Movie Franchises & TV Sequels: Are the People Who Program Television Content Complete Morons?!

Look at the pictures above: do you see any problems? If not, look again and check out the program. On May 21, 2024, the M6 channel decided to provide an adrenaline-filled action movie evening with a couple of flicks starring one of Tom Cruise's favorite characters (not to mention one of his favorite airplanes). Except that the French channel started out with the sequel (36 years in the making). Later in the evening — and honestly, admit it, this is one heck of a cryin' shame — Top Gun: Maverick would be followed by the original Top Gun.

Speaking of which: check out how the actors are looking each other in the eyes, ready to shake their heads. If you are going to present a Mummy evening on May 18, 2024, AB3, why not start up the evening with The Mummy Returns before The Mummy?!

Thankfully, sequences are not always out of order. On October 9, 2025, viewers of RTL9 are presented with a triple whammy, Rush Hour, Rush Hour 2, and Rush Hour 3. A couple of weeks later, the station presents the same evening, except this time, the third movie has been lost while some genius has decided to "improve" the concept by putting the sequel ahead of the original film.

It gets better (worse):

On a Saturday in January 2022, RTL9 (channel 1124) decides to present their audiences with an evening — with a night, rather — replete with Jaws movies, the first three in the horror (?) movie franchise.  So which order do they choose? Jaws, Jaws 2, Jaws 3 (technically Jaws 3-D), starting with the Steven Spielberg original, aka the very best of the bunch (of the shiver)? Get outta here! Of course, the Luxembourg channel chooses the opposite order: Jaws 3 first, at 8:55 pm, Jaws 2 next, at 10:35 pm, and finally (when most people have gone to sleep), Jaws 1 — the next day, technically, at 40 minutes past midnight!

Question: after watching the dreadful Jaws 3 (without the 3D), who is going to watch the not-so-entertaining Jaws 2? And after watching the dreadful Jaws 3 and the not-so-entertaining Jaws 2, who (even if it is a Saturday) is going to stay up until 2:30/3:00 in the morning to watch the original Jaws?!

We are starting a new section on this blog: it is called the Are-People-Who-Program-Television-Content-Complete-Morons? Department.

TV Sequels:  Are-people-who-program-television-content-complete-morons Department   

Regularly, a TV station will decide to present a special evening featuring two or more movies in a certain film franchise, whether it be the Die Hard series or the Star Wars films (speaking of which, keep reading to see a couple of the most screwed-up evenings ever). But often, they cannot be bothered to think over what sequence to put the films in for broadcast. And that, when obviously, nothing could be easier, since several movies are named simply by number, say, Taken (i.e., Taken 1), Taken 2, Taken 3, etc…

You would think that a certain number of the people who work in programming departments, whether in the U.S. or abroad, would be fans of Hollywood and have at least a smattering of interest in the movie world (both in California and abroad) — perhaps not at the level of the aficionados in charge of Turner Classic Movies (TCM) — but it turns out that a vast number of them are either totally brainless or do not use said brains at all. (Incidentally, during road trips across the U.S., I remember having to make it a rule never to turn on the TV set in my motel room in the morning, because whatever motion picture was playing on TCM (if that station was available), it would be that hard for me to tear my eyes away from the screen and get going on the road.)

Now, I will grant you this: a lot of these movies are not sequels per se, but standalone movies with the same character(s), so, offhand — in contrast to Top Gun — it may sound like it hardly matters much which Rambo or Jaws or Fast n Furious movie comes before the other.

I don't entirely agree, because there are details in the Rocky movies and in the Die Hard entries and the Taken films that, besides the obvious title (Jaws [1], Jaws 2, Jaws 3-D), do show that one comes before the other. 

Thus, in January 2024, AB3 programmed the two Steven Seagal as Casey Ruback movies, but with Under Siege (Piège en haute mer) following its sequel Under Siege 2 (Dark Territory, Piège à grande vitesse).

In January 2023,  W9 (channel 1122) is treating audiences to two Gerard Butler films, except that the sequel London Has Fallen (2016) is followed by… the original film, Olympus Has Fallen (2013) while Angel Has Fallen (2019) is nowhere to be seen. This does not seem too important, since offhand, and unless I am sorely mistaken, there seems to be no real story line between the films; still, you wonder…

To return to Tom Cruise, wouldn't it be a good idea for 9HD (9) to put the fourth Mission:Impossible film (Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol) on November 16, 2020, ahead of the third (Mission: Impossible III)? /satire

RTL9 wanted to show Crocodile Dundee and its sequel on December 13, 2025. What do you do? Well, put Crocodile Dundee II ahead of Crocodile Dundee, natch!

Having said that, they are details in what constitues an action thriller franchise or a comedy franchise (or both, combined), and I don't disagree that we should be willing to overlook the details.

