"Should've done what four years ago?"

We watched the season 4 finale of Castle this week.  It was extremely well done television.

But it raised an interesting question.  Why keep going?  It was the end of the story.  Huge, satisfying, and resolved.  If we weren't watching from the queue I'd hope that it was the last episode, but I knew it wasn't and I became worried.

The engine had been changed.  What would it be like?



"A sequel?  Uh hunh."



I've watched two episodes of season 5 now and I can tell you exactly what it's like.  A sequel.  Not a spinoff -- no Trapper, MD or CSI Bismark here.  It is a sequel.  Same characters, different situation.

And like most sequels, it's not as good as the original.  Fun?  Sure.  But a lot more predictable and the subplots are all starting over from scratch.  And I don't like them.

Sort of like what happened to the Mentalist.  I didn't realize it then, but we were watching a sequel.  Life?  Same thing.  The main dramatic force behind the original story was resolved and the quality of part 2 was lacking – it was like watching a completely different show but with [mostly] the same characters and setting.

Can you think of any other shows that had a clear part 1 and part 2?  Are there any that actually got better?