Michael Straczynski, said he wanted a “ novel for television,” with a story that extended from over 5 years, with clues to the big reveals (mostly in season 4) set up from the very start. X-Files demonstrated that you could construct a mythology that informed a show, even as they still mostly relied on the episodic format. Soap operas, of course, have been doing this for a long time, building melodrama across episodes, but shows like X-Files, Buffy, and Babylon 5 produced more serious, if still initially niche, versions of the long story arc. Science-fiction was among the earliest genres to recognize the long-form storytelling potential of television. Television, much more than cinema, enables narrative patience, but also demands we pay attention for week after week. Writers don’t always have to wrap up everything by the time the credits roll, but across the board are using multiple episodes and even seasons to tell long, deep stories. Even network shows have freed themselves from the tyranny of the half-hour or one-hour time slow. ![]() Everywhere you look, in all genres, you can find spectacular storytelling. But with Syfy renewing The Expanse for a second, expanded, season, don’t worry – they aren’t going to break your heart like FOX did with Firefly and cancel too soon. There are good reasons for this, including the Peak TV phenomenon, the emphasis on character and setting in the opening episodes, the related slow reveal of the plot, or maybe you just ate too much over the holidays to keep up. I don’t expect that many mainstream critics, let along TV watchers, to get excited about what’s too easy to dismiss as Space Opera, but even many hard-core speculative fiction fans have not been as engaged with the show as I expected. ![]() We are about two thirds of the way through the first season of not only the best damn space show we’ve had in years, but for my taste the best new show on TV this winter.
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