The Cutprice Guignol

What happened to the monster of the week?

No, I’m not just talking about Casper cornering me in the kitchen when I’m trying to make a cup of tea, though I can see why you’d make that mistake. I’m sure you already know well that, here at the Guignol, we’re big fans of all things monster-of-the-week-centric – episodic genre fiction that centres around one-shot creature features of some description, wherein our leading characters take on some supernatural or science-fictional threat that’s thoroughly dealt with by the time the credits roll (well, until they’re brought back three seasons later for a throwback episode, but you know what I’m getting at). Shows like Supernatural, much of Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, The X-Files (of which I have a whole series on Monsters of the Week on this very blog), and Doctor Who spring to mind as more mainstream examples, but there are plenty of shows that have used this conceit as the meat of their season-long storytelling.

But – and please do correct me if I’m wrong here, because I’d like to be – I’ve noticed in the past few years a distinct lack of monster of the week-centric genre fiction on TV. Supernatural’s done, The X-Files is always threatening another season but rarely has time for more than one or two, and smaller-scale examples like Sleepy Hollow barely lasted beyond a couple of season. Sure, we still have Doctor Who, but so much of each season is dedicated to trying to get a handle on the ungainly in-universe lore that monsters of the week are often sidelined (or just downright shit when they do turn up).

Which is, to me, a tragedy. I love MOTW episodes, probably because I started watching genre TV at a time when they were really flourishing with shows like TXF and the Buffy-verse – not only because of the sheer variety of creatures, critters, and creeps we got as a result, but because there’s a unique element of character development and cast chemistry that comes from watching these characters navigate various threats and obstacles beyond a season-long arc week in and week out. But what exactly happened to push them out of fashion, and what are the chances that we’ll get them back?

Well, I think the most obvious answer to that question is the decline in the number of episodes most TV shows have faced in the last few years. Between 2018 and 2023, the average length of a scripted network TV show has dropped from 15 to 10 episodes per season, with streaming shows dropping to just 9. With such a significantly limited episode run compared to the usual 20-24 episodes that were once the norm, the focus has to be on the overarching plot – there’s no time to deal with a sexy pheromone monster, dammit, we’ve got the big bad to think about!

But, in genre TV in general and horror in particular, MOTW seems to have been replaced with the anthology. From Black Mirror and the return of The Twilight Zone in terms of episode-to-episode anthology, to Channel Zero, Slasher, and (ugh) American Horror Story when it comes to season-to-season stuff, it’s no longer monster of the week – it’s monster of the season. Which I’ve got no problem with (hell, a lot of the time, I actually really love it), and is likely a reflection on the more expansive storytelling that we’ve seen on TV in general in the last ten years or so, but I still think the MOTW approach to genre fiction is one that offers a distinct and endlessly entertaining opportunity for writers to dig in to the characters and cast dynamics in a way that this more serialized storytelling doesn’t.

I would love to hear your take on the dearth of monster of the week genre fiction on TV – am I totally wrong and missing some really obvious current examples? Do you prefer shorter seasons with less one-episode bad guys, or do you, like me, long for the return of the creature feature? Let me know in the comments!

(header image via Psychobabble)