A TV show that changes genres in the middle of its run, completely derailing it
Posted by throwaya58133@reddit | CrazyIdeas | View on Reddit | 72 comments
This idea came from an ad I just saw for Euphoria, and the ad was set in the desert, and it made me think "What if Euphoria turned into Mad Max halfway through with no explanation?
ay1717@reddit
You would absolutely love Search Party
Leading_Offer5995@reddit
That’s my binge right now. I’m on season 3 and loving it!
mjv1111@reddit
Came here to say this. Just finished a few weeks ago. I’m still processing my time investment.
speelingwrror@reddit
Worth it or no?
Eypc2@reddit
The genre shifts are wild and jarring, but I thoroughly enjoyed it the whole way through.
danielstover@reddit
First season was awesome. A time capsule of millennial culture.
I GET that they were going for genre changes, but for me, the subsequent seasons all felt soooooo weird and hamfisted to the point that I didn’t believe they knew what they were doing
International_Neckk@reddit
The close thing I've ever seen like this is JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Every season follows a different main character and different cast of characters in general. They also go through wild shifts from season to season especially on the later ones. Classic vampire hunting adventure, going across the world to hunt a guy, basically a slice of life/murder mystery, Mafia season, a prison break, and the newest one is a horse race across America
Negative_Bar_9734@reddit
Twin Peaks
chainsawinsect@reddit
The Predator is the premier example of this
Archon-Toten@reddit
I've seen shows take wild strange directions (the 100), shows arbitrarily change the entire settings between seasons (archer).
But even they stay in the genre.
CosmackMagus@reddit
I loved this about the 100. If I didn't like a direction the show was taking, I just had to wait a few episodes and it would wildly swing again.
JustPlayDaGame@reddit
the 100 pissed me off because it was so good until it just wasn’t.
BlkRosePhoenix@reddit
I liked where the 100 ended up going, not as good as it's start but I still enjoyed the craziness of it. But the problem was that the show caught up to the books and they went off on their own direction. So you may enjoy the books more.
Justboy__@reddit
Well there was only two storylines which they alternated every other season.
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JewlioMcCunto@reddit
Riverdale. Just give it a watch, you’ll understand after S2
Effective-Mind-7600@reddit
the cabin in the woods
deleted_by_reddit@reddit
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bluejade444@reddit
On a second rewatch currently and this sums it up perfectly
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tyrion9@reddit
you should watch From Dusk Til Dawn
DeezRodenutz@reddit
Predator as well
Unclestanky@reddit
Yes, that one fooled me!
dion_o@reddit
Lost
dumbass_sempervirens@reddit
Baywatch Nights
From a private investigator show to an X-Files knockoff.
TheTangoFox@reddit
Black Mirror is all over the place
Snarti@reddit
Yes, but it’s an anthology about completely different universes.
HexcellsSixHells@reddit
Behind Her Eyes
IamDoogieHauser@reddit
Moral Orel started as a comedy it's first 2 seasons. Last season was just gut punch drama and depression.
Thizzenie@reddit
Sugar on Apple TV is a miniseries that does the craziest genre shift I have ever seen.
pWaveShadowZone@reddit
More than a miniseries! Season 2 is in production now I believe
nicholas818@reddit
“Kevin Can F**k Himself” kind of does this. It’s a sitcom and a drama depending on which character’s perspective you’re viewing through.
pWaveShadowZone@reddit
Yeah! So inventive
NoThrowawayNeeded@reddit
I’m surprised no one has said Riverdale. It starts off as a teen drama and decidedly ends up nowhere close to there
Xandxel@reddit
The Westworld TV show. I really liked the western cowboy theme from the first season but it started to drift and then was Japan for a bit, and then they were in the modern world. Really lost interest after that so no idea how it ended.
sellyoakblade@reddit
The first season of WestWorld is one of the finer seasons of TV to exist.
Everything after that first season is very much a case of increasingly deminishing returns - and the drop off from1>2 is HUGE
Numerous-Match-1713@reddit
Not entirely true.
Best episode of entire series happens to be on season 2.
13374L@reddit
The biggest error I thought was not exploring Westworld more before the rest of the plot kicked in. They could have written seasons of quality tv just in the concept of the robot amusement park. There’s so many ethical dilemmas, subplots and unique storylines. But instead they rushed it.
