>series Y makes sudden crazy change with new plot hooks compared to series X in order to keep engagement and buzz up so it doesn't look like a giant money sink and is cancelled
>series Z escalates even further

A lot of bong shows like to do this, and one anon said that in the long run, the downtime and production Hell most shows ran into was part of the fandom itself, mostly as an excuse to shitpost and speculate about random bullshit on the 'ol tellytext and cons. Red Dwarf was one of these shows, which you're supposed to watch with a mindset like MST3K, and less Star Trek, lest you start to notice that a bunch of plot shit happened offscreen/in a magazine interview column between series'