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

[Mannahnin]

Those are good -- the Lancre Witches are probably my favorite thread in Discworld -- but there's light serialization with those. What happens in Small Gods appears to be literally ancient history in the rest of the books, when it comes up at all, so it's an easier way to dip one's toes in, IMO.

They are great. Granny Weatherwax is iconic, especially.

 

[Older Beholder]

Back to the Future was a pretty solid film trilogy.

 

[Inukai]

They are great. Granny Weatherwax is iconic, especially.

Granny Weatherwax is a literary treasure, along with Death.
I feel that Hogfather is one of the best of the novels. A pretty deep dive into the power of belief.

 

[MGibster]

I love the Alien franchise, but its batting average is not great. What geek franchise has the best track record overall (independent of how high the highs are or how low the lows are)?

This might be the winner. The first two movies are both great, to the point where I'm not going to argue if someone says Aliens is superior to Alien or vice versa, but the other movies are terrible in comparison. Standalone the might not be so bad, but when you directly compare them to the first two they just can't stand up.

Scary Movie franchise. I enjoyed the first two movies well enough. They're not great, but they were entertaining and had their own charm. Anything after the second movie was just terrible.

 

[MGibster]

I'm going to go with the Discworld books by Terry Prachett as having the highest number of hits to misses. Many of the books are absolute gems, the rest are enteraining enough, and I don't think there's a stinker among them. I think his writing did start suffering towards the end of his life, his last Tiffany Aching novel in particular needed a rewrite, but even that was a touching love letter to his fans so I can accept it as it is.

 

[Clint_L]

Both needed an editor with the power to send Scott out of the room and maybe five minutes of reshoots, and they'd be great films. As it is, each has just enough dumb stuff in them -- or smart stuff removed -- to have problems. But Prometheus in particular is this close to genius, especially with minor surgery to get there.

Disagree. Covenant, in particular, is based on a faulty premise that we need to know the origins of the xenomorphs. In general, explaining stuff we don’t need explained is the bane of all prequels, but especially horror. Prometheus and especially Covenant make the preceding films worse.

So does Alien3, for different reasons. And in turn Resurrection takes the stakes of 3 and throws them in the garbage. This series has two timeless classics that are much better if you pretend no other films were ever made.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Disagree. Covenant, in particular, is based on a faulty premise that we need to know the origins of the xenomorphs.

Oh, I would have removed the idea that David was the originator. One line about how, interacting with human DNA, this is what the black goo immediately wants to do, meaning it had happened before and would happen again, would do that. I would also remove any suggestion that there was a singular homeworld of the Engineers that could be destroyed.

In general, explaining stuff we don’t need explained is the bane of all prequels, but especially horror. Prometheus and especially Covenant make the preceding films worse.

I think Prometheus explained less than people feel it does. It mostly introduces new mysteries, other than showing us what a Space Jockey looks like.

So does Alien3, for different reasons. And in turn Resurrection takes the stakes of 3 and throws them in the garbage. This series has two timeless classics that are much better if you pretend no other films were ever made.

It's definitely a franchise that has many more misses than hits. I think the Predator franchise might be worse in that regard, but it's a neck and neck race between them.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

They are great. Granny Weatherwax is iconic, especially.

Granny Weatherwax is my benchmark for witches in RPGs. If your witch class or Mage faction or whatever can't model Esme Weatherwax, you need to go back to the drawing board.

 

[Ondath]

If we count by the number of seasons, Avatar: the Last Airbender + The Legend of Korra has an amazing batting average. Book 1 of Avatar has a few meh episodes, but the entire rest of the series is 10/10. Korra's Book 1 is eh, Book 2 is atrocious, but Books 3 and 4 take the franchise in a really interesting direction and make up for the earlier seasons.

 

[Xamnam]

If we count by the number of seasons, Avatar: the Last Airbender + The Legend of Korra has an amazing batting average. Book 1 of Avatar has a few meh episodes, but the entire rest of the series is 10/10.

Edit: wrong thread, sorry, please ignore.