We love TV for exactly the opposite reason that we love watching movies. Television shows tell long-form stories over hours and hours, placing their cast of characters in new situations each week or each season and watching as they navigate the twists and turns. Whether shows last ten episodes or 200, whenever we tune in to our favorites, we have a good idea of what we’re going to see.
Except when we don’t. Sometimes shows change things in ways we never expected, changing the setting, the cast, or the entire plot to salvage sagging ratings, to get around a recast, or to go all out when the creators and writers know it’s all about to end. It can be a little alienating whenever this happens—you feel adrift as something you thought you knew takes a wild turn into a whole new arena. But it can also be fun to watch a story test its own boundaries and the limits of its own form.
Now for this list, we’re not talking about anthology shows like The Twilight Zone or American Horror Storywhere the entire premise rests on the fact that these shows tell new narratives with each episode. We’re talking about linear shows that have run for multiple seasons, but at some point decided that where they started isn’t necessarily where they want to end. Maybe a character goes into a coma, and the subsequent seasons are all figments of their wild imagination. Perhaps the program was always intended to change its paradigm eventually, but the change came sooner than expected. Or maybe a new setting, new plot, or new cast was a last-ditch effort to keep a show going long after it should have ended. Either way, it’s unmissable TV.
10 TV Shows That Totally Changed Their Premise Between Seasons
These programs tested the limits of television itself.
Gallery credit: Emma Stefansky
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