Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-2239501-20160424224018/@comment-995426-20160506021950

I think the bad Karai plot writing is a symptom of a larger problem.

See, recently I decided to compile a private collection of video clips for "best of Raphael". For season one, I gathered 51 minutes 2 seconds of clips. For season two, I gathered 36 minutes 15 seconds of clips. For season three, I gathered only 5 minutes 20 seconds of clips, and sifting through Raph scenes to find good moments was a painful exercise in bland characterization, wooden dialogue and phoned-in motivation. He and all the characters have become all the more one-dimensional.

So, the problem as I see it is, it's not that they're avoiding writing about Karai for any specific reason&mdash;they're avoiding writing about Karai because they just plain don't care anymore. The show has become great&mdash;if you're a one-dimensional character. But it no longer has the time or patience for characters with complex personalities and motivations.

And because of the fleeting demographic rule&mdash;that the average viewer reliably forgets plot and story details older than two years&mdash;they can actually begin completely rewriting Karai or eventually even dropping her altogether and the core profitable target audience won't even care. Many of us as fans may not be that thoughtless, but the entertainment industry has reliably banked on rules of thumb like these for decades, meaning that yes, most viewers really can be that thoughtless.

Of course, this is a very cynical take on the matter. I still wait for the show's producers to eventually prove me wrong and demonstrate that they can make a really good show again. They just haven't proven me wrong in a good while now.