The Dragonball-Z Effect
I am going to be hard pressed to recall where I heard this one. Maybe one of my friends, thoguh some quick googling shows that it was most likely somewhere online. What it boils down to is when a TV show, or story ends up all out of proportion as time goes on. Now, I've seen Dragonball-Z exactly once. Not large for the anime. But that's just me. Apparently, the characters in this show started out at one power level and by the end of it were so ridiculously (thank you spellcheck) powerful that they could have destroyed the universe.But you can see this same sort of effect in any show that has lingered long past its shelflife. It's easiest to see it Sci-Fi, but I'm sure it would be relevant in just about any genre. Any show that thinks they have to be exponentially funnier or cooler than the previous episode/season. Iron Chef could suffer from this: "Last week the secret ingredient was halibut. This week its squid ink. Next week, the ingredient is an egg from a Dodo bird". Or that crazy show Wife Swap. "Last time we swapped a neat freak with a slob. This week we're swapping a practicing Wiccan with an insane religous fundamentalist who faintly resembles the bus driver from South Park."
The two shows that I watch that are suffering from the Dragonball-Z effect are Stargate SG-1, and Charmed.
Stargate started out with a ragtag Air Force outfit trying to explore the galaxy through an alien (sorta) device. They piss off technologically advanced alien parasites who pretend to be gods. They start off by merely averting the distruction of earth a couple times. Then they took out the one of the more annoying aliens. Fine. I could still believe that. Later they had to fight little machines that can make more of themselves and are hell bent on the destruction of the galaxy. Plus a whole cavalcade of these powerful aliens. Okay, I'm still on board. Then? Then came the powerful alien that was half accended to a higher plane. Hmmm....umm...okay I suppose. And now? Now they are fighting a group of fully accended beings who have ruled over a neighboring galaxy with an iron fist, draining their worshipers life forces to increase their own power. Yeah, you've lost me there. Sorry. Good luck with that though.
Now Charmed. Poor Charmed. They've what? Destroyed the Source of All Evil. Twice. Beat a super powerful demon turned god thing. The Titans. Not the ones from Tennessee, the ones that Zeus had to cast out. Plus a council of aforementioned god things. Need I continue? Oh! And this season they introduced a new character to try to revitalize the show. A blond college age demon hunter witch. Who we've just found out has a sister. A sister that is the "key". The "key" to ultimate power. Hmm. Now where have I heard that before?
I realize that the Simpsons have done everything, but could ya at least pretend to try?
posted by wrmblnwrck @ 7:31 PM
6 Comments:
Good theory, I like it. The same can be said about Buffy. In season one, it was a big deal for her to kill a vampire.
By the end of the series, she was taking on the source of all evil and demigods from demon dimensions.
Um....wha?
True, though the dragonball-z effect would have truly come into play if they tried for a season 8. Since taking out the First is kind of the pinnacle. Anything after that would have to be so powerful that it would have been able to stomp on the First, so why wouldn't IT be the First. etc.
Exactly. Season 8 episodes would have gone like this:
"Next week on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy enounters a vampire and kills it. Then she has pie."
I still think that Angel should have ended with Buffy and all of the potential slayers showing up in the alley to help kick some demon ass.
But alas, it did not happen that way.
It SHOULD have, though. You can't tell me those girls weren't aching for a good fight, after Sunnydale imploded.
Good call, E. I was going to suggest the same thing about Buffy.
Desperate Housewives suffers from the same problem. I mean, why is dead woman from first episode still narrating the lesson of the episode? And what is up with the plan to kill Caleb? You will have to take my word for it since Rich would never ever watch this show.
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