TV Serials, From Must-See to Missable Episodes: Where The Magic lost??

Why aren’t TV serials attracting today’s audience like they used to be?

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and it really feels like something has changed in the way audiences connect with serials today.🤔 Earlier, daily soaps had a strong emotional pull, simple storytelling, relatable characters, and a sense of continuity that made viewers feel deeply invested.

Those were such engaging times, weren’t they? The way we used to dive deep into characters like Dadisa and Anandi from Balika Vadhu, it was never just casual viewing. Every expression, every decision of theirs would spark long, animated discussions.

From Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, you can’t forget Tulsi Virani, the ideal bahu who defined an entire generation of television. Alongside her, Mihir Virani became a household name, especially after all those dramatic twists.

Then there was Kasautii Zindagii Kay, ...how can anyone forget Prerna Sharma and the iconic antagonist Komolika? Komolika alone could fuel pages of discussion with her style, schemes, and screen presence!!!

From Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii, Parvati Agarwal was another character we admired and dissected, her strength, sacrifices, and transformation over time.

And of course, a slightly different flavor came with Kumkum – Ek Pyara Sa Bandhan, where Kumkum brought warmth and relatability, making everyday family drama feel deeply personal.

But now, many serials seem to struggle to hold that same attention. One major reason could be repetitive plots and overstretched storylines. When the same twists, misunderstandings, and dramatic turns keep repeating, it becomes predictable and less engaging.

Earlier, characters evolved gradually and felt real. Now, sudden personality changes just to fit dramatic arcs can disconnect viewers.

Do you think it’s the content that needs to evolve, or has the audience moved on? Would love to hear your thoughts!

People today have busier lifestyles and prefer content they can watch at their own pace rather than committing daily to long-running shows.

Another factor is the shift in audience preferences. With the rise of OTT platforms and the proliferation of shorter, high-quality content, viewers today are exposed to a diverse range of storytelling styles. They expect tighter scripts, realistic narratives, and faster pacing, something traditional serial formats often lack.

True earlier TV serials apart from Family drama that was engaging, it also had romantic dramas, college romantic dramas, or the very hospital dramas like Sanjeevni or DMG.The thing is nowadays the TV serial content has become repressive and also in lay man terms "ghista-phita" the same old storyline, with added chidish VFX and shows about icchadari animals.

Before for kids there was such engaging shows that even adults used to watch like Shaka Laka Boom Boom, Son Pari, Karishma Ka Karishma etc.But I dont see anything of that sort nowadays and awards to have been rigged as well.

True even the fact the OTT has brought in a huge change but along side OTT which is a 16:9 ratio screen is seeing a huge shift with shows with 9:16 ration apps which might over take the biggest viewership platform Netflix someday with these small minute dramas taking so slow and steady lead.

Though I havent yet watched Hindi small stories of these apps.Since the apps arent accesible abroad.But I know for sure that Hindi versions of these apps are much better since Hollywood version is more like adult content in them.

This is a very long post. Read at your own discretion.

I have been ranting this for at least a decade now and when finally someone has actually asked this question, I would like to logically answer it. And my answer is based on a small statistics of people coming from different work groups, different age groups and at different stratas of life. This not only includes people who are already studying, but who are working. Working casually, very busy workers, people who have no time to watch TV, then people who are house wives, stay at home old age people, and finally people from the television and movie industry themselves who are actually working as leads or main characters in TV and movies. One of them is actually the lead in a daily soap going for a few years now, and is a known face in TV and movie industry. And based on their answers, I'll give you a few POVs. And finally the verdict of common people who are the target audience. The question was- Why is ITV getting so repetitive, boring and less engaging than it had been a few years ago and what changes you think should be made about it?

The first and the lamest answer in my opinion comes from the television industry. They say- Hum toh wohi bana rahe hain jo log dekh rahe hain. Agar aap logon ko content pasand nahi aa raha toh why don't you guys complaint against it. Aap log dekhoge nahi toh banane wale bhi koi new content banaayenge.

And the rest of the answers that I collected were more or less combined in the thoughts that- the people who have seen the golden era of Indian television, right from the Doordarshan times and until the times when really good stories were brought, have seen solid drama being presented in a straight forward style. Meaning, what the intent of the show was and it showed that, and it ended.

