Television Flashback episodes are the work of Satan

lsd

The Oracle
Joined
Jun 5, 2016
Messages
11,538
I absolutely despise it when 6 or 7 episodes into a series the makers decide to totally break off from the main story and air an hour of complete boredom showing the characters twenty years ago and adding nothing at all to the story we are watching.

It is a complete cop out by the writers so lazy and just stretching the show out at the expense of the viewer .

Watching Escape at Dannemora at the moment and just when episode 5 ends with the point of escape episode 6 decides to just have an hour of complete pointlessness as we watch why the characters ended up in prison or unhappy . Tells us nothing and brings the show to a dead stop at the worst possible time.

Why do shows do this and how can we punish the people who think it is a good idea ?
 
I always enjoyed the flashback episodes on F.R.I.E.N.D.S
 
The Simpsons flashback compilation episodes were always a letdown and felt like the writers couldn't be arsed.
 
This is what you get when you have something like 24 episodes per series. One of the reasons I stopped watching Arrow.
 
Yagami said:
I always enjoyed F.R.I.E.N.D.S
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Fixed that for you. I think Friends is the greatest tv show ever created. 10 seasons non stop entertainment, all other comparable shows inevitably dropped in towards the end, but not Friends.
 
AjaxNL said:
Fixed that for you. I think Friends is the greatest tv show ever created. 10 seasons non stop entertainment, all other comparable shows inevitably dropped in towards the end, but not Friends.
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@Spoony has always said the same thing.
 
AjaxNL said:
Fixed that for you. I think Friends is the greatest tv show ever created. 10 seasons non stop entertainment, all other comparable shows inevitably dropped in towards the end, but not Friends.
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I think there are other shows/sitcoms that remain consistent, too, but I do agree that Friends was good/funny throughout its run.
esmufc07 said:
@Spoony has always said the same thing.
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Back when some had avatars, he definitely should've had Ross instead of the one he had.
 
I thought LOST did it well, actually. Which is probably the reason why every show tries to do it, and do it poorly.
 
Unless they're done very well they're awful, and unfortunately very few are done well.
 
They are absolutely shite. I always say I'll just skip to the next episode when shows do it but i always watch just in case and then say it again at the end
 
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IMDB ratings for Scrubs. Ignoring the travesty that was season 9, guess what that lone blue dot in the middle of season 6 was...
 
I always say this. Just kills the momentum and you have to wait the whole episode to tell, what could have been told in 5 mins without any needed explanation. Bly manor for example.
 
Massive Spanner said:
Ozark? Lost? Suits?

Not sure you lot know what he's on about by flashback episode
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Yeah this, not entirely sure what we're talking here. Clipshows are be definition mostly awful, probably done for budgeting purposes. New material revisiting the past work... but sometimes, don't, like anything really that takes you out of the momentum. Sopranos used them right, Simpsons did etc.... if your two greatest shows have done them.... can't be that bad of an idea.

Does 'Behind The Laughter' count as a clipshow though - nailed it.
 
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Flashback episodes on The Simpsons are some of my favourite episodes. The two that immediately spring to mind are the "do it for her" and Be Sharps episodes.
 
The attempted spin off episodes are worse too . Are they called backdoor pilots ? I remember Stranger Things doing one . They always pick the worst time too to do these things
 
Zen said:
Yeah this, not entirely sure what we're talking here. Clipshows are be definition mostly awful, probably done for budgeting purposes. New material revisiting the past work... but sometimes, don't, like anything really that takes you out of the momentum. Sopranos used them right, Simpsons did etc.... if your two greatest shows have done them.... can't be that bad of an idea.

Does 'Behind The Laughter' count as a clipshow though - nailed it.
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The pain was like a drug, but what was more like a drug was the drugs.
 
Totally agree, flashbacks are demonic. Speaking of which, Lucifer actually manages to integrate them into the story, so they have a purpose, but the actual episodes tend to be trash. I think I would even prefer a voiceover doing a quick summary at the start of the next episode!

Stargate SG-1 was probably the worst for this. Their flashback episodes don't even add new stuff, they are recaps. Kind of a 'remember when ...' episode, showing bits from throughout the series that are somehow relevant in the context of the episode. Completely annoying: I'm watching the series, I bloody well know what's happened before!
 
It's usually either a cheap way to cover some plot holes or an even cheaper attempt on increasing the runtime of the series when they don't have any good ideas. There are some exceptions, obviously, but those are quite rare.
 
Yagami said:
I always enjoyed the flashback episodes on F.R.I.E.N.D.S
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Even though I quite liked that show when I was watching it, those flashback episodes were horrible – simply reusing already shot footage, wtf? Although looking at the main cast's salaries you can understand the reasoning.
 
I may still not have been the show's best episode but House took an interesting approach to their flashback, when they started the episode with him having to give lecture and then revealing halfway through that one of several seemingly random cases actually was quite defining for one of the characters.

In general I don't get the hate, I mean what is the point of a proper TV show, one that isn't just case of the week or silly sitcom fastfood garbage? Taking the necessary time to do deeper (ideally more meaningful) character development. A flashback episode can be very valuable when it comes to understanding the development the authors want to tell. E.g. someone mentioned Ozark as a negative example, but I think there is a lot of value in telling us how those two could end up in that line of work in the first place (there's another very popular show that basically dedicates a whole season towards that step). Or take Mad Men, DD is portrait as this great enigma and by showing us his past the writers gave us the tools to understand his present.
 
harms said:
Even though I quite liked that show when I was watching it, those flashback episodes were horrible – simply reusing already shot footage, wtf? Although looking at the main cast's salaries you can understand the reasoning.
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What about Monica in a fat suit and Rachel having a wicked witch of the west nose? Those alone made the episodes worth it!
 
Watching Tehran , 6 episodes in, it's quite a good spy/espionage thriller. It's in English mainly but there is some dialogue in Arabic/Hebrew so you will need subtitles.
 
I don’t mind flash back episodes that flesh out characters.

What I can’t stand are the episodes where the group will sit around (Friends is guilty of this) and reminisce about something that happened and then it cuts and shows repeat segments of old episodes. Such a cop out by the writers!
 
Red Stone said:
QjS9rNu.png


IMDB ratings for Scrubs. Ignoring the travesty that was season 9, guess what that lone blue dot in the middle of season 6 was...
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Was it a flashback episode.
 
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