10 Most Confusing TV Franchises

TV franchises can be incredibly rewarding for their creative teams and the networks behind them, but some are confusing for viewers as they build, twist, and reshape familiar stories. While building a TV franchise takes time and effort, it’s a finicky structure that takes a practiced distance from the creative team at the center. There have been several TV franchises that have worked through the years, from Game Of Thrones and Law & Order to NCIS and the Marvel universe, building on each other while maintaining their own sense of identity. Even the best, however, can become confusing with time.

TV franchises have to ensure that each show maintains its own identity as it moves through its narrative, especially when shows within a franchise are running concurrently. In order to build a franchise, having shows that stand on their own but offer the opportunity for interconnection is key. This means ensuring that timelines make sense, that characters aren’t carbon copies of one another, and most importantly, that viewers are along for the ride on each show, happy to watch every show’s episodes. While some franchises work well, others get bogged down with confusing details, difficult plots, and overlapping stories.

10

911

Although the 9-1-1 franchise, which began on Fox in 2018, has been a long-running, network-hopping success, it’s consistently one of the most confusing procedural franchises on the air. Starting out with the original 9-1-1, the series quickly expanded to include the now-defunct 9-1-1: Lone Star, and now pairs up with 9-1-1: Nashville. While there’s some crossover between the shows, the franchise is often confusing because of its inconsistencies. 9-1-1 leans into heavy disaster, while Lone Star focused on character drama, and Nashville leans into its soapy, country roots. The expanding universe makes details tough to track, and relationships significantly complex.

Cast

Angela Bassett, Peter Krause, Oliver Stark, Aisha Hinds, Kenneth Choi, Rockmond Dunbar, Connie Britton, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ryan Guzman, Corinne Massiah, Marcanthonee Jon Reis, Gavin McHugh, John Harlan Kim

Latest TV Show

9-1-1: Lone Star

Upcoming TV Shows

9-1-1: Nashville

9

Grey’s Anatomy

Image via ABC

As one of the longest-running TV shows on TV, Grey’s Anatomy has had its fair share of spinoffs. Grey’s itself is complex in terms of character, because there have been so many. In the early days, Grey’s featured web spinoffs, trying to capitalize on early internet success, but in more recent years, its traditional spinoffs have included Private Practice and Station 19. There has been a ton of crossover storytelling on the shows in the Grey’s universe, but some on shows that are no longer on the air or accessible, which can make it tricky to track down the details.

Release Date

March 27, 2005

Directors

Rob Corn, Kevin McKidd, Debbie Allen, Chandra Wilson, Allison Liddi-Brown, Jeannot Szwarc, Tony Phelan

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  Ellen Pompeo

  Dr. Meredith Grey

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  Chandra Wilson

  Dr. Miranda Bailey

8

Power

Although Power itself is a clear-cut series, the wider franchise has become one of the most convoluted of the modern era. Expanding with spinoffs, each called books in the world of the franchise, Power and its spinoffs are all set in different eras, which makes it incredibly confusing to follow. Power Book II: Ghost follows the events immediately post-series, while Power Book III: Raising Kanan is a prequel set in the 1990s, but their concurrent runs make it tough to follow the storylines. With overlapping shows that reveal details about the same characters at different times, Power can be tough.

Release Date

2014 – 2020-00-00

Directors

Hernán Otaño, Bart Wenrich, Kari Skogland, Sanford Bookstaver, Shana Stein, Kieron Hawkes, Slick Naim, Ami Canaan Mann, Anthony Hemingway, David Rodriguez, M.J. Bassett, Mario Van Peebles, Rob Hardy, Stefan Schwartz, 50 Cent

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• 

  Omari Hardwick

  James ‘Ghost’ St. Patrick

7

The Walking Dead

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With a ton of expansion from the original series, The Walking Dead is one of the more aggressive and rapidly changing franchises in the modern era. What began with one series in 2010 has expanded to at least six shows, and that alone makes it a bit confusing for viewers to jump in. The chronology of the shows has led to a lot of questions about character details and information, as well as the order to watch the shows in. Viewing order is a huge debate, and the level of attention it takes to understand everything comprehensively is intense.

Release Date

2010 – 2022

Showrunner

Frank Darabont, Angela Kang, Scott M. Gimple, Glen Mazzara

• 

  Norman Reedus

  Daryl Dixon

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  Melissa McBride

  Carol Peletier

6

The Big Bang Theory

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As one of the most popular sitcoms of all time, The Big Bang Theory expanding its universe made sense, especially for a series with characters outside the core cast that it could mine from. While Sheldon Cooper’s early life on Young Sheldon was exciting to uncover, the franchise’s inconsistencies in the character and contradicting information quickly made it difficult to blend the shows together. As new shows have emerged in the franchise, like Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, there’s been even more to fit into the story that wasn’t there originally. Collectively, the shows are fun, but create some confusion.

Created by

Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady

Character(s)

Leonard Hofstadter, Penny Hofstadter, Howard Wolowitz, Raj Koothrappali, Amy Farrah Fowler, Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz, Stuart Bloom

5

Pretty Little Liars

Everett

Although the original Pretty Little Liars, which was adapted from a series of novels by Sara Shepard, remained the only show in its franchise for some time, eventually things branched out with Ravenswood and Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists. During the original days of the franchise, the complicated mysteries of the shows were always too convoluted to make much sense, with details and characters changed on a dime. As the show moved into a different format with 2022’s Original Sin, the tonal shift of the show made things even more inconsistent with the original, making the franchise impossible to follow.

