In the 90's, I loved watching Quantum Leap. In one 60 minute episode, Dr Samuel Beckett (assisted by his hologram companion Al) would leap about in time, inhabiting someone else's body, to put right what once went wrong.
Sometimes, it could be as trivial as helping Buddy Holly with the lyrics to 'Peggy Sue' but other episodes would touch on hard-hitting subjects such as rape, racism and attitudes to disability. The endings weren't always 'happy' but everything would be resolved in that episode. There would always be an ending.
There was one episode where Sam encounters an 'Evil Leaper', a woman who was also jumping about through time but making everything wrong. There were three episodes in total with the Evil Leapers admittedly but all loose-ends tied up in the end and these sort of arcs were rare in the shows run.
It is my belief, that if Quantum Leap were made today that would be the whole series. An evil organisation is messing around with history and Sam has to track them down and keep history in its right place.
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| Sam meets an Evil Leaper |
That isn't to say that series would necessarily be bad but it would be a marked contrast from the original. With few exceptions, you could watch any episode of Quantum Leap without having to worry about missing previous episodes. The trend in modern television however is everything show has an over-arching season narrative and multiple characters all with their own sub-plots. You can't miss an episode because you will almost certainly have missed something important. You can jump into any episode of the original Star Trek, you can't do the same for Star Trek: Discovery.
There is no room apparently for episodic dramas in modern TV, where everything needs to be connected to a greater story. That doesn't mean those kind of shows are bad, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, Game of Thrones (for the most part) are all excellent programmes. Isn't there something nice however about being able to sit back and watch something without having to remember all the different plot lines and character arcs? Some programmes this can be particularly difficult when it becomes clear the writers weren't really expecting to get past season 1 and don't have a clear end goal in sight (otherwise known as 'Lost syndrome').
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| Star Trek: Discovery - not instantly accessible |
It is possible to combine the two however as successfully demonstrated by Russell T. Davies while he was Doctor Who show runner. Each episode was it's own story but with subtle hints of a greater threat running through the series. In the first season, no particular attention was given to words 'Bad Wolf' that followed The Doctor and Rose on their travels but turned out to be of vital importance. Episodic drama and under-lying season plot combined perfectly.
Comedies remain largely unaffected as enduring popularity of Friends and US version of The Office amongst others on Netflix demonstrates (https://www.vox.com/2018/12/21/18139817/netflix-most-popular-shows-friends-office-greys-anatomy-parks-recreation-streaming-tv). For drama series however, it's not so rosy.
There are still some holdouts, NCIS, CSI, Law and Order (in their various guises) are still going strong but this type of episodic, self-contained, easily accessible storytelling is becoming increasingly rare.