Now here is another thing to note, that people are still okay with a show running for 200 episodes or so as long as they are not budging with the direction of the show and ending it in the same regard, without deviating into any stupid drama for the TRP and ruining it.

I know you have put many examples of Ekta Kapoor's shows in your post, but they are the first examples of the deviation in story. The idea of never ending story and drama going on and on and on for generations was a refreshing thought 25 years ago, but now it is not. Three generation of people have seen this kind of stories by now and they are fed up. Actually they are. This idea has become stale and no longer want to be entertained by the pace in life going on. Life was not so fast 25 years ago and these slow paced dramas were ingested with glee, but now isn't the case.

Another reason being that international dramas have creeped in our society for the last decade what with the Turkish, Pakistani, Korean, Chinese and other languages shows that are not just giving limited number of episodes, but also giving wide range of choices between household dramas, historical dramas, suspense and what not. But here I'll stick to household dramas only since we are comparing to ITV and we unfortunately are stuck with these love stories and household dramas only.

Their stories have a certain direction to move, few topics to cover, in between there's romance, love and other things. They cover those topics and the story ends.

You pick up any of our dramas for as long as you want in these last 25 years. The story starts with a topic and starts moving forward in that direction, and within a month or two will go into another direction and within six months to a year, you'll realise that this show is no longer about the issue the story started with and has gone to some other direction only. And the viewers with limited time and patience who started because of another reason, feel cheated and lose their interest eventually.

Every other show has a love triangle, break-ups, or divorce leading to a big leap, the father doesn't know that his wife gave birth to his child seven years ago, or girl falling into the guy's arms, cameras panning on everyone's face, many subplots happening at the same time, or unnecessary twists and turns coming, like falling off the cliff, everyone thinking you are dead, and you start a new life and new family and years later you are coming infront of the first family. Or twists like- some really good characters in the start of the story turn into villains and now story revolves around them.

The entire gist of this rant is that ITV shows start with the mindset of- Ye humare paas 6 mahine ki script hai. Let's start with this. Phir uske baad dekhenge ki kya karna hai.

And they go haywire after this doing rubbish for years. And the viewers are cheated enough and don't pay any interest in the shows anymore and that's why we are seeing the less and lesser engagement in ITV, the stats going down years after years, and it will eventually end until they actually try to revive this with constructive story telling. I have stopped watching ITV for more than 4-5 years now, there are going to be more like me, who can't waste our time on stories that go in no direction and are endless. The day they revive it, I'll be back with a bang. And many more like me.

Nowadays tv showing only trope that's triangle

And I really can't handle that

Originally posted by: dellzcreationz

True earlier TV serials apart from Family drama that was engaging, it also had romantic dramas, college romantic dramas, or the very hospital dramas like Sanjeevni or DMG.The thing is nowadays the TV serial content has become repressive and also in lay man terms "ghista-phita" the same old storyline, with added chidish VFX and shows about icchadari animals.

Before for kids there was such engaging shows that even adults used to watch like Shaka Laka Boom Boom, Son Pari, Karishma Ka Karishma etc.But I dont see anything of that sort nowadays and awards to have been rigged as well.

True even the fact the OTT has brought in a huge change but along side OTT which is a 16:9 ratio screen is seeing a huge shift with shows with 9:16 ration apps which might over take the biggest viewership platform Netflix someday with these small minute dramas taking so slow and steady lead.

Though I havent yet watched Hindi small stories of these apps.Since the apps arent accesible abroad.But I know for sure that Hindi versions of these apps are much better since Hollywood version is more like adult content in them.

Ichadhari characters allow exaggerated plots, revenge, rebirth, curses, eternal love....all of which are staples of daily soaps. Instead of realistic conflicts, writers stretch narratives endlessly with supernatural twists. The audience lost interest because of these repetitive plots with supernatural elements!

This is a very long post. Read at your own discretion.

I have been ranting this for at least a decade now and when finally someone has actually asked this question, I would like to logically answer it. And my answer is based on a small statistics of people coming from different work groups, different age groups and at different stratas of life. This not only includes people who are already studying, but who are working. Working casually, very busy workers, people who have no time to watch TV, then people who are house wives, stay at home old age people, and finally people from the television and movie industry themselves who are actually working as leads or main characters in TV and movies. One of them is actually the lead in a daily soap going for a few years now, and is a known face in TV and movie industry. And based on their answers, I'll give you a few POVs. And finally the verdict of common people who are the target audience. The question was- Why is ITV getting so repetitive, boring and less engaging than it had been a few years ago and what changes you think should be made about it?

