Lanterns & Surf Dracula

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Surf Dracula is an internet meme and media trope that describes how modern streaming-era television shows and movies drag out or delay their core premise through long, drawn-out origin stories instead of delivering the promised action right away.

The term was coined on X (formerly Twitter) by user @topherflorence on October 7, 2021 - 

"Back in the day if u did a TV show called Surf Dracula you'd see that fool surfing every week. But in the streaming era the entire 1st season gotta be a long ahh flashback to how he got the surfboard until you finally get to see him surf for 5 min in the finale."