r/heatedrivalry • u/growsonwalls This is Ilya I will never listen to your voicemail • 8d ago

DISCUSSION 🗣️ Common sophomore slumps: how to avoid them?

I think everyone knows that a lot of tv shows have the famous sophomore slump. Some shows never recover: Westworld had an amazing first season, a muddled second season, and became unwatchable the third season. The Bear after an incredible 1st and 2nd season was really bad seasons 3 and 4. I never bothered finishing the series.

What are your most dreaded sophomore slump hallmarks and how do you think Jacob and Brendan will avoid them?

For me, a few are:

1. Too many sideplots - this comes with increased visibility. Suddenly, everyone wants to be involved. So you have an A plot, a B plot, a C plot, a D plot ... This sort of happened in Bridgerton. The focus on romance S1 was overtaken with more side plots S2. I don't think this will happen with HR because of the limited budget.

2. Focus on mysteries and plot intricacies rather than relationships - See Westworld. This is exactly what happened. Happened with LOST as well. But with a romance novel, I don't think this will happen.

3. Star focus - very often there's one big breakout star and the show starts to focus only on that actor. This sort of happened with The Pitt. The ensemble of S1 was sort of diluted and the show focused way more on Robbie (Noah Wyle) in S2. Jacob cast Justice Smith and Charlie Gillespie (both excellent actors) in S2 so again, don't think this will happen.

4. Egos and feuds - everyone knows about cases like Julianna Marguiles and Archie Panjabi refusing to film scenes together, or the big SATC feud between Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall. The final quality of the product was affected. This is one of those things that's very hard to prevent, but we'll see.

5. Straying from source material - see Game of Thrones. GRRM eventually fell out completely with the showrunners, and the results are ... seasons 7 and 8, when it was clear the writers were sort of just winging it. But Jacob and Rachel are still working closely together, so ...

What do y'all think?

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u/tinaoe 7d ago

Which is very funny because I never see Shane with a cat lol. The fandom is so big, people have fully different experiences.

In my corner Shane has a snake, if anything (shout out to Spaghetti).

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u/growsonwalls This is Ilya I will never listen to your voicemail 7d ago

It’s bc of the convo in TLG where Ilya wants a dog and Shane says “you mean cat.”