BFFBomb@reddit
WandaVision. Though that is intentional.
admiral_rabbit@reddit
American Horror Story is one of the best cohesive examples I think, in terms of the genre changing without the work being abstract or silly.
It pretty consistently starts as a horror, and ends as a soap opera.
You start off with people being hunted, threatened, killed by mysterious forces. And the show very neatly pivots to being about the antics of the mysterious forces as soon as we've seen too much of them to sustain the fear.
Season 1 starts off horror, ends as a desperate housewives esque neighbourly feud with naughty ghost boyfriends and girlfriends and demon babies.
Hotel starts off as horror, it ends with all the monsters teaming up to stop a property developer from wrecking their hotel.
Roanoke is one of the neatest. It starts as a very straight haunted House horror, before revealing the first half was a TV drama. The second half is a reality TV show bringing the actors back to stay a night in real (very haunted) house
xtiaaneubaten@reddit
Youve never watched Maniac then?
IndieCurtis@reddit
I love this show
isaaclouria@reddit
Belgian series Callboys starts as a comedy ends as a drama. There’s a subtler genre switch in season 1 of Fleabag too: ep1 has no hints of big drama.
BarooZaroo@reddit
The new TV series Search Party is kind of like that.
Jeremy-Hillary-Boob@reddit
There’s one I’m trying to remember with a title like Kevin is bad, or Something about Kevin that juxtaposes sitcom and real life that does what you’re saying
chosenamewhendrunk@reddit
"Kevin can F**k Himself"
HamsterFromAbove_079@reddit
I've always wanted a classic cop show that mid-way through season 2 turns into a Walking Dead style apocalypse show without any forewarning.
kilobitch@reddit
The Chair Company is completely unpredictable. Goes off in directions that make no sense and are totally wild.
kayakhomeless@reddit
New blood. There’s 5 Rons now.
zzzorba@reddit
He sees the world wildly and wild ways
reddit_pug@reddit
I like the thought of a show that stands alone really well and is really interesting, but near the end of the show reveals that it's part of some larger established cinematic universe. Suddenly the implications of the show affect a bunch of other characters and stories. I can't see how it would ever manage not to have the connection spoiled though - executives would push too hard that viewership would be better if they could advertise the connection.
Nova-Prospekt@reddit
Moral Orel kinda did this. Going from a comedy to more of a dark drama genre. It was cool though
mopeywhiteguy@reddit
Community did this basically every week!
CardiologistLost5373@reddit
Imo, the Mad Max movie series kinda does this. The first movie, Max works as a kinda cop enforcing laws in a noticably degrading (but fundamentally modern) city/area. The are undercurrents of things going wrong, but it feels more like a cop movie than a Sci Fi or dystopian movie. Second movie? Bam. 100% the Mad Max vibe we all know and love.
craylash@reddit
Community kinda tried that
Unindoctrinated@reddit
Like when Arrow became a soap?
caleblbaker@reddit
After starting out as Hamlet with super heroes.
YoelsShitStain@reddit
Not a tv show but the storyline for call of duty zombies went from sci fi to fantasy extremely abruptly.
KnoWanUKnow2@reddit
The John Larroquette Show. Each season they went in a new direction.
First season was dark. John becomes the night manager of a seedy bus terminal. He struggles with alcoholism. He's attracted to a hooker. His co-workers barely tolerate him or actively sabotage him.
Second season, sitcom. Cast changes. The hooker quits and buys a bar. John's alcoholism virtually disappears.
Third season, whimsical and surreal. There's a surprise elephant in many episodes.
its_all_4_lulz@reddit
Barry
I want to say that it never actually changes, what you thought you were watching changes.. and it’s amazing.
dlpfc123@reddit
Miracle Workers does a complete shift between seasons. The same actors but all different characters in a different setting.
frivolousfry@reddit
Hot Fuzz
namedotnumber666@reddit
I think Westwood was on point for this
chuby1tubby@reddit
What about Interior Chinatown?
SVNBob@reddit
The Twilight Zone already existed... four times!
GlibLettuce1522@reddit
Barbarian
Grant_Winner_Extra@reddit
What if it just changed genre every episode? or every scene?
oh wait. that’s SNL.
gc3@reddit
This, sir, is a dead parrot.
revolvingpresoak9640@reddit
Search Party
feel-the-avocado@reddit
Cougartown
Schitts Creek kinda
B Positive
jrv3034@reddit
I would absolutely love that. As long as the change is warranted story wise and it's still just as good as the first half, I'm down.