Sequels

A sequel is the follow-up to a movie, often on popular demand, but if we had to take every sequel seriously, then that would mean that the lives of the main characters is such a clusterfuck, we have to wonder why they didn't kill themselves already just to escape their karma-filled existence.

So much shit is going down in every movie, it makes the lives of the people involved look like a neverending mess; af if not a day passes without some horror going down. It makes the summarized story look nothing more but a teenager's fanfiction, but we accept it, because the shit's divided over multiple movies.
Harry Potter being one of those fictional people who should've ended up a mental patient at the end of the movie, instead he married a little ginger girl.

Even so, sequels are rarely better or just as good at the first original, the second Shrek movie being one of those few exceptions. But is that because the sequels are indeed worse, or do we unconsciously know these extensions of the main story are unnecessary?