Now, you may laugh about "character development" in Crocodile Dundee — who nevertheless is married to his co-star in the sequel (as in real life), from beginning to end, while they are getting acquainted and falling in love in the original — or regarding John Rambo, but as far as, notably, his friend Colonel Trautman is concerned, there are important differences between the first three Rambo outings.

If Goldfinger is programmed before From Russia with Love on a James Bond night (as it did one evening on one Danish television channel), ce n'est pas la fin du monde: you can hardly say that they are being cavalier to James Bond 007. On the other hand, how hard is it to put a 2008 movie ahead of its 2012 sequel, instead of vice-versa?

Skyfall presents the ultimate appearance of Judi Dench as M, as the final part of the film shows the villain on a project to mercilessly hunt down and kill both the M6 honcho (the M6 honcha?) and Agent 007 at the Bond estate on the Scottish moors, a melodramatic finale if there ever was one. Later on the evening of October 5, 2025, this Bond film is followed on UHD2 by the… previous film, Quantum of Silence, in which Dame Judith Olivia Dench appears as M throughout, alive and well.

How about an evening full of action movies in the "Fortress" series for October 13, 2024, co-starring Bruce Willis? asked the geniuses at NRJ. Great idea! Outstanding! There is just one thing that we are slightly confused about: we wonder which film comes first, Fortress 2 (also known as Fortress: Sniper's Eye) or the one titled simply Fortress?

In February 2021, M6 (channel 4) decided to treat its viewers to a John McClane evening.  What better idea than to show the fifth Bruce Willis film first (A Good Day to Die Hard, co-starring his son), followed by the fourth movie (Live Free or Die Hard, no family members present)?

To put a movie franchise's films in the correct order can hardly be described as hard, though.

In February 2024, AB3 (Antenne Belge 3, channel 1126) scheduled Fast and Furious 4 (Fast & Furious), followed by Fast and Furious 5 (Fast Five). A non-brainer, n'est-ce pas?

After Sniper, announces the UK's Great! Movies (channel 446), you can watch Sniper: Legacy. 

In December 2023, Britain's Channel 4 (channel 403) programmed a Men in Black evening, with Men in Black II following the original Men in Black. In June 2024, they likewise put Men in Black II ahead of Men in Black 3. Straightforward, right?

5Action got the Clint Eastwood and the orangutang (Clyde) films in the right order, as the British channel did with the first four Star Trek movies.

In December 2023, AB3 scheduled a Batman afternoon, with all three films of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy in the correct order: Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises. How hard — even without numbers in movie titles (1, 2, 3…) — can this be?!…

You want to get your viewers to feel a rush of adrenaline by showing a series of Fast and the Furious action films? AB3 (Antenne Belge 3) did just that on October 19, 2025, by showing The Fast and the Furious followed, logically enough, by 2 Fast 2 Furious. — just as a year and a half earlier, they had shown Fast and Furious 4 and Fast and Furious 5 (on February 4, 2024), and, one week later, Fast and Furious 6 and Fast and Furious 7.  (From the fourth movie onwards, in French they got tired of trying to find original titles — in contrast to the original titles in English — so they simply gave them the same (English-language) title with the number in the series, from Fast and Furious 4 through Fast and Furious 11 (soon 12).)

How hard can this be?! Plenty hard, it would seem… Two days later, on October 29, 2025, AB3 added three sequels, Fast & Furious 4, Fast & Furious 5, and Fast & Furious 6 — albeit in reverse order!

In Episode 3 of Season 3 of Sherlock, shown on Chérie 25 (channel 1168) on May 8, 2023, a big deal of the plot concerns Dr. Watson's wife, who turns out to be actually a police-trained martial arts fighter, and who, to everyone's surprise, joins in on the action. "Oh, that's interesting," I thought. "I didn't know that Sherlock Holmes's companion had gotten married". (I knew it from the books, where she is barely mentioned, but not from this modern-day TV series.) Which episode immediately follows Episode 3 (His Last Vow)? Episode… 2 (The Sign of Three), in which we witness the… wedding of John Watson to the new Mrs. Watson.

But it ain't just about action films. On October 22, 2025, AB3 decides to have a Back to the Future evening. They ignore the (beloved) original and place Back to the Future Part III ahead of Back to the Future Part II. 

How about an evening showing two comedies in the famed UK series starring Renée Zellweger? was the question asked at France's W9 outlet (channel 1122) on May 25, 2025. Wouldn't that be fun?! 

But of course, let's show some originality and present the 2004 sequel (Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason) ahead of the original 2001 movie (Bridget Jones's Diary). Needless to say, in the first film (and in the book), the central character is torn between two suitors and the whole question for the audience member (or for the reader) is which of them will she end up with; the sequel showing her living, however awkwardly, with the "winner" of the first film. Is there any reason, any at all, to show the sequel before the original?!

How about Alistair MacLean's Navarone books? On September 22, 2024, Paris Première decided to put Force 10 from Navarone (1978) ahead of the initial film, The Guns of Navarone (1961). 

