The original post: /r/television by /u/Extension-While7536 on 2026-02-05 03:22:00+00:00.
Something I noticed in a lot of TV content, whether it’s your daily soap opera, or Stranger Things seasons 3-5, or NBC’s Heroes for example is sticking to 3 plotlines per episode. Like you can have a sprawling cast of characters, but for the most part a normal episode will develop 3 plotlines.
It almost seems like when an episode goes from 3 to 4 or more narratives, it begins to fall apart and lose too much focus.
Does this fall back on some ancient narrative traditions? Or are there scriptwriting guidelines that this relates to?