Submitted by opiate_lifer t3_10idrz9 in television
LOST comes to mind, but I think you could argue they just flipped the formula in the back half.
Basically I'm wondering if there has even been a Battlestar Galactica where at the end of the first season the Galactica is blown up and from that point forward we're following the survivors in small ships or something.
The 100 was like a different show every season.
They burned through the preplanned plot in 2 seasons, so they had to come up with new stuff....it worked for a while...the tribal politics was good stuff.
Westworld to some extent
Fringe definitely. They hit the ground running with each new plot/mythos device revealed in the previous finale; so each season has a really distinct flavor with narrative that doesn’t backpedal a lot. S1 vs S3 vs S5 are almost different shows it feels like.
Agents of shield? Mild spoilers: they are agents of shield, then shield is taken down, then there’s two groups who both claim to be the good guys, then there’s inhumans, ghost rider, life model decoys, a virtual reality with some swapped allegiances, aliens, other aliens that teleport the group to a space station, then the group return to earth but with some multiverse hopping. I think I remember that right, I only watched it once.
Each season it gets crazier and crazier pretty much, great show
Attack on Titan is/was constantly shaking things up. It somehow managed to transform from a survival horror show to a political action thriller
Oh yea this is a good example! Like from the pilot we know:
There is some kind of human settlement outside the wall.
These humans appear to be able to transform into intelligent titans, and are attacking the wall for some reason.
So from episode 1 its obvious where the plot is going, but the depth of it was certainly unexpected!
Did we actually know that there were humans outside the wall? For me I just knew that there were "intelligent" titans and that intelligence wanted to wipe out the people inside the wall. That said its possible the dad revealed some information that I forgot.
Eren's dad had never hidden the fact he came from outside the wall, he just claimed in public he had amnesia. Eren and other characters that knew him knew he was discovered wandering outside the wall, so this combined with the wall attack and Eren being able to transform you can infer from the first few episodes there are humans outside the wall who have the ability to turn into titans.
What you said about Erens dad was not common knowledge and even if it was it’s not revealed to the audience until season 3.
We don't know what is in the basement until season 3, I am sure as early as when Eren is put on trial it is known his dad came from outside the wall.
AOT addict lol. You have to pay very close attention to Season 3. Example: Oceania is referenced often by commanders (not by that name of course). Meaning this is taking place at the prime of human and industrial evolution and just as eras ago, people are forced to acknowledge humanity expands beyond their current place of residence.
Yeah it has many pivots leaving you disorientated in a good way
Absolutely. Was an anime fan when younger in college years but 60 hour work weeks killed that quickly...until AOT. Perfect mix of action, suspense, romance, political and social taboo topics, and drama.
Spoiler alert:
I remember when they had the black character on the plane during the Floyd tragedy explain in response to why he was so dark (paraphrasing)--if we all looked alike, what would life be?
If you’re into animation, Archer is exactly that. It’s heavy on continuity and callbacks but the creators make a point to try out new concepts and there’s themed seasons.
Search Party. Each season is radically different but still never breaks it's own internal continuity.
The Battlestar Galactica reboot. Out of nowhere there’s a big time jump, and one of the stars is in a fat suit.
Gargoyles comes to mind. Season 1 was the origin and setup. Season 2 had heavy world building and lots of back history. You discover characters are not who they seem (e.g. Owen), then you have the world tour and it finally ends with an old enemy becoming an ally and an entirely new enemy.
Meanwhile there is an entire tapestry of continuity throughout.
True fans pretty much ignore season 3 (except for the first episode).
I'd recommend Dark on Netflix and Fringe, JJ Abrams' follow up to Lost
Legends of Tomorrow was all over a different place on each season, sometimes even after just an episode, but I don't know if I would call it 'continuity heavy'.
Homeland maintened the whole drama and main plot each season but reinvented itself each season with new characters, locations, etc.
Regarding Homeland, the first 3 seasons are all the Brody arc, and though the other seasons do get a bit more segmented there’s still the carryover of the Keene presidency that kinda ties everything together.
Fringe! Each season seemed to reveal a new layer and up the ante
I feel like Legion constantly flipped the script in the last season. It was like if Lars Von Trier made a superhero TV show.
For All Mankind has a time skip every season that shakes up the plot.
Star Trek DS9 to an extent; the war brought new alliances, Starfleet officers working on Klingon ships, the Romulans joining the war, traitors, new Klingon emperors etc
Most Bad Robot productions do this.
Each season changes the plot while connecting to the overall theme.
LOST - To me it flipped the formula by the end of two.
Alias
Westworld
Person of Interest
Fringe
Others that come to mind:
Boardwalk Empire
Halt and Catch Fire
Colony
Leftovers
Alias was such a great show.
I’ve never known anyone who watched Halt and Catch Fire. Nice to hear it mentioned with this company. I really grew to like the characters.
Halt and Catch Fire changes drastically each season through each company they start & time periods of the show.
Farscape was one of the earliest shows to play with continuity and to explore shaking things up -- maybe not to the degree that you'd expect from a 2010s or 2020s show, but it was very surprising for a show that ran from 1999 to 2003.
It started with a lot of stand-alone episodes but moved towards continuity as it progressed, and kept moving some of the antagonists around into different positions that you wouldn't expect. It also toyed with some of the protagonists' sanity as they seemed to be experiencing PTSD or something similar as a result of all their grim experiences, something you didn't see on other shows -- though of course, in one case, the loss of sanity turned out to be caused by another, more interesting continuity element entirely.
each period of Avatar The Last Airbender has things that make it feel different. New cities, new powers, new party members including some side-switchers.
Every season of Lost feels so different and I love it
Season 1 island and flashbacks. Season 2 dharma and the hatch. Season 3 the others. Season 4 flash forwards and off island. Season 5 time travel. Season 6 flash sideways.
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Young Justice is kinda like that. Every season starts off with a time skip and the season itself usually features a changed cast.
Weeds season 1 ending definitely caught me by surprise, and I think there were a few other big changes later on too.
TestFixation t1_j5dwic1 wrote
The Good Place changed what the show was constantly.