I loved stories whether they be fiction or nonfiction especially when it relates to people and their personal development and growth. It’s a given that the most exciting stories chronicle the most extremes moments of life: births, deaths and experiences outside daily norms. The most satisfying stories for me always end with the protagonist(s) resolving whatever main issued they encountered and learning something about themselves that never occurred to them prior to the initiating event.
That leads me to my dissatisfaction with the current sequel mania I find myself in. As each new sequel comes out, they add new characters, settings and subplots. As the sequels pile up, the story becomes a mess of dangling subplots, non-sequitur characters and the occasional continuity issue. Essentially, the further along a story goes, the more disorderly it becomes.
I find myself less inclined to watch sequels especially of those first stories I enjoy the most. Nowadays I tend to watch only self-contained stories that don’t require prior knowledge of the characters. It’s more enjoyable if I don’t know a characters than to come into a story with preconceived expectations.