Poorly-Aged Franchise

Not to be confused with a Poorly-Aged Thing.

When a franchise grows old and no longer interests the audience. A Downward Spiral ensues until the audience either complains massively about the franchise or gives up on it entirely. Most viewers consider the honorable course of action from this point to be Canceling The Whole Thing and putting the franchise to eternal rest. Some writers, namely those working in Big-Dog Companies, beg to differ and instead keep the franchise pushing on against time. This is one of the stories of how a Zombie Franchise is born. Reboots and sequels nobody asked for are the final nail in the coffin that fills fans with a helpless sense of disappointment. Quality is demoted to an afterthought put aside for profit the writers can suck up for as long as they keep the show rolling.

A Poorly-Aged Franchise is a painfully dispiriting sight for long-time fans. It's proof that the ones behind the franchise had their creative tanks tapped of juice and are running on whatever recycled material they made in the past. An average observer can tell this is the case if they compare recent installments to ones from the Golden Age and see little difference in story or character development. Trying to relive the glory days of the franchise more often than not comes off as an unsettling swing at a return to relevance. The kind of franchise that continues falling back on old plotlines and situations is the kind to suffer the true meaning of a Downward Spiral. Installations are successively less capable of leaving any impact on audiences and critics who return worsening reviews on those installations. Such tragic failure can cloud the writers' vision and lose sight of the audience. The fanbase may be able to conceive fresh ideas for stories and might feel compelled to share them with the struggling writers. The problem is either about the chase for money or the runners of the show not receiving the memo from the audience. As new installations continue in their publication, fans are hit time and time again with crushing dissatisfaction and betrayal. Their feedback, which can reinvigorate the dead series, does Lulzy Damage against its tendency to letdowns. What results is the audience discarding faith in the creators and leaving them to drown in their mounting losses. Fan aren't the only ones who can walk out on a franchise once it enters its grave. The team providing ideas for the series can dwindle over time, either through quitting, firings, or, much worse, deaths. The minds responsible for the initial victories of the franchise saw it through its most brilliant moments during the Golden Age. An unfortunate truth is they can't continue to support it forever, but if the head of the series refuses to let it Just Die Already regardless, new recruits can fill in the departed producers' spots. This second generation is very unlikely to live up to the greatness of their predecessors, and as a consequence, the franchise will decline creatively. Homages to the peak of the franchise are usually dishonorable to the image the franchise put forth in its heyday. Sappy nostalgia is usually slammed for being forced and out of touch with the current story of the series. It's a type of Fan Service that plays on the fans' love for the classical days of the series. It Rolls A 1 on sliding by the viewers' detection and gets widely criticized.

Though time is the most major destroyer of a franchise's Entertainment Value, it isn't the only culprit possible. Bad moves made on behalf of the writers can rot their own work from the inside. The hundreds of UnTrashes nested under Weak Writing have the power to pick away at a series until it's bone dry. On the most conceptual level is how comedy and drama are handled. The two elements have the greatest influence over the emotions shared by the viewerbase. Comedy can Humor The Audience while drama Moves The Audience, but only if they're pulled off successfully. UnTrashes that ignore how the two essences work gnaw on the franchise's quality. Laugh With Feathers and Cry With Onions exemplify how comedy and drama are not meant to be done. They fail to achieve the scene's emotional goal through unsavory exaggerations or outright failure, which grates on the audience as a huge turn-off.