My friends try to get me into TV shows more, but I find that they just aren't as focused as movies plot wise, and just have unnecessary subplots, that do not pay of well, or built into the main plot in any way.
For example, I tried watching How to Get Away with Murder, the first two seasons, and when it starts off, so far the murder plot is really promising. But they have these subplots which don't seem to have anything to do with the murder plot. One of the co-conspirators in the murder, for example, has a subplot where she is worried that her fiance might be gay. How is this going to build into the murder plot and have a pay off. I was betting that it was not going to, and be completely forgotten about by the next season... And it was.
Or in the show The Shield for example, the show is about corrupt cops and the honest cops trying to bust them. Pretty good start it was off to. But then when you get more into the subplots, one of them for example, is the police Captain, if I remember his rank correct, has a new gf and they are exploring rape fantasies together. What does this have to do with the main plot of catching the main crooked cop characters? Nothing.
Or in the show Dexter, one of the crime lab characters, has a long lost daughter he finds out about and wants to build a relationship with her. But what does this have to with the main plot about a crime scene specialist who is a serial killer? Absolutely nothing.
Where as movies do not waste time with these kinds of subplots. But maybe there are better shows out there that do not have these types of subplots? Or do they all have them pretty much?
I tried watching Desperate Housewives recently and the show has multiple subplots that go into so many opposite and unrelated directions, that I don't even know what the show is actually suppose to be about.
Unless I am missing something about why shows have to have unrelated subplots?