The original post: /r/television by /u/Green-SmokeStack on 2025-10-15 18:03:41+00:00.

Hi folks - Lately I’ve been noticing how repetitive and predictable some of the prestige TV and limited series are becoming. It’s boring to watch, frankly, and it just starts to feel annoying. There can be cool concepts, good acting, nice visuals, etc, but watching the same kind of plot points and storytelling style over and over is getting to be frustrating because I feel like so many of these shows waste their potential and turn into paint-by-the-numbers fluff.

I’m not sure if this is happening because of studio/streamer interference or talent stretched thin because of all the content nowadays or if this is by design because these are the stories people want. I’m not an industry expert or anything, just a viewer. Or, heck, it’s entirely possible that I’m just turning into an old curmudgeon and hater.

So, I thought I’d ask reddit. Are you getting tired of this too? What tropes would you like to see eliminated? Would love to see other people’s thoughts.

Here’s a few of mine to get things started:

  • The protagonist is working on some kind of case/mystery/occurrence/whatever which just so happens to tie back to a core traumatic event in their personal history, and now they are going to get closure on both plot lines. Stories like this have lots of flashbacks, usually getting longer as the series progresses.
  • Stories that feature a group of people, each of whom has ONE BIG SECRET, that they will lie and scheme to keep from coming out. By the end of the story, some of the secrets are completely harmless (and pointless to have lied about), some are wholesome, some are melodramatic, but ONE turns out to be pivotal and actually important. And by that point, I end up not caring about them at all.
  • Stories that can’t add real conflict so they just add a character who is going to be an ass to the protagonist(s) for no real reason. This jerk usually has little to no actual motivation or characterization, but they create challenges that we get to watch the protagonist overcome (while extending the run-time). By the end of the story, the jerk either disappears into the background, turns into an ally, or just stays a jerk - BUT this person is never the actual bad guy in the story.

I have lots more, but I’m more interested in hearing from y’all instead of listening to myself. What you got?