TV's prequel-mania
原文地址：TV's prequel-mania
- prequel: 前传 - 前传是原作品衍生作品的一种。通常是叙述原故事发生之前所发生的故事。从前传中可以看到原作的一些事件的由来。
This fall, if you feel like you’ve seen that new series somewhere before, you’re probably right.
Photo Credit: Allie Sullberg
今秋的电视节目，让人有种似曾相识的感觉。
"The Rings of Power," a series that takes place thousands of years before the “Lord of the Rings” movies, is just the latest, priciest example of today’s prequel-mania. On TV, the past is everywhere.
- Lord of the Rings: 《指环王》
- The Rings of Power: 《权力之戒》讲述的是发生在《指环王》之前数千年的故事
- prequel-mania： 前传狂热
Why is TV so aggressively turning back the clock? It’s hard to go broke giving people more of what they once liked, of course. And the content boom on streaming TV makes rehashing familiar franchises more attractive. When viewers are paralyzed by choice among hundreds of series, it’s easier to stand out with a brand people already know.
- turning back the clock: 让时钟倒转
- go broke: 破产
- rehashing: 炒冷饭
- 原意: 重新散列(数学）put (old ideas or material) into a new form without significant change or improvement.
- paralyzed: 瘫 / 这里指：观众在数百个系列中无法选择
Like any spinoff, a prequel can be a cash grab, but it doesn’t have to be creatively bankrupt. At best, returning to characters whose destinies we already know can allow a series to focus less on the what of the story and more on the why.
- spinoff: 衍生产品
- cash grab: 捞钱
- creatively bankrupt: 创造性地破产
- at best: 充其量
- destinies: 命运
- focus less on ... and more on ...: 更少关注..., 而更多关注...
Still, audiences keep turning up. And I wonder if the complication and uncertainty of life is a part of prequels’ appeal. The horizon is full of question marks — global, political and personal. We’re overwhelmed with choice and with the unknown. With a prequel, you know — at least in broad strokes — what’s coming.
尽管如此，观众还是不断涌现。 生活的复杂性和不确定性是否是前传吸引力的一部分? 地平线上充满了问号 - 全球的、政治的和个人的。 我们对选择和未知感到不知所措。 有了前传，至少大体上来说,你就知道会发生什么。
That can be a kind of comfort. Maybe prequels satisfy the same urge we felt in our earliest days as audiences, asking for one more read from a well-worn book at bedtime: Tell me a story where I know how it turns out.
这可能是一种安慰。 也许前传满足了我们在作为观众的早期所感受到的相同冲动，要求在睡前多读一本破旧的书：告诉我一个我知道结果如何的故事。