Sequels

My Dad used to say, being an old fan of horse racing, that when you get a good horse, you ride it to death. Well, what's true in many areas is not true in books and movies, at least not often.

This comes to mind because I am reading Steven King's Doctor Sleep, a sequel to the Shining. It's okay, that's all. The Shining was an excellent, frightening, horror story and KIng should have left things there. Instead, he wrote a novel that, while its moments, it seems to be primarily an excuse for King to tout the benefits of AA. It is overly sentimental and down right preachy. He should not have revisited the story.

In movies, I thought the original Star Wars was decent entertainment. I never thought that we would be subjected to a seemingly endless stream of sequels and prequels, each more inane than the last. Raiders of the Lost Ark was a fine movie. They should have stopped there, the follow ups have steadily declined in quality and now it seems we are going to have another.

While I'm on the subject, there is serious talk of a Blade Runner sequel. Please, no. The original is about as good a movie as can be made. Let the story die there.

One of the few sequels I ever ran across that equaled the original is Larry McMurty's follow up to Lonesome Dove, The Streets of Loredo. Both his novel and the TV mini series version are great. Unfortunately, he decided to write a couple of woeful prequels.

Maybe there is just an incredible lack of imagination these days or, more likely, writers are just too pushed to turn out product. Whatever the cause, I would like to tell all writers one thing: if you have nothing new to say, keep quiet.