A major challenge of this project is that it covers over 10,000 years of history, a cast of thousands, and divergent storylines covering different groups of people.
Clearly, it will be necessary to drop storylines and then pick them up again later. Sometimes, much, much later. For instance, the palantiri are introduced in Season 2, we will likely see them again in the Numenor storyline, but then they will be lost/destroyed/forgotten until we get to LotR and Pippin picks one up in Isengard. And, sure, an attentive viewer might be thinking, 'hey, isn't that one of those...' before Gandalf identifies it, but we certainly can't count on that. Luckily, some onscreen exposition by Gandalf to the ignorant Pippin will get the viewers up to speed on that point - that's how Tolkien handled it in the text anyway, so we're good.
But this will be a frequent issue, so I thought it might be a good idea to take a look at how other long-running* TV shows have handled this. I want examples of some character or plot point being re-introduced after at least a season of not being on screen, and how that was handled (whether it was done clumsily or well) just to give us as much food for thought as possible.
Obviously, this is immediately pertinent with the return to Beleriand, the reintroduction of Thingol, Melian and Círdan after not having seen them since Season 2 Episode 6, the reintroduction of the dwarves (seen only at their creation in Season 1), and the return of the Green Elves, last seen when Lenwë met the ents (Season 2 Episode 4) and Eöl (Season 2 Episode 3, when he stormed out of the Great Debate). But it's going to keep coming up, and I want us to think about how we handle that.
* long enough to have achieved syndication
SPOILER warning, obviously!
So, first example: Bones (12 seasons total, 2005-2017)
Zack Addy, a regular for the first 3 seasons of Bones, was written out of the show in the Season 3 finale (but not killed off). Season 3 of Bones happened to coincide with the writers strike, so it was shortened and the handling of this season's storyline was botched for that reason. They were able to include him in one episode of Season 4 under his Season 3 contract as a result of this, though. They also brought him back for two other episodes in the next two seasons - one was an alternative universe fever dream, where he was just there without explanation (well, okay, at the end of the episode, it is revealed that the fever dream is based on one of Brennan's books being read aloud to a coma patient - so presumably, Zack's character is in the book). The other was a flashback to an event that happened before the Season 1 pilot, so he was there because he historically would have been. But at the end of Season 11, they did decide to return to his character in 'real time' and reintroduce him for one of the murder investigations, so that he would appear in two episodes of the final season. He hadn't been seen on screen in the show for six years at this point.
He had been a popular character, and the decision to write him off was loudly lamented by (some) fans, but he had been out of the show for so long that it was safe to assume that the majority of the viewers did not know/remember who he was - a situation the show writers were very cognizant of.
To prime the audience for his reintroduction, they had a storyline in one episode where someone was making a documentary about the team, and thus asking them a lot of questions about current events as well as reminiscing about history. So, they were able to get the character of Hodgins to talk about his old coworker Zack in this context in 11x18, before bringing him back on screen in 11x22. This covered the main points of Hodgins' close friendship with Zack and 'whatever happened to that guy'. The reintroduction itself re-established Zack's connection with Brennan.
Another example from this show is the kidnapper/serial killer 'the Gravedigger,' introduced in a very popular/well-liked** Season 2 episode - but the case was left unsolved. They returned to the case in Season 4, where they identified but did not capture the culprit. In Season 5, the suspect was taken into custody. And in Season 6, the Gravedigger appears on screen for a final time, when she is shot during a prison transfer. I would have to rewatch the relevant episodes to see how they brought the viewers up to speed in reminding them of the details of that case.
** It has the highest user rating of any episode of this show on imdb (9.2/10), and it's not a season finale and no one died in it - so that stands out pretty strongly.
Clearly, it will be necessary to drop storylines and then pick them up again later. Sometimes, much, much later. For instance, the palantiri are introduced in Season 2, we will likely see them again in the Numenor storyline, but then they will be lost/destroyed/forgotten until we get to LotR and Pippin picks one up in Isengard. And, sure, an attentive viewer might be thinking, 'hey, isn't that one of those...' before Gandalf identifies it, but we certainly can't count on that. Luckily, some onscreen exposition by Gandalf to the ignorant Pippin will get the viewers up to speed on that point - that's how Tolkien handled it in the text anyway, so we're good.
But this will be a frequent issue, so I thought it might be a good idea to take a look at how other long-running* TV shows have handled this. I want examples of some character or plot point being re-introduced after at least a season of not being on screen, and how that was handled (whether it was done clumsily or well) just to give us as much food for thought as possible.
Obviously, this is immediately pertinent with the return to Beleriand, the reintroduction of Thingol, Melian and Círdan after not having seen them since Season 2 Episode 6, the reintroduction of the dwarves (seen only at their creation in Season 1), and the return of the Green Elves, last seen when Lenwë met the ents (Season 2 Episode 4) and Eöl (Season 2 Episode 3, when he stormed out of the Great Debate). But it's going to keep coming up, and I want us to think about how we handle that.
* long enough to have achieved syndication
SPOILER warning, obviously!
So, first example: Bones (12 seasons total, 2005-2017)
Zack Addy, a regular for the first 3 seasons of Bones, was written out of the show in the Season 3 finale (but not killed off). Season 3 of Bones happened to coincide with the writers strike, so it was shortened and the handling of this season's storyline was botched for that reason. They were able to include him in one episode of Season 4 under his Season 3 contract as a result of this, though. They also brought him back for two other episodes in the next two seasons - one was an alternative universe fever dream, where he was just there without explanation (well, okay, at the end of the episode, it is revealed that the fever dream is based on one of Brennan's books being read aloud to a coma patient - so presumably, Zack's character is in the book). The other was a flashback to an event that happened before the Season 1 pilot, so he was there because he historically would have been. But at the end of Season 11, they did decide to return to his character in 'real time' and reintroduce him for one of the murder investigations, so that he would appear in two episodes of the final season. He hadn't been seen on screen in the show for six years at this point.
He had been a popular character, and the decision to write him off was loudly lamented by (some) fans, but he had been out of the show for so long that it was safe to assume that the majority of the viewers did not know/remember who he was - a situation the show writers were very cognizant of.
To prime the audience for his reintroduction, they had a storyline in one episode where someone was making a documentary about the team, and thus asking them a lot of questions about current events as well as reminiscing about history. So, they were able to get the character of Hodgins to talk about his old coworker Zack in this context in 11x18, before bringing him back on screen in 11x22. This covered the main points of Hodgins' close friendship with Zack and 'whatever happened to that guy'. The reintroduction itself re-established Zack's connection with Brennan.
Another example from this show is the kidnapper/serial killer 'the Gravedigger,' introduced in a very popular/well-liked** Season 2 episode - but the case was left unsolved. They returned to the case in Season 4, where they identified but did not capture the culprit. In Season 5, the suspect was taken into custody. And in Season 6, the Gravedigger appears on screen for a final time, when she is shot during a prison transfer. I would have to rewatch the relevant episodes to see how they brought the viewers up to speed in reminding them of the details of that case.
** It has the highest user rating of any episode of this show on imdb (9.2/10), and it's not a season finale and no one died in it - so that stands out pretty strongly.
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