Tons of TV shows tell their stories one episode at a time, putting their heroes against a new and exciting foe with each episode and resetting the status quo by the conclusion. For a variety of reasons, the Monster of the Week formula is one of the most popular motifs in a wide range of genres.
Because of the massive shift to streaming, television has changed dramatically. While the entire medium is locked in a never-ending war between episodic and serialized storytelling, the platform shift has altered the relative importance of each option. The Monster of the Week formula remains popular and iconic, despite the alterations.
Monster of the Week is a term used to describe a genre of episodic fiction. It refers to shows in which each episode has a different antagonist and a fresh conflict. The typical Monster of the Week narrative begins with the individuals going about their daily lives. Often, some commonplace difficulty may haunt their waking life, but when this week’s new threat arises, traditional problems will be put on wait. The heroes face this new enemy, defeat it, and return to their mostly unchanged lives. It’s the comedy equivalent of the traditional “Status Quo is God” rule, but for more action-oriented series. By pitting the heroes against a new antagonist each week, the show is able to explore the main themes.
The “creature” of the cliché doesn’t need to be a real monster. It may be a new villain in a superhero series, a new supervillain in a police procedural, or a new alien in a science fiction program. The weekly dangers are frequently created or provided by a larger villain who lurks in the background, but they could simply spontaneously emerge from nowhere. A clever retcon may reveal that the various creatures were part of a bigger story arc.
A major twist for both the spectator and the primary cast is frequently the identification of the main antagonist who has delivered all of these terrible threats to the heroes. The Monster of the Week series allows viewers to randomly choose one episode and enjoy a single, condensed plot with a satisfying beginning, middle, and end.
Monster of the Week may have its roots in folklore. The majority of the old tales that are still available to modern readers have a Monster of the Week vibe to them. The gods and heroes either create or combat the new threat before retiring to their contented throne on Mount Olympus or another location. The writers of Leslie Stevens’ 1963 sci-fi anthology series The Outer Limits created the phrase “Monster of the Week.”
It was a parody of the then-famous Movie of the Week cable-TV show. The Twilight Zone was its main rival, thus the ill-fated but fondly remembered series promised a brand-new monster in every episode to differentiate itself. The most well-known episodes of the program were “Soldier” and “Demon with a Glass Hand,” which were both written by the renowned science fiction author Harlan Ellison. Only eight of the 49 episodes that made up the show departed from the structure they devised.
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