Speaking of Harrison Ford, we have kept la crème de la crème for the end.

Can the Monaco people at Télé Monte Carlo be said to be hardcore Star Wars fans? You have to wonder… 

Several times, the TMC channel has decided to treat audiences to an evening of Star Wars films, except that there is never any trilogy, only two films per evening. What's more, in the most recent case that I know of, the second sequel, The Return of the Jedi (Episode 6), is followed by… the first sequel, The Empire Strikes Back (Episode 5) while A New Hope (Episode 4, George Lucas's original Lucasfilm movie) is not shown at all. (Notice how one film is referred to as "Star Wars Episode…" while the other is not…) Do you not happen to know that there is one heck of a spoiler at the end of The Empire Strikes Back involving a certain Darth Vader revealing a deep secret to his… I mean, to Luke Skywalker — possibly the most, or one of the most, famous spoilers in the history of cinema?! Probably very few people do not know about its content by now, but in any case, how on earth does it make sense, to show The Return of the Jedi first?!

Earlier that month, TMC again presented another trilogy, the first one, with, again, only two films, Star Wars Episode II (Attack of the Clones) ahead of Star Wars Episode I (The Phantom Menace).  By this time, of course, les Monégasques were used to these mindless shenanigans, as on Nov 16, 2020, they had also presented only two films of the first trilogy, with Star Wars Episode III (Revenge of the Sith) ahead of Star Wars Episode II (Attack of the Clones).

Not all of the broadcasters mentioned here are French-speaking but, still, how do French TV programmers do with their own nation's fare? Are they less flippant? More respectful? Sometimes, as with the spy parody, Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure Noire (remade in America as The Man with One Red Shoe) and its sequel.

Likewise, on March 27, 2025, M6 showed Papa ou Maman and its sequel in the correct sequence. That was better than W9 a year earlier, when Papa ou Maman 2 was shown on May 21, 2024. Which movie do you think followed the comedy sequel about kids of divorcees forced to choose between "daddy or mommy"? You guessed it: the original Papa ou Maman (1).

TFX decides to hold a Ducobu evening, a series of film based on a comic book of a young teenager's misadventures in school. Instead of starting with the film that introduces us all to the bande dessinée comedy star and to its other set of characters (L'Élève Ducobu), it decides to broadcast that first entry after its first sequel (Les Vacances de Ducobu). Eight months later, it presents the second movie again, this time preceded by the… third entry in the series (Ducobu 3).

Let's fill our audiences with humor and hilarity tonight, said the people at W9 on October 27, 2024. By choosing the comedies starring the hero created by Sempé and René Goscinny, Le Petit Nicolas. (In Denmark, a number of kids learning French did so by studying these hilarious short stories in school.) To confuse our audience, let us start the evening with the 2014 sequel (Les vacances du Petit Nicolas) and end it with the original 2009 movie (Le Petit Nicolas).

But surely TV executives cannot make any mistakes with the classics?! Let's fill our audiences with humor and hilarity tonight, said the honchos at 6Ter on August 14, 2024: By showing two Louis de Funès gems in what is arguably France's most beloved comedy series of all time. But having all the films seared in just about every Frenchman's consciousness — with the series taking, logically enough, the name of the very first film, Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez — doesn't mean that the people at 6Ter (1127) can figure out whether Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez goes before or after Le Gendarme à New York.  But wait! the people at 6Ter aren't finished! A week after the second film is shown ahead of the first film, the second film is shown again on August 21, but this time preceded by… the third entry (Le Gendarme se marie).

Produced by Luc Besson, Banlieue 13 was a 2004 hit which lead to a sequel five years later. When TF1 showed the two movies on June 22, 2025, naturally they put the Ultimatum sequel ahead of the original film.

Iin 2008, Jean-François Richet decides to make a two-part biographical movie filmed together on a(n in)famous real-life gangster. The first part is called L'Instinct de mort (Killer Instinct) and details Jacques Mesrine's violent life from 1959 to 1972 when he is an unknown but is rising to prominence (or to infamy). By then, indeed, he is a cop killer who has become Public Enemy # 1, which is, appropriately enough, the title of the second part, lasting from 1972 to his demise, Bonnie and Clyde-like, in a hail of bullets during a 1979 ambush by the police (his girlfriend was hit during the shoot-out but survived). According to Wikipedia, the film starring Vincent Cassel, both of which were released in 2008, has earned comparisons to Scarface. 

By now, reader, you know what's coming, right? Yup: What happens when Radio Monte Carlo's RMC Story — a Monaco channel which prides itself on only touching upon real-life stories — decides to show both parts on the night of December 3, 2025? You guessed it: In what must have been grating for director Richet and actually made him go berserk — they show the two parts in the wrong sequence. 

For what it's worth: On November 16, 2020, incidentally, we had a holy trifecta, with three consecutive channels (8, 9, & 10) all showing sequels out of order.