Nowadays it feels quite often where a popular series gets a spinoff and ends up failing fantastically. However, why is this? Interconnected storylines between multiple entries, including spinoffs, have been proven to be a successful formula, especially in the modern day and yet it’s quite often where a spinoff show gets released and ends up flopping. Although this doesn’t go for all spinoff shows as there are many examples of highly successful spinoffs such as “Better Call Saul” and “The Cleveland Show,” for example. However, the number of spinoffs that perform embarrassingly is too great to ignore.
A big problem that they often face is a sense of redundancy. Spinoffs often draw too much from the source material they play off of. Essentially at times they explain in detail or portray plot points that either were already fleshed out in the source material or didn’t need explaining.
A good example of this can be seen in “Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.” The show has a scene where the character Lewis Dodgson finds the barbasol can used by Dennis Nedry in the original “Jurassic Park” and takes it. The scene is played in a way that is intended to make the viewer feel that this is meant to foreshadow something important to the story. However, when the film “Jurassic World: Dominion,” came along, the payoff that the barbasol scene from “Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous” had was that Dodgson had it as a background prop.
Essentially it explains something in detail that didn’t need an explanation in the first place. It also heavily relies on nostalgia bait rather than anything interesting, which is another issue many spinoffs face.
Spinoff shows often lack a compelling storyline that made the original interesting. Essentially, when someone else produces a spinoff of a pre-existing property, they often “miss the point,” on what made the original special to many and end up creating a show that feels hollow and misguided.
