Trilogies

What is it with trilogies?  As audiences, when there's a good first story, we like to continue with it and be entertained.  Certainly, this is only possible in fiction, unless a non-fiction tale lends itself to three chapters.  As a result, the authors typically follow a very distinct pattern:  First book/movie either great or tantalizing, followed by huge expectations of a sequel that either disappoints or underwhelms, followed by the final chapter that either blows the first two away or equals the first installment.

Why is this?

Think about it:  Whether it's a movie or a book trilogy, the pattern is almost inviolable (with the noted exception The Godfather trilogy, which miraculously turned this analysis on its head and had The Godfather III not only better the first movie, but perhaps is one of the best movies of all time, followed by one of the worst final acts in all the trilogies in existence).

Take the Indiana Jones movies.  Raiders of the Lost Ark was a great movie.  It grabbed one by the throat and held on until the doors of the warehouse shut.  Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was, well, too cutesy.  It's probably best known for finding Steven Spielberg his wife, actress Kate Capshaw.  Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was fantastic.  The last scene where Indy has to find the Holy Grail guarded by the Templar was fantastic.  Thus, original and final good, middle one mediocre.

(Don't even tell me there was a fourth movie.  If anyone's paying attention, that fourth movie, a travesty, was a simple money-grab and made nearly a decade ago.  That no other movie in the series has been forthcoming is telling.)

In literature, some recent trilogies support the thesis.  The Dragon Tattoo series -- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest -- were all phenomenal books.  They were so good, in fact, that I read all three inside of a month.  But if I had to be honest and rank them, the first and the third were superior, however slightly, to the second.  This is the rare trilogy where all three parts of the trilogy are exceptional.  Even so, there's a slight dip in the second book compared to the first and the third.

Another trilogy that's presently being expanded to a fourth book is The Shadow of the Wind series.  Not only is that title my favorite book title of all time, but it's a heck of a book to start a series.  The first chapter alone is as gripping as anything ever written.  Still, the follow-up, The Angel's Game, suffers not only from not being as interesting as The Shadow of the Wind, but in trying to be a prequel, explaining what set the first book in motion. The final book (until recently), The Prisoner of Heaven, is better than The Angel's Game, although it's not nearly as good as The Shadow of the Wind. 

So where does this leave us?  I don't know whether the authors got tired, lazy or too cute, but in almost every case, the second effort pales by comparison.  Sometimes the third installment exceeds the first, but in almost every case, the first and the third installments are superior to the second. 

Of course, one could try to equate this to the middle child always being troublesome.  Perhaps there's something to that theory after all.

(c) 2017 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles