[Switchblade]

Where did this whole concept of "filler" come from? At one point did every episode of every show have to contribute to some kind of overarching plot? When did episodic television become a bad thing?

When I was a kid I was a huge fan of Star Trek the Next Generation. The show had no grand plot that was developed over the course of each season - every week they'd arrive at a new planet, run into a new ship in space, or be hit by some kind of new threat. Sometimes a character would develop a little bit from his or her experiences, but for the most part nothing really changed. They went on an adventure and then the next episode took them somewhere else and the previous episode was largely forgotten. And it was great; I loved the hell out of that show and so did a bunch of other people - probably including some of you guys.

So why can't Kamen Rider pull off something like that? Why does every episode need to be part of the evil leader's endgame or contribute some dramatic new development in an existing character? As someone who's watched and enjoyed a bunch of Showa era Rider, it never bothers me that each episode is a done-in-one (sometimes two) Monster of the Week story. A lot of the episodes are entertaining and fun, even if there's no revelation about the villain or the hero. If the show is fun to watch, isn't that enough?

Now, to be fair, I'm not standing here accusing people of anything. I do this, too. I kinda hated the middle two-quarters of Fourze precisely because it felt like nothing was happening and all we were getting were episodic adventures. So yes, I'm equally guilty of wanting plot advancement all the damn time now and I wish I knew where that attitude came from. I love Garo, after all, and Garo series tend to have a large amount of episodic adventures with plot advancement sprinkled in here and there. What is it about Garo that lets me accept that more there, but get annoyed with ten episodes of the Rider Club wondering who Meteor is while Ryusei secretly hates them?

I really wish I could shake this attitude, because clearly tight pacing is not a priority for modern Kamen Rider anymore. Fourze had a lot of episodic two-parters and Wizard had even more. At this point it's also likely - although by no means guaranteed - that Gaim will end up at least somewhat similarly. I don't know. I'm not sure where this need for serialization in my modern Rider came from - maybe it's because I started with Agito, which was heavily serialized, maybe it's because I was a huge Lost fan - but I sometimes wish I could just block out that part of my brain and enjoy episodes without wondering how everything all ties together again.

Sorry that was long, but I was thinking about this a week or two ago and was reminded of it by what Sentai just said.