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May. 4th, 2014 10:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. TV Plot-Twists and Tropes that have gotten old:
* "This Week One of these people will die!"
Sorry, stopped being shocking two years ago. When every drama does it, it sort of loses it's shock value. Now I go into television series betting myself on who they are going to kill off this year. (Hint - check out the actors availability. Anyone remember the good old days when they just had the character take off for a new job (George Clooney/ER) or a vision quest (OZ/Buffy) ?)
* I know we'll torture them for the information
Note to television writers - torture doesn't work. People will tell you anything, including lie when tortured. Invest in sodium penthol. Or find someone they care about. (Kudos to The 100 for showing how ineffective torture truly is. And kudos to the BlackList for following suite.)
* the rape trope
Was discussing fictional sex tropes with a friend this afternoon. I said that the problem with television, movies and books - is people either over-romanticized sex (erotica) or they made it crude, rude, and lewd (the Hangover and Girls). My friend pointed out - or they make it violent. Unfortunately television writers love sexual violence. Yet, seem for some reason to repeat the same trope over and over again.
It's either - "not-so-nice guy is on redemptive arc, but we're not ready to redeem him yet, let's have him rape the woman he's in love with - it will be controversial and spike ratings!" (I blame General Hospital, way back in the 1970s, for starting this trend. Although the fact that prime tv shows have done it, is another story.) OR it's let's spice up a story and have a strong honorable female character raped, to give her hubby something to angst over and fret about.
This is hardly helpful or realistic. It's becoming cliche.
4. Hair-pin plot twists
Yes, I know you need to make people watch it live in fear of spoilers. And get them to tweet about it. (I think twitter, the internet and social media has somehow managed to change how people tell stories. There's more of an immediacy to the story-telling than there was before. It has to be wrapped up faster. And told quicker. Also written and created faster. Plus, the creators now have the unfortunate pleasure of finding out how their audience received it. Gone are the days of writing television in a vacume, with no idea whether anyone was watching outside of the Neilsen ratings. Now - you can find out instantly. Is this a good thing? Yes and no. It has resulted in hair-pin plot twists, some of which feel terribly contrived and unnecessary. The story would have been better off without them. And less focus on building character and relationships - which requires more time (Marvel Agents of Shield). )
Plot-twists work best when they are not over-used. If you do a plot-twist every single episode or week, the audience begins to expect it. So when you don't do it - they are disappointed, and also, they begin to predict what will happen. If they can't predict what will happen - you risk falling into daytime soap opera plotting, where the plots make no sense so of course they can't predict it.
That said, I actually think some series utilize it well. I rather like how Scandal, Vampire Diaries, and Once Upon a Time uses the device.
2. Once Upon a Time is doing their red herring happy ending again. They lead you to believe everything is fine and dandy, that the characters will live happily ever after. But I checked the time - 8:46 pm, we had 10 minutes left, and a two hour season finale next week...so, you just know there's a twist coming up. Plus - if it ends too happily ever after, no one will turn in next year.
This is a clever approach to the series though - this way, if they discover they are being cancelled, all they have to do is chop off the last 15 minutes and the 2 hour season finale. More television writers should use this model.
* Definitely Regina's redemptive arc. Rumple, however, appears to have reverted back to form, unfortunately. Baelfire didn't do anyone any favors resurrecting him.
Also, are all the plot twists at the end of the season a direct or indirect result of something Rumplestilskin has done? Appears so. All roads lead to Rumple.
Makes me worry about Regina - if Selena succeeds in rewritting history, could this mean Regina will revert back as well?
Rather liked what Rumple told Selena, which is - no matter what you do you can't change who you are or what you become. He should know, he tried.
Regina also attempts to give Selena some insight, and states, wisely and it's rather self-aware for Regina, that she used to be Selena. Consumed with jealousy and vengeance. Thinking if she destroyed someone else - she'd be happy. Selena believes Regina had everything - but Selena didn't see that it was empty. Which is a nice take on jealousy and envy - the problem with coveting what others have is we seldom see what they don't or what we have. We think their life is better, it's not.
(ie. the grass is always greener, but it still have to be mowed, watered, and groomed.)
* Belle, you remain a romantic fool. It's okay that you love Rumple, but seriously why do you trust him?
Rumple asks why she's stood by him all this time. (I was thinking much the same thing. There's love, but there's also blatant stupidity.)
* Apparently in this verse, Water is not Selena's weakness, this was a myth that Selena spun to get Dorothy out of OZ and get the better of Glinda. Nice plot twist.
So Selena can get back to changing her's and Regina's past. Doesn't appear to care all that much about OZ.
The writers have been doing that a lot. Showing how the story we know has either been embellished or twisted in some way. Nice commentary on historical record and storytelling - how you can't always trust the historian or story-teller.
In the Pan arc - we're told Pan is the hero, Hook the villain, when in reality Pan is the villain and Hook is just a rogue.
In the OZ arc - we find out water didn't do a thing to Selean/Wicked Witch of the West. And she's green due to envy.
Pan = Rumple's father. (metaphor for father issues, relates back to Baelfire and even to Emma)
Selena = Regina's sister abandoned by Cora ( mother issues and envy related to siblings relates back to Snow White and to a degree Emma.)
* I'm curious if they plan on rewriting the history of the show for next season.
With everyone back in FTL?
