories with continuing story elements is because they're not really smart enough to follow, enjoy or appreciate such media. There are ways this is expressed besides someone saying, "I'm really a dolt and can not remember from episode to episode what happened on some previous episode." It might be someone saying, "I missed the beginning and I' don't want to come into the middle of the thing". Consider Doc Martin, now being shown on local public TV. One of the last episodes shown was one where Dr. Ellingham's office assistant, Pauline, is leaving their office for a few days on account of her taking phlebotomist course as discussed on a previous episode. During the time I was watching with a fellow family member, I know the absence of Pauline during he episode mystified my fellow viewer, who had viewed the the episode having the discussion at the same time as I did. So I'm saying that US audiences can only deal with series that have a reset after each episode. Next example, the same family member watched West Wing during its airing from its beginning, some time later I called the character Danny Concannon (Timothy Bussfield) "Goldfish Boy" (by the way, during the series the same nickname was used); for your information, the character got the nickname due do giving CJ Craig a goldfish in an early episode. Surprise ;), same family member did not know who the character was or why.
Consider some years ago there was the police procedural, Hill Street Blues, one of the first prime time series to use as a constant plot device some continuing elements. HSB was never a ratings blockbuster.
I fully know that one of the mainstays, as one might call one of their 'cash cows', of TV programming is the soap opera, and their entire basis is continuing plot lines. In light of that how does one explain the lack of success of this type of storytelling in the Prime Time hours?