Oh no, filler is a good thing. Filler gives you time to know the characters, and adds depth and color to the world. Filler is where writers actually get to stretch and try out ideas. Filler is what makes a show feel full.
Imagine the X-Files with no filler. We’d lose the Jose Chung episodes, “Home,” “the Post-Modern Prometheus,” and so many other great episodes. Without the filler, it’s just an endless slog through Chris Carter’s poorly planned mythology. Just the smoking man and vanishing babies for eleven nine seasons.
Filler can be good, it can also be bad, and perhaps most strangely it can be “bad” but also “fuck you I want to see Goku scream ‘give me your energy’ for four episodes before he releases the spirit bomb. Again.”
I think your opinion is by far the more popular view right now. I completely disagree though. Almost every mini-series I see I’m left dumbstruck as I feel like any decent editor could have gotten the same story across just as well with a 2 or 2.5h movie instead. I feel like they are just wasting my time.
And then you end up with a 6 hour story chopped to shit and get a very disjointed movie that feels like you’re watching what was left of the film stock after Bubba Sawyer had a turn in the editing room.
No. Good movie editing has been happening since shortly after movies were a thing. Huge books have been made into really good movies. Streaming has opened up new outlet for mini-series like content and some of it really takes advantage of the format to deliver new kinds of story telling that can be worth the time investment. However, most of it is just about generating content with minimal editing and borrowing hook techniques that evolved from TV drama series in the 80s and 90s.
i mean i haven’t rewatched xfiles since the 90s but isn’t that more of a victim of being a transition between monster of the week episodic and season long story arcs?
just an endless slog through Chris Carter’s poorly planned mythology
Exactly. Watching just those episodes on a binge is going to be… okay, at best. You really need the time in-between those plot beats to let it marinade a bit. Let the conspiracy and shadow-government machinations grow in your head. It lets you get real hungry for the next morsel of “the truth” that eventually comes your way. Then you savor it while you watch Mulder out-think a Genie or whatever.
There was an episode of Stargate SG-1 where…remember the paranoid dude who turned out to be an alien? Well he ends up working in Hollywood, and produces a TV show called Wormhole X-Treme, which is a parody of Stargate SG-1. This character then tries to pitch other shows which are pastiches of Sci-Fi shows, to include a very brief send-up of Farscape, especially relevant since Season 9 and 10 take on Ben Browder and Claudia Black, John Crichton and Aeryn Soun on Farscape respectively.
So we get T’ealc in a Luxan chin and Chiana Carter.
also, i always get that alien confused with the dan castellaneta episode in season 8. mostly because I’m so excited for that episode I can’t wait for it to happen.
I tell everyone I can to watch 10 seasons of SG-1 . The first show I actually watched every episode in order, though I am sure I saw many of those in syndication before Netflix became a thing. If you don’t like Stargate there it’s something wrong with you.
The one where the whole thing is just Walter chasing a fly around the lab. I’ve even got a vague memory of Vince Gilligan admitting it was only there because they were an episode short of whatever they were contractually obliged to produce but had very little budget left.
no he thought people would like it because of how it develops the relationship… the episode gets referred back to a lot. I thought it was boring though, I’m glad I’m not the only one
omg I was watching behind the scenes and Vince Gilligan was like “i really think that Fly is an episode that’s going to stand out to viewers!” like, why, for being a boring hunk of crap? I think his rationale was that it’s a lot of walt and jesse screen time
the one thing i do appreciate is them dropping filler episodes
Oh no, filler is a good thing. Filler gives you time to know the characters, and adds depth and color to the world. Filler is where writers actually get to stretch and try out ideas. Filler is what makes a show feel full.
Imagine the X-Files with no filler. We’d lose the Jose Chung episodes, “Home,” “the Post-Modern Prometheus,” and so many other great episodes. Without the filler, it’s just an endless slog through Chris Carter’s poorly planned mythology. Just the smoking man and vanishing babies for
elevennine seasons.Filler can be good, it can also be bad, and perhaps most strangely it can be “bad” but also “fuck you I want to see Goku scream ‘give me your energy’ for four episodes before he releases the spirit bomb. Again.”
I think your opinion is by far the more popular view right now. I completely disagree though. Almost every mini-series I see I’m left dumbstruck as I feel like any decent editor could have gotten the same story across just as well with a 2 or 2.5h movie instead. I feel like they are just wasting my time.
And then you end up with a 6 hour story chopped to shit and get a very disjointed movie that feels like you’re watching what was left of the film stock after Bubba Sawyer had a turn in the editing room.
No. Good movie editing has been happening since shortly after movies were a thing. Huge books have been made into really good movies. Streaming has opened up new outlet for mini-series like content and some of it really takes advantage of the format to deliver new kinds of story telling that can be worth the time investment. However, most of it is just about generating content with minimal editing and borrowing hook techniques that evolved from TV drama series in the 80s and 90s.
i mean i haven’t rewatched xfiles since the 90s but isn’t that more of a victim of being a transition between monster of the week episodic and season long story arcs?
Exactly. Watching just those episodes on a binge is going to be… okay, at best. You really need the time in-between those plot beats to let it marinade a bit. Let the conspiracy and shadow-government machinations grow in your head. It lets you get real hungry for the next morsel of “the truth” that eventually comes your way. Then you savor it while you watch Mulder out-think a Genie or whatever.
Community has the best “big round number” episode.
And also the best bottle episode.
Wait… what is going on here?!
(Sorry LousyCornMuffins, I can’t help it)
There was an episode of Stargate SG-1 where…remember the paranoid dude who turned out to be an alien? Well he ends up working in Hollywood, and produces a TV show called Wormhole X-Treme, which is a parody of Stargate SG-1. This character then tries to pitch other shows which are pastiches of Sci-Fi shows, to include a very brief send-up of Farscape, especially relevant since Season 9 and 10 take on Ben Browder and Claudia Black, John Crichton and Aeryn Soun on Farscape respectively.
So we get T’ealc in a Luxan chin and Chiana Carter.
Amazing.
hey! i’m feeling mighty aggravated by this!
also, i always get that alien confused with the dan castellaneta episode in season 8. mostly because I’m so excited for that episode I can’t wait for it to happen.
Other than the best possible costume choices for the cast of SG-1? Only the best TV mash-up ever to be crammed into a few glorious minutes of film.
no one tell make them watch 10 seasons of stargate
I tell everyone I can to watch 10 seasons of SG-1 . The first show I actually watched every episode in order, though I am sure I saw many of those in syndication before Netflix became a thing. If you don’t like Stargate there it’s something wrong with you.
But the acting is SO BAD!
It took all my willpower to get through B5…
it’s not supposed to be good it’s supposed to be fun
I… but bad acting isn’t fun!
Comrades, make them watch the entire nonpornographic half of the Ed Wood Collection.
Except that one episode of Breaking Bad…
But then again, that show is over a decade old at this point.
Which one was filler?
The one where the whole thing is just Walter chasing a fly around the lab. I’ve even got a vague memory of Vince Gilligan admitting it was only there because they were an episode short of whatever they were contractually obliged to produce but had very little budget left.
no he thought people would like it because of how it develops the relationship… the episode gets referred back to a lot. I thought it was boring though, I’m glad I’m not the only one
S03E10 - “Fly”
omg I was watching behind the scenes and Vince Gilligan was like “i really think that Fly is an episode that’s going to stand out to viewers!” like, why, for being a boring hunk of crap? I think his rationale was that it’s a lot of walt and jesse screen time
A lot of people dislike the “fly hunt” episode.