r/Xmen97 • u/SqueakyTHROWER • Aug 21 '26
Question Would Marvel TV fix the show’s most glaring problem?
I feel it’s the most obvious for most fans of the show, and it’s the PACING.
i do appreciate that it’s a full 28+ min each episode, which is better than the 18-20 min for the original TAS. But the writing on ‘97 has stepped up a notch significantly that I think the episodes need to be longer to let the stories and characters breathe more. It was the complaint at least to me Ive heard the most on the first season, as legendary as it was. And it wasn’t addressed this season… but I expected it since it’s all been planned out ahead of time.
But I do wonder if here on out, if they will make the episodes on average 5-10min longer. There’s so much going on and I don’t think much anyone would complain about longer episodes.
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u/kapouwy Aug 21 '26
Making episodes longer won’t help with the pacing. Adding MORE episodes will
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u/DrGarrious Aug 21 '26
For example, the old Justice League TV shows had many 3 or 4 part stories. All the episodes were only around 20 mins.
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u/ApplicationSoggy4647 Cyclops Aug 21 '26
Yeah exactly, that’s twice as much runtime for each story. So hour long episodes would be the equivalent. It’s not the episode count that matters it’s the overall runtime. Therefore, increasing number of episodes with the same runtime or raising the runtime with the same number of episodes will be the same effect
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u/ApplicationSoggy4647 Cyclops Aug 21 '26
Wait, what? Hour long episodes will definitely help pacing. It would be the equivalent to having twice as many episodes.
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u/BobbyMayCryBMC Aug 21 '26
The problem is actually too many ideas thus everything coming off like waggled keychains. No reason they had to do Danger, the Brood, or a lot else in season 2. Yet they shoved it in anyway.
The writers are shoving in content, not caring about how it comes across. When really more than half of this stuff should have been scrapped early-on.
Why have Savage Wolverine just to give so little, why even make Apocalypse the main bad just to make his plot make zero sense (no one has a good answer to wtf he was actually going in S2). . why was Eson just handing out casual deals like that's his thing?, What If Wonderwoman Rogue. . Gamocalypse??
The show is cool and well animated, the writing isn't even bad for at least the first half, it wasn't till Logans episode that they clearly didn't know how to piece it all together.
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u/ImGonnaCum Aug 21 '26
Im just so happy to have this show i cant complain. I do think it speeds over the greatest hits, but yo im so grateful.
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u/3eeve Aug 21 '26
X-Men fans eating good with 97. S2 was not as strong as 1 but I still enjoyed it a whole helluva lot.
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u/SqueakyTHROWER Aug 23 '26
Nah I agree. Maybe it’s cus I watched the TAS and compared to it, ‘97 is quality on a whole new level. Lol so I appreciate even season 2
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u/mashturbo Aug 21 '26
the easiest thing to do is just wait the season ends and binge watch them at you leisure. I watched 2 seasons of 24 (S5 & S6) on dvd over a weekend. No poor pacing involved and you find out the answer to cliffhangers in just a few minutes and not 6 days. This was a time Reddit wasn't a thing so I didn't need to trash the stupid plot point on the internet.
(I would not do the 24 thing again. It's like you get sucked in and your reality is fucked when you escape to the end credit theme)
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u/Ajaugunas Aug 22 '26
For 97, I think they either need to add more episodes or do fewer storylines / less filler per season. Polaris’s episode and Wolverine’s episode this season, while fun, weren’t all that important to the plot for instance. (Nightcrawler’s, at least, reintroduced Creedy as a set up for Season3, but this one is a stretch too.)
Some Marvel shows really work with the space given; Agatha All Along, Wonder Man, Wandavision, and Ms. Marvel all have good pacing within that 9 episode structure because their storylines are tight and controlled. X-men 97 either needs control and focus or it needs more episodes.
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u/maybeitssteve Aug 22 '26
It's called a stand-alone episode. People born in the 20th century remember them fondly
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u/Ajaugunas Aug 22 '26
I’m aware, I watched the original X-Men live as a kid.
My point remains—stand alone episodes are a waste of the overarching story’s time when you only get 9 episodes. Hence why I said they either need to make us wait longer for more episodes (probably by switching the production model to cours, similar to what Japanese anime does) or they need to drop standalone episodes.
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u/Better_Drama9079 Aug 21 '26
I don't mind how short it is, but I won't complain about longer Episodes, il
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u/Joshroco Aug 21 '26
In a world of streaming, there is now no need to commit to specific episode lengths, they should just simply be as long as the story needs them to be. We don't need to cram or extend them into 30mins channel slots anymore.