Am enjoying the third season in some respects better than the first two seasons.
* "This Week One of these people will die!"
Sorry, stopped being shocking two years ago. When every drama does it, it sort of loses it's shock value. Now I go into television series betting myself on who they are going to kill off this year. (Hint - check out the actors availability. Anyone remember the good old days when they just had the character take off for a new job (George Clooney/ER) or a vision quest (OZ/Buffy) ?)
* I know we'll torture them for the information
Note to television writers - torture doesn't work. People will tell you anything, including lie when tortured. Invest in sodium penthol. Or find someone they care about. (Kudos to The 100 for showing how ineffective torture truly is. And kudos to the BlackList for following suite.)
* the rape trope
Was discussing fictional sex tropes with a friend this afternoon. I said that the problem with television, movies and books - is people either over-romanticized sex (erotica) or they made it crude, rude, and lewd (the Hangover and Girls). My friend pointed out - or they make it violent. Unfortunately television writers love sexual violence. Yet, seem for some reason to repeat the same trope over and over again.
It's either - "not-so-nice guy is on redemptive arc, but we're not ready to redeem him yet, let's have him rape the woman he's in love with - it will be controversial and spike ratings!" (I blame General Hospital, way back in the 1970s, for starting this trend. Although the fact that prime tv shows have done it, is another story.) OR it's let's spice up a story and have a strong honorable female character raped, to give her hubby something to angst over and fret about.
This is hardly helpful or realistic. It's becoming cliche.
4. Hair-pin plot twists
Yes, I know you need to make people watch it live in fear of spoilers. And get them to tweet about it. (I think twitter, the internet and social media has somehow managed to change how people tell stories. There's more of an immediacy to the story-telling than there was before. It has to be wrapped up faster. And told quicker. Also written and created faster. Plus, the creators now have the unfortunate pleasure of finding out how their audience received it. Gone are the days of writing television in a vacume, with no idea whether anyone was watching outside of the Neilsen ratings. Now - you can find out instantly. Is this a good thing? Yes and no. It has resulted in hair-pin plot twists, some of which feel terribly contrived and unnecessary. The story would have been better off without them. And less focus on building character and relationships - which requires more time (Marvel Agents of Shield). )
Plot-twists work best when they are not over-used. If you do a plot-twist every single episode or week, the audience begins to expect it. So when you don't do it - they are disappointed, and also, they begin to predict what will happen. If they can't predict what will happen - you risk falling into daytime soap opera plotting, where the plots make no sense so of course they can't predict it.
That said, I actually think some series utilize it well. I rather like how Scandal, Vampire Diaries, and Once Upon a Time uses the device.
2. Once Upon a Time is doing their red herring happy ending again. They lead you to believe everything is fine and dandy, that the characters will live happily ever after. But I checked the time - 8:46 pm, we had 10 minutes left, and a two hour season finale next week...so, you just know there's a twist coming up. Plus - if it ends too happily ever after, no one will turn in next year.
This is a clever approach to the series though - this way, if they discover they are being cancelled, all they have to do is chop off the last 15 minutes and the 2 hour season finale. More television writers should use this model.
* Definitely Regina's redemptive arc. Rumple, however, appears to have reverted back to form, unfortunately. Baelfire didn't do anyone any favors resurrecting him.
Also, are all the plot twists at the end of the season a direct or indirect result of something Rumplestilskin has done? Appears so. All roads lead to Rumple.
Makes me worry about Regina - if Selena succeeds in rewritting history, could this mean Regina will revert back as well?
Rather liked what Rumple told Selena, which is - no matter what you do you can't change who you are or what you become. He should know, he tried.
Regina also attempts to give Selena some insight, and states, wisely and it's rather self-aware for Regina, that she used to be Selena. Consumed with jealousy and vengeance. Thinking if she destroyed someone else - she'd be happy. Selena believes Regina had everything - but Selena didn't see that it was empty. Which is a nice take on jealousy and envy - the problem with coveting what others have is we seldom see what they don't or what we have. We think their life is better, it's not.
(ie. the grass is always greener, but it still have to be mowed, watered, and groomed.)
* Belle, you remain a romantic fool. It's okay that you love Rumple, but seriously why do you trust him?
Rumple asks why she's stood by him all this time. (I was thinking much the same thing. There's love, but there's also blatant stupidity.)
* Apparently in this verse, Water is not Selena's weakness, this was a myth that Selena spun to get Dorothy out of OZ and get the better of Glinda. Nice plot twist.
So Selena can get back to changing her's and Regina's past. Doesn't appear to care all that much about OZ.
The writers have been doing that a lot. Showing how the story we know has either been embellished or twisted in some way. Nice commentary on historical record and storytelling - how you can't always trust the historian or story-teller.
In the Pan arc - we're told Pan is the hero, Hook the villain, when in reality Pan is the villain and Hook is just a rogue.
In the OZ arc - we find out water didn't do a thing to Selean/Wicked Witch of the West. And she's green due to envy.
Pan = Rumple's father. (metaphor for father issues, relates back to Baelfire and even to Emma)
Selena = Regina's sister abandoned by Cora ( mother issues and envy related to siblings relates back to Snow White and to a degree Emma.)
* I'm curious if they plan on rewriting the history of the show for next season.
With everyone back in FTL?
Am enjoying the third season in some respects better than the first two seasons.