Variable storage and retrieval C# and HTML

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MVC

.NET4.6

MVC newbie here.

Is sql server (sqlite, sqlexpress etc) overkill for data persistence?

I have many variables that I have persisted to the disk in XLS for access across sessions. When 2D arrays became part of the party, I went to binary serialization. good.

Then I came to a roadblock where the mvc controller does a return(redirect for action) for which no Veiwbag, TempData can survive. [Session] seems even like more of a kludge than the former two.

The problem is, I don't think I'm going to be deserializing the binary data within an html file. I know I can run script code but there are limitations to what can be done there (I surmise)

I know I can do database queries in script code within the html file but I need some flat quick data storage that can be written by .net but also accessed for within the running view html code.

Last night I thought, well I'm going to need a database.
Now I wonder If i'm barking up the wrong tree and overthinking it all.

What I have tried:

XML serialization.
Binary Serialization
Viewbag
TempData
A Good night's sleep. :-)