One of Suvin's main defining points of the SF genre in his 1972 essay "On the Poetics of the Science Fiction Genre" is "[t]he world of a work of SF is not a priori intentionally oriented toward its protagonists, either positively or negatively; the protagonists may succeed or fail in their objectives, but nothing in the basic contract with the reader, in the physical laws of their worlds, guarantees either" (378). While I realize Suvin isn't speaking to the sci fi tv shows of his day or that would follow, I wonder how his definition translates to a storyline with multiple installments.