(risky trope) A show changes genres mid way

[u/ErlikHan6]

The 100: the show starts as a somewhat grounded post apocalypse where humans who have taken refuge in a space station return to earth after it has become inhabitable again and resources on the space station run out. At first the show is about survival in a hostile environment. It slowly introduces more and more sci fi elements. At first, it's an Aİ that wants control over humanity. Towards the end of the show, the main characters have traveled throughout the galaxy, met humans from other planets, some of which have settled among ruins of ancient alien species, where they try to contact more advanced alien species in order to achieve "transcendence": rid humans of their physical bodies and become a more advanced lifeform.

AOT: this one is less gradual than the 100 and the change comes after a massive plot twist. The first 3 seasons of the show are about a relatively primitive society of humans who live inside humongous walls. Outside the walls are titans: giant monstrous creatures which hunt and devour humans. After a big plot twist and reveal, the society finds out that there is a whole bigger world out there, and the rest of the world is plotting to genocide them. They quickly industrialize after this discovery and wage war against other countries.

[u/Piorn]

I'm a firm believer that if you parody a genre, you must also be an interesting entry in that genre, in addition to being a parody. You can't just be "haha we're sci-fi and funny" and then not come up with interesting sci-fi plotlines yourself, otherwise you'll end up miserable and just worse than the original.

[u/carso150 → u/Piorn]

the best parodies are the ones that come from a place of love, you need to laught with that thing not just laught at the thing

[u/Aggro_Will → u/carso150]

Which is also why Lower Decks really worked. It never went basic with "lol red shirts always die." Instead it went hard on deep cuts like Robert Duncan McNeill coming back as Nick Freaking Lacarno and parallel Garak and Holo-Bashir being married. You can tell when something is a labor of love.

[u/Moobook → u/Aggro_Will]

The room full of Ensign Kims (all still Ensigns!) was one of my favorite moments in the series

[u/Divine_Entity_ → u/Moobook]

And then the only one to get promoted ended up being evil.

[u/Piorn → u/carso150]

That's a nice way to phrase it, thank you!

[u/the-bladed-one → u/carso150]

This is why DBZA works so well after season 1.

[u/PenchantForNostalgia → u/carso150]

Which is why Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are so amazing!

[u/lslandOfFew → u/Piorn]

The other side to this is that to create a successful parody, you need to intimately understand what makes the tv show/book/media good in the first place. I'm looking at you too Lower Decks!

I didn't believe it at first, but Seth MacFarlane evidently loves the genre and Star Trek in general. He made a killer take on the show, because he knows when to push the boundaries of funny, and when to lean into what makes Star Trek great, whilst still having his own take on it

[u/Emm_withoutha_L-88 → u/lslandOfFew]

They should have just given him lower decks like he wanted in the first place

They said no so he went and created his own with blackjack and hookers (probably literally, I haven't seen it all yet)

[u/Piorn → u/Emm_withoutha_L-88]

There's fake news vampires and someone gets fucked by a slime on-screen, so yeah it's pretty good.

[u/tothecatmobile → u/Piorn]

It's what Gene Roddenberry would have wanted.

[u/BonJovicus → u/Piorn]

Futurama is this to some extent. A lot of episodes lean more as pop-culture parodies with Sci-Fi window dressing, but occasionally it makes good use of the setting or Sci-Fi tropes to tell a unique or heartfelt story. Jurassic Bark and the episode where Bender becomes a God come to mind.

[u/Inkthinker → u/BonJovicus]

“If you do things right, no-one will know you’ve done anything at all”

That one’s stuck with me a long time.

[u/Cutter9792 → u/Piorn]

It's my controversial opinion that Spaceballs isn't a very good movie, and this is a good reason why. The jokes directly spoofing Star Wars are mostly fine, but they're in a framework that's a languidly-paced, cheap-looking sci-fi movie.

Contrast this to something like Blazing Saddles, which more or less works as a legit Western (for 90% of it) both structurally and visually, while also smartly parodying the genre. It pulls off what it's trying to do a lot better than Spaceballs does.

[u/GrinchyM → u/Piorn]

Oh I completely agree! Like Gurren Lagann was originally an over-the-top parody of the super robot genre and ended up being a stand out staple in the genre for the love it obviously has for its predecessors.