A Hundred Cliches That Really Need To Die

#79: Adding New Characters To Improve A Franchise

  How many of you have seen this scenario.  A once great book series or TV show has recently fallen into hard times.  The plots are re-using old story ideas, the characters have been fladerized beyond belief, and new ideas fall flat.  People have lost faith in the franchise and less people are invested into them anymore.  Sales or ratings have fallen, and the creators are desperate to gain their audience back.  To do so, they would need to change the franchise in some way to make it grand again.  80% of the time that "solution" is to add new characters.  With some characters, fresh ideas can be created and the franchise would be saved, at least in their minds.  The new characters  then are introduced, only to be met with hatred by the fan base.  The new characters have ruined what had made the show or book good before, and it will never be the same again.  Through this, the creators basically have dug their own graves.

  If your response was to at least one book or TV series, then you know that this is one of the most desperate cliches out there.  Adding a new character to a cast of already existing characters is not going to make things better.  Most of the time, they'll either be too annoying or worse too perfect to sympathize with.  Thus, these characters taint the series in question.  If it isn't that, the real reason would be that the writing hasn't improved.  Great writing was what kept these series going for so long, not just the characters.  The story is the most important aspect of these series.  Take that away and there is really nothing you can do to save them.  In these situations, the best route would be to end the series on as much as a high note as possible so your dignity is still intact.  A series doesn't only effect the audience, but it also effects the writers as well.  All that hard work meant something to the both of them and a total collapse of a series in question will hurt them both.