Which franchise of three or more works has the highest ratio of hits to misses?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I kind of hate to say it, but Game of Thrones may have the best batting average overall. How many clunkers do they have? And when you add in Dunk & Egg, the average goes back up again.

 

[Moonmover]

 Halo.

I mean this is subjective, but by reckoning, 6 or 7 of the main series of eight games are excellent. The Halo Wars subseries isn't great, but it's okay. The many novels and comics are all, at worst, decent mil sci fi.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm sure there's a lot more novel series that are at 100%

I think the compulsion to make every geek novel into a series actually hurts a lot of novels, but I'm sure you're right that there are plenty of series at close to 100% greatness.

Becky Chambers' Wayfarers books are batting 1.000, for sure.

 

[Dioltach]

I love, love, love the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. The novels definitely take a dip with So Long and Thanks for All the Fish and really go downhill with Mostly Harmless, given that Adams actively resented having to write each book. But the overall quality of the franchise, including radio, books, Infocom game, stage plays, etc., is extremely high. That might be cheating since so much of it is just remixing the stories from the radio, though, even if each version adds new stuff.

There used to be a text adventure up on the BBC site. I never managed to escape from getting crushed when the house is bulldozed.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There used to be a text adventure up on the BBC site. I never managed to escape from getting crushed when the house is bulldozed.

Yeah, that's the Infocom game. It's around, legally, in several places.

Get your junk mail south of the house and then lie down in the mud.

It gets much harder when you're trying to get the Babel fish out of the dispenser in the Dentrassi quarters aboard the Vogon ship soon after.

 

[Dioltach]

If not, the Gentlemen Bastards series is so far comprised of only hits. Admittedly, the fourth book is much delayed, but the three we have are awesome.

I'm not sure whether it's officially set in the same world, but his short story "A Year and a Day in Old Theradane" is another hit and definitely matches the tone of the Gentlemen Bastards.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

John Wick.

Four movies. All killer. No filler.

And when I say all killer, I literally mean all killer. With an average of approximately one kill per minute of screen time, John Wick brings the receipts.

 

[Umbran]

John Wick.

Four movies. All killer. No filler.

My hot take - I'm sorry, but by the third movie they'd drifted off into being... silly.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

My hot take - I'm sorry, but by the third movie they'd drifted off into being... silly.

Counterpoint- every single major movie released in the past 10 years (non-John Wick, Hollywood edition) would kill for an action sequence with half of the verve and one-tenth of the excitement of just the single set-piece in the antique shop in John Wick 3.

These are movies that have transcended such ordinary concerns such as "silly" or "over-the-top" or "should the protagonist have more than three lines of dialogue" to enter into that rarified sphere of the sublime; more of a religious experience than a droll entertainment waited down by the earthly expectations of needless trappings.

 

[Umbran]

Counterpoint- every single major movie released in the past 10 years (non-John Wick, Hollywood edition) would kill for an action sequence with half of the verve and one-tenth of the excitement of just the single set-piece in the antique shop in John Wick 3.

With respect, "major" is doing some unspecified heavy lifting there.

These are movies that have transcended such ordinary concerns such as "silly" or "over-the-top" or "should the protagonist have more than three lines of dialogue" to enter into that rarified sphere of the sublime; more of a religious experience than a droll entertainment waited down by the earthly expectations of needless trappings.

I am sorry, I am a heathen, and do not worship at the Altar of Action.