Season 1s are great, setup, some payoff, a bit of lead into the overarching story. Then season 2 to X. The heroes win and then lose in the final episode, cliffhanger to next season. People get bored. Final season is announced and they wrap up the show.

      • ominouslemon@lemm.ee
        5·
        1 year ago

        I don’t agree with the example of Kelso. In the latter seasons he goes from being a horrible human to a somewhat empathetic and cool sage. I love it

      • Blakerboy777@kbin.social
        3·
        1 year ago

        @Potatos_are_not_friends

        @delitomatoes @NABDad @danielbln @fartsparkles

        There are examples in the second link, but I can paste them here for you:

        Scrubs:
        J.D. started as fairly emotionally needy due to him wanting a father figure to replace his own dysfunctional family. Fast forward to season five where J.D. is an appletini (light on the tini)-swilling “sensey” (that’s “sensitive person”) who can’t hold on to his “man cards” (which would be taken away from him if he did something girly) for a full day. This is lampshaded by Zach Braff in the bloopers to Season 8.
        “You haven’t been here in a while, my character’s really gay now.”
        Carla was initially a tough cookie Team Mom. As the seasons went on, the writers Flanderised her obsession with gossip and her domineering tendencies over Turk. She also went from giving advice to forcing her opinions on everyone else and admitting that taking the moral high ground “is like crack for me”.
        Elliot went from being a pretty normal, slightly quirky, girl with no interest in kids and a high degree of efficiency coupled with no personal skills to highly neurotic, obsessed with getting married and having kids, and the most compassionate doctor in the hospital that was only there because she wanted to help people. The family part is at least somewhat justified by the fact that she as she got old she had a stronger desire to settle down.

        • PlatinumPangolin@kbin.social
          4·
          1 year ago

          I don’t think those are good examples of flanderization. Looking at JDs example, he was always that way, but was less confident in himself to show that side. A core character growth point for him is embracing his lack of masculinity while his father figure continually lambasts him for it. As he becomes more comfortable in his new job as a doctor, it would make sense he would be more comfortable being himself.

          Flanderization is when a character becomes fully defined by what was initially just a quirk or feature of the character. I don’t think you can summarize JDs character as ‘feminine dude’ . JD continues to be complex and grow throughout the series. It’s not perfectly linear growth, but it shouldn’t be.

          I think a big reason it shouldn’t be considered flanderization is he gets serious when it’s necessary, he does still struggle with his masculinity some, and he grows as a character in other ways. Hell, he ends up as a strong and responsible leader while maintaining his lack of masculine traits.

          Elliots example you copied is just weirdly self-countering and kinda sexist. Elliots growth was heavily centered around self confidence and self acceptance. She started out as a shallow, rich kid, know it all who couldn’t take the pressure and couldn’t handle when she wasn’t good at something. I don’t think any of those traits ended up flanderized.

          There are plenty of shows that flanderize characters to a pretty extreme level. I find it weird that you would call out scrubs of all shows for flanderization.