Ahoi
1st: I'll likely soon change blogging day to the weekend. There's been developments in my life that might make it difficult to post reliably every Wednesday.
To the post. It'll deal with the necessity and craft-problems of sequels... and also contain a lot of gushing about Stranger Things and Dragonflight (Pern 1 by Anne McCaffrey).
It'll contain major spoilers for:
Stranger Things
Dragonflight (Pern 1)
I've recently finished watching Stranger Things (I know, I know, I'm late to the party). I'm not sure if I want a sequel to it.
Why?
Stranger Things was technically (story-telling technically) brilliant - a self-contained story clearly and concisely written. There are no loose ends (except the slug at the end and where El went with the Demogorgon). Everything is explained. Nothing is wasted. How Will communicates via the lights... How the gate works and why it is there (this was a great moment! I was thinking it wouldn't be explained... and that it just popped up and El can interact with it because... plot!). Even the cliff Hopper warns his colleagues off in one of the first few episodes becomes relevant later on when Troy and whatshisname try to get Mike to jump off of it and El saves him. The radios the kids use, likewise, turns out to be IMPORTANT when Lucas needs to warn Mike et al that the Water and Light maintenance guys are actually bad. In this series, nothing is wasted. Truly, nothing.
It's so tight... so concise... it's brilliant. And that makes me wary of the sequel. How will they top such a great tight plot? What do they intend to do? Ok... there are some loose ends, such as, why the hell Nancy would celebrate Christmas with Steve?! Why did Hopper get into the CIA/FBI (whatever it is) car? What was it he actually promised White-haired-creeper dude whose name I don't remember (Papa)? And why the hell did the writers have to break Mike's heart? Oh and then the slug-thing Will spits out? I can live with all of these things unanswered (except perhaps the Mike-thing because it was gut-wrenching... closely followed by the Nancy-problem of Nancy's insanity! It would be easier to live with had she sworn off both boys and taken some time to develop herself... instead she goes right back to the dude the series's established she doesn't love? What?).
Then there's the fact that sequels rarely work. Take a look at (I don't even want to name it) the Cursed Child. I haven't seen it but I've read the wikipedia page... and it tells me: nor do I want to. In fact, it doesn't just tell me, it yells at me not to do this to myself. I've never read this much bull in my whole life. It doesn't even feel like a real part of the franchise... because come on, it breaks all the rules ever made in the books.
Take a look at the Pern series too. I loved the first book (Dragonflight). It was great. It was exactly how fantasy should be. There were two great main characters, there was a world-wide problem, there were people with their own interests in mind (the Lord Holders) who weren't 'the dark overlord'. The characters acted true to themselves all the time... and in the end audacity won against the terrible non-human threat (who also has a reason to exist, and that's survival, which is probably the most pressing issue to any non-sentient organism). This was brilliant! I loved it! I want to read it again and read it to everyone at home.
Then comes the 'sequel'. I'm ok. It's not terrible... but it doesn't quite hold my attention as much as Dragonflight. Do you know why? Dragonflight was entirely self-contained (as Stranger Things season one would be without the stupid slug Will spits out as a 'teaser'). It solved a world-wide problem with a great climax. Then suddenly... in the second book we're taken back to mundane concerns of the Lord Holders and some bla bla about Oldtimers not being happy and Benden Weyr being difficult and some girl I don't care about being all angsty about some guy I don't care about. There's no world-wide stakes and what little stakes there are should be easy for the main characters to deal with after what they've gone through in Dragonflight. Because come on, you can time travel 400 years into the past... but when there's trouble with Lords Holders (who have no pressure on you at all except your 'honor') they can't decide what to do? What? I then read Dragonsong and Dragonsinger... which were more enjoyable since new characters and it didn't pretend to be a part of the world-shattering 'main series' which goes from bad to worst in The White Dragon (which is a sulky teenage boy turning into a man, the classical coming of age story).
I'm equally as wary about what might happen to Stranger Things... although they have one advantage. They started with a 'minor problem' (Will's disappearance) and it was brilliant. They can build up on this (and I have more faith in the Duffer Brothers et al to manage it than most other writers/producers). They can make the problem more societal the next time (say the whole town of Hawkins is threatened to be sucked into the Upside Down... or the world will end if they can't close/stabilize the portal). This is something they can build up upon. Dragonflight was not. Too many other stories were not. You've already saved the world. What else could be pressing enough/difficult enough to justify the characters' incapability of handling it?
I can guess why there'd be a sequel. Stranger Things had about 8.6 million viewers in the first two weeks (translation: money! Money! Spend all your money!). They'd want to milk this - right? Just like every other writer (hello! I'm talking about most long-running series here) try to squeeze out every last drop of what used to be a perfectly fine one-series/one-movie plot... and in the end destroy it. I'm not saying I'm against the sequel/or against sequels in general (though once the main story is done it SHOULD end). I'm more saying: it's difficult to pull off. Very difficult.
What do you think? Are sequels necessary? Do you actually like them? Leave a comment!
J.M.
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