The first and the lamest answer in my opinion comes from the television industry. They say- Hum toh wohi bana rahe hain jo log dekh rahe hain. Agar aap logon ko content pasand nahi aa raha toh why don't you guys complaint against it. Aap log dekhoge nahi toh banane wale bhi koi new content banaayenge.

Reply---

This argument from the television industry sounds logical on the surface.... but it’s only partly true, not the whole picture.

Yes, audience demand does influence content. Channels rely heavily on TRPs and if a show gets high viewership, producers assume “this is what people want.” So when certain tropes.....like melodrama, supernatural twists, or repetitive storylines....get ratings, they keep getting recycled.

But saying “we only make what people watch” is a bit of an oversimplification. They are hiding themselves behind that lame excuse!

I really appreciate your detailed analysis with a clear view on every debatable aspect.After a long time, I got a chance to see such a good post on TV serials.

Originally posted by: Aazeen02

Every other show has a love triangle, break-ups, or divorce leading to a big leap, the father doesn't know that his wife gave birth to his child seven years ago, or girl falling into the guy's arms, cameras panning on everyone's face, many subplots happening at the same time, or unnecessary twists and turns coming, like falling off the cliff, everyone thinking you are dead, and you start a new life and new family and years later you are coming infront of the first family. Or twists like- some really good characters in the start of the story turn into villains and now story revolves around them.

The entire gist of this rant is that ITV shows start with the mindset of- Ye humare paas 6 mahine ki script hai. Let's start with this. Phir uske baad dekhenge ki kya karna hai.

And they go haywire after this doing rubbish for years. And the viewers are cheated enough and don't pay any interest in the shows anymore and that's why we are seeing the less and lesser engagement in ITV, the stats going down years after years, and it will eventually end until they actually try to revive this with constructive story telling. I have stopped watching ITV for more than 4-5 years now, there are going to be more like me, who can't waste our time on stories that go in no direction and are endless. The day they revive it, I'll be back with a bang. And many more like me.

A new, horrific trend in recent ITV serials is the portrayal of female characters engaging in extreme criminal acts...attempted murders, harming children, and unending harassment. This excessive tilt toward sensational crime normalises disturbing behavior rather than thoughtfully exploring it. Instead of empowerment, it often reduces women to shock-value antagonists, reinforcing a darker, more criminal, and more cynical narrative. This is another disturbing factor.

Originally posted by: Viswasruti

Well said. Naagin became a massive hit. Once a concept delivers high TRPs, channels and producers tend to repeat it in different forms. It’s a low-risk, high-return strategy according to them. These added visual drama over realism!!

Ichadhari characters allow exaggerated plots, revenge, rebirth, curses, eternal love....all of which are staples of daily soaps. Instead of realistic conflicts, writers stretch narratives endlessly with supernatural twists. The audience lost interest because of these repetitive plots with supernatural elements!

Even in normal shows which arent supernatural tend to have supernatural elements when the makers run out of tracks and try to stay on the trp race.

And shows with good content, dont get the viewership because those people who seek for such progressive shows arent aware of such shows existing.And then those shows unfortunately get wrapped up within some few months while regressive shows get prolonged with repeated plots and unnesscary dramas.

As someone who has worked also in 2 TV serials, I know the need for shows to be runned also to give jobs to people.But also as a viewer I also feel the shows shouldnt be regressive.It's production that needs to be held accountable to manage both simultanouesly by delivering good episodes for a show and the same time providing good salaries and giving payments on time and even if the show is limited series by ensuring that the crew is well payed accordingly according to a webseries or movie standard of payment.Since the payscale is higher in Ads/movies/webseries as compared to TV for crew members.Since its just the actors who get higher cut.

Thank you for Tag..agree with these points ..the main difference i feel earlier we had story telling and now it seems same template in most shows..Marriage is made fun of ...Triangles with 2 sisters ...even kyuki part 2 has excess stress on triangle ..plus better options available in OTT..don't know any decent show fizzles out and is made nonsense .like recent Noyontara or axed..