TV Shows With Complete Arcs

[Benji]

What are some TV shows that had intended arcs from start to finish that delivered without trying to throw in filler or extend things by a season?

Off the top of my head:

• Vice Principals for two series. It's extremely self-contained and whilst there are some episodes that don't technically push forward the narrative directly, they all feel like a necessary part of the process.
• The Leftovers was based on a book for series one, but series two and three were additions that were planned by the showrunner from the start. I don't think there's a single episode that doesn't push forward or inform the narrative.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender was intended for three arcs, and whilst it definitely has some filler, a lot of it also helps with character development and providing comic relief before a big event. Legend of Korra which was set in the same universe followed it a few years later and whilst it was good, it didn't have the same intended arc process so was weaker overall.

[Lint]

DS9, the entire Dominion War arc.  Granted, there might be a few episodes people consider "filler" episodes, but that can be accepted for a storyline that spanned the entire rest of the series.  The Dominion was first mentioned in the S2 episode "Rules of Acquisition" and finally ended with the series finale "What You Leave Behind" in S7.  

[Rich]

1 hour ago, Lint said:

DS9, the entire Dominion War arc.  Granted, there might be a few episodes people consider "filler" episodes, but that can be accepted for a storyline that spanned the entire rest of the series.  The Dominion was first mentioned in the S2 episode "Rules of Acquisition" and finally ended with the series finale "What You Leave Behind" in S7.  

Literally came in to post this.  Even the Klingon/Cardassian/Federation conflict essentially acted as a way to enhance the Dominion storyline with them essentially acting in the shadows and moving the pieces to set up that then took the full Dominion war from S05 onwards.

On top of that there was the whole Emissary storyline and "Sisko being of Bajor" which moved along nicely as well, I thought DS9 did a really creditable and respectful storyline towards religion which underpinned a whole sci-fi series which is hard to manage.

[Benji]

Oh, I suppose anthology series' would go in here. So for series - American Horror Story, True Detective and Fargo. For individual episodes - Black Mirror, Twilight Zone.

[Maxx]

The Shield

[MalaCloudy Black]

Sons of Anarchy, depending on who you asked (mostly if you asked Kurt Sutter he'd say there was no filler). 

[livid]

Vince Gilligan said he didn't always have things mapped out exactly but for the most part, Breaking Bad's episodes served only the purpose of moving the story forward.

[Josh]

Arguably, Mad Men fits the bill. You just have to take it as an existential overall arc - which was pretty much the intention.

Lady Dynamite might also fit this. It appears to have ended early (it’s still unclear why), but there’s a meta-narrative across both seasons that wrapped up nicely.

[K]

13 hours ago, Lint said:

DS9, the entire Dominion War arc.  Granted, there might be a few episodes people consider "filler" episodes, but that can be accepted for a storyline that spanned the entire rest of the series.  The Dominion was first mentioned in the S2 episode "Rules of Acquisition" and finally ended with the series finale "What You Leave Behind" in S7.  

Even earlier than that, S01E06 - Captive Pursuit, the Hunters are supposed to be Dominion members, and the Tosk, their play things, were engineered by the dominion. The cloaking ability the Tosk use is similar to that the Jem Hadar have. This was expressely mentioned in the script for the episode 'Jem-Hadar', but unfortunately didn't make it to screen.

It's always amazing to me how early these seeds were planted. I think I read once that the first mention of the dominion was purposely placed within a silly ferengi episode to trick the audience into thinking they were no big deal.

[Lint]

On 1/16/2018 at 18:15, K said:

Even earlier than that, S01E06 - Captive Pursuit, the Hunters are supposed to be Dominion members, and the Tosk, their play things, were engineered by the dominion. The cloaking ability the Tosk use is similar to that the Jem Hadar have. This was expressely mentioned in the script for the episode 'Jem-Hadar', but unfortunately didn't make it to screen.

It's always amazing to me how early these seeds were planted. I think I read once that the first mention of the dominion was purposely placed within a silly ferengi episode to trick the audience into thinking they were no big deal.

Yea, thats the S2 episode I mentioned, Rules of Acquisition.  The way they seemingly had everything planned out, working in Worf without missing a beat was amazing.  I do wonder how the last season would've played out had Terry Ferral not left the show though.  Nicole de Boer did what she could with Ezri, but they had to squeeze in a lot of character building for her, as well as starting to wrap up the show and it just didn't work