Last week I had an interesting discussion with a friend of mine regarding the art of storytelling in regular television series'. Here is what opinionated Barry said about a certain issue...I see your points. The fact is one-off episodes are harder to write... contrary to what a lot of people think. Not that, to qualify as a self-contained story, the show has to be absolutely resolved with the characters slapping each other on the backs while happy fade-out music plays in the background -- far from it -- but a self contained "the issue is resolved for now" approach.
I remember Da Vinci's Inquest creator/producer Chris Haddock being courted by one of the U.S. television networks to develop shows for them: He did just that, and like most tv pilots, or series', they did not fly or survive to any length. (It's a crap shoot for anyone.) Eventually he was asked to fabricate a show without story arcs... to make one-off stories. But as Haddock said in an interview with a newspaper, 'these are much more difficult to write'.
You write a show with arcs and you can dial out characters that don't work, push out or wrap up story-lines that are feeble, or strengthen and promote same which do tickle the public's fancy. In effect, a program is being "work-shopped" as it runs -- almost always coming up roses.
My point is there is nothing wrong with story (or full season) arcs, it's just "who the hell has time to watch the same frickin' series every week?!"
No comments:
Post a Comment