Release Date

2010 – 2017-00-00

Showrunner

Ina Marlene King

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4

Twin Peaks

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Twin Peaks is a series that’s meant to be confusing and tough to follow, but as the franchise moved forward post-series, the follow-up film and the show’s 2017 revival marked some more convoluted choices that left viewers mystified. While the franchise is still one of the most popular and heavily praised of its time, Twin Peaks was determined to challenge its audiences, and creating stories that spanned from murder to supernatural speculation made it easy to do so. While the franchise’s complexity was a huge part of its draw, it’s a commitment, and viewers often debate fundamental pieces of lore.

Release Date

1990 – 1991-00-00

Showrunner

Mark Frost

3

The Vampire Diaries

As The Vampire Diaries franchise grew into several different spinoffs, the lore of the already complicated series got denser and more difficult to follow, though not to the dismay of viewers. While the original series, which began in 2009, spurred spinoffs The Originals and Legacies in subsequent years, the vampire and supernatural lore that surrounded the shows expanded, creating layered mythology that required a lot of attention. With characters moving between shows, the expansion kept things fresh, but made the franchise incredibly intricate, and tough for new viewers to crack into. Still beloved, The Vampire Diaries is a tough sell.

Release Date

2009 – 2017-00-00

Showrunner

Julie Plec

Directors

Chris Grismer, Joshua Butler, Marcos Siega, Kellie Cyrus, J. Miller Tobin, John Behring, Jeffrey G. Hunt, Rob Hardy, Leslie Libman, Paul Wesley, Lance Anderson, Darren Genet, John Dahl, Wendey Stanzler, Jesse Warn, Garreth Stover, Geoff Shotz, Ian Somerhalder, Liz Friedlander, David Von Ancken, Kevin Bray, Mike Karasick, Brad Turner, Carol Banker

Writers

Brian Young, Michael Narducci, Holly Brix, Elisabeth R. Finch, Andrew Chambliss, Alfredo Septién, Bryan Oh, Jose Molina, Turi Meyer, Gabrielle Stanton, Shukree Hassan Tilghman, Bryan M. Holdman, Céline Geiger, Mike Daniels, Charlie Charbonneau, Alan B. McElroy, John Herrera, Andrew Kreisberg, Elizabeth Craft, Michael J. Cinquemani, Sarah Fain, Sean Reycraft, Nina Fiore

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  Nina Dobrev

  Elena Gilbert / Katherine Pierce

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  Paul Wesley

  Stefan Salvatore

2

Doctor Who

As one of the longest running expanded universes on TV, Doctor Who has spun into one of the largest franchises of all time over the years. With spinoffs like Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, the show is already complex on its own with rotating casts and conflicting details, making the spinoffs sometimes feel like an entirely different, somewhat unnecessary companion. With time travel boundless, the continuity of the show can consistently be messed with. Different incarnations of the Doctor can interact, creating confusion surrounding who’s who, and while the series embraces the confusion, it can still be messy.

Release Date

2005 – 2021-00-00

Directors

Graeme Harper, Euros Lyn, Douglas Mackinnon, Jamie Magnus Stone, Charles Palmer, Rachel Talalay, Joe Ahearne, James Strong, Jamie Childs, Saul Metzstein, Toby Haynes, Wayne Che Yip, Nick Hurran, Richard Clark, James Hawes, Daniel Nettheim, Colin Teague, Keith Boak, Azhur Saleem, Adam Smith, Andrew Gunn, Nida Manzoor, Lawrence Gough, Paul Murphy

Writers

Steven Moffat, Russell T. Davies

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  Jodie Whittaker

  The Doctor

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1

Star Trek

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As one of the best TV franchises of all time, Star Trek’s longevity and diversity in its storytelling also creates one of the most confusing TV landscapes ever mapped out. With the franchise having begun in 1966, Star Trek has spun off into endless shows and books, expanding the lore in a way that makes it nearly impossible to know everything going on. With different shows occurring in different eras, there’s some overlap at times, but there are continuity errors and details that are smudged throughout franchise history. While Star Trek isn’t necessarily straightforward, debating is still exciting for fans.

TV Show(s)

Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Short Treks, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Cast

William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Deforest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Wil Wheaton, Avery Brooks, Nana Visitor, Rene Auberjonois, Alexander Siddig, Cirroc Lofton, Armin Shimerman, Colm Meaney, Terry Farrell, Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Jeri Ryan, Robert Duncan McNeill, Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Garrett Wang, Jolene Blalock, Connor Trinneer, Dominic Keating, Scott Bakula, Linda Park, John Billingsley, Anthony Montgomery, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho, Chris Hemsworth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Anton Yelchin, Idris Elba, Sonequa Martin-Green, Mary Wiseman, Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp, Wilson Cruz, Oyin Oladejo, Emily Coutts, Jess Bush, Christina Chong, Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Rebecca Romijn, Michelle Yeoh

Created by

Gene Roddenberry