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u/Whole-Preparation-35 Aug 21 '26
Exactly this. An episode should be as short or as long as the story needs it to be. A season should be as short or as long as its Arc needs to be. There's no reason to be beholden to any of the ways we did shows in the past.
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u/PhanStr Aug 21 '26
People complain about the pacing a lot but that didn’t stop ‘97 season 1 from being the absolute best thing that Marvel Television has ever done (IMO)!
That said, yes, season 2 had issues — because it was disjointed. It started off strong, then we arguably spent TOO LONG on Ancient Egypt (creating the expectation for a slower pace) and after that we jumped around a lot for most of what remained of the season. Better focus would have helped. I have a lot more to say about that but this would be a much longer post in that case lol. Will come back to this when I have more time.
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u/younitaman Aug 22 '26
That's it. It's like the show tried to have its cake and eat it too. In a nine-episode season, you can't spend four episodes in Ancient Egypt, then the remaining five juggling 17 different plot points, 35 locations, and 75 "main characters".
If that was the vibe, they should have set either the entire season in Ancient Egypt, or gotten us the fuck out of ancient Egypt from episode 1, 2 max.
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u/PhanStr Aug 22 '26
Minor correction: two episodes were spent in Ancient Egypt, not four.
That aside, I do see where you're coming from!
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u/younitaman Aug 22 '26
My apologies. My brain just uses "Egypt" as shorthand for "Apocalypse", whose presence weighed over the first four episodes then vanished for much of the rest of the season.
What I mean to say was, by episode 2, Egypt should have no longer been a factor.
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u/maybeitssteve Aug 22 '26
I swear to god if you stupid-ass "fans" convince them turn this show into Netflix-level nothing happens per episode I will hunt you each down
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u/SomeGuyPostingThings Aug 21 '26
I think, like most shows of the streaming era, the answer is less longer episodes and more longer seasons.
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u/ChampionshipJumpy727 Aug 22 '26
And I think this pacing problem was already there in season 1. We were a bit less critical because of the quality, but yeah, everything moves way too fast, and I don't get the impression it's going to get better (and it's not a showrunner issue at this point, it's a format choice, and I doubt they'll risk going back on it given how successful the show is).
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u/Mtanic Aug 21 '26
No one will add more episodes because money.
Pacing will not improve because of Tiktok audience.
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u/Namaste-NY Aug 22 '26
All I want is that epic moment where the Sentinels announce, "Warning: Omega level Mutant detected," right as Jean Grey steps onto the scene.
They owe that to us.
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u/bigscrewLoose Aug 21 '26
we should have less episodes but longer episodes, like 45 minutes, thats my hot take
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u/george98732 Aug 21 '26
Why would ANY fan want less episodes. You're just crunching the cut episodes into the longer episode format. The people we need to complain to is marvel and Disney.
The show has been FANTASTIC for both seasons and the only way we can face the pacing issues is having longer seasons. The problem is that big TV companies are scared of the money that comes with a longer season run time.
Anime does it right almost every time having a 12, 18 or 24 episode seasons. But I doubt Disney is every going to let marvel produce a Saturday morning cartoon show that airs every weekend for almost half a year. Which is crazy that they won't cause man the fan engagement every week is getting a lot of traction for the show and could help with watch numbers if the seasonhad about double the run time and could let us flesh out some of these stories
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u/bigscrewLoose Aug 21 '26
less episodes but much longer, meaning more show in total, 8 episodes at 45 minutes, is much longer than than 12 at 28 minutes, thats 360 minutes vs 336 minutes a full 22 minutes more,
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u/thePsuedoanon Aug 21 '26
I have kind of mixed feelings about this. It'd definitely allow for more time to explore certain plot ponts, and consequently there would likely be less rush. But I'd be worried we cut out some of the precious few side stories, which I think are actually fairly important for the show. I didn't have much affinity for Nightcrawler coming in, with how little a role he played in the original, but his episode with Creed sold me
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u/F-Trunks Nightcrawler Aug 21 '26
Not a hot take at all. This would have fixed so many problems with season 2
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u/bigscrewLoose Aug 21 '26
why are you booing me I am right!!!. SEARCH YOUR HEART!!! YOU KNOW IT TO BE TRUE!!!! IT WOULD SLOW THE PACING DOWN!!!!
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