JB Dryden made the comment that television produces more a consistent quality of Speculative fiction than film. That got me asking myself: “why?”
JB went on to mention the tendency of film to grab the nearest Specfic novel as the basis of their projects. Television does the same on occasion, but with a slight difference:
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TV tends to use the book as a loose basis for the show’s pilot while movies tend to follow the book more closely. Filmmakers often worry about how the book’s fan base will react when Character X doesn’t throw his hat on the table as he does on Page 523 of the novel. TV creators often add elements (e.g. additional characters) to the mix and don’t worry so much about the book fans.
Another point to consider is that TV has it own original Speculative shows that are not based on any books. These shows have produced trends of their own. A few years back, some television critics were discussing shows like Lost, Heroes, and The 4400, to name a few. Well, actually, it was much less of a discussion and more of a shredding and the crux of it went something like this:
These shows won’t ever work, because:
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There are too many characters;
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There are too many divergent storylines that don’t seem to have anything do to with each other (in the first few episodes).
Obviously, these critics were wrong, because not only have these shows survived but the number of Specfic shows with similar “problems” has increased during the last couple of years.
However, the success of these “problems” tells us that TV writers (and creators) have realised that:
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You can’t underestimate your audience’s intelligence or their ability to process a large amounts of diverse (and/or incomplete) information (as would be the case with too many characters and too many storylines);
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Specfic viewers are always looking for something different.
I think the above lessens aren’t just for Movie writers, but for novel and short fiction writers as well.
Why do TV and movies so rarely get spec fic right? It’s because the people making these shows still see them as “product”, looking for all sorts of tie-ins and spin-offs and merchandising possibilities instead of creating a terrific, ground-breaking show. The writing is uniformly terrible because spec fic audiences (and readers) are more interested in technical gimmicks and special effects rather than characterization and literate writing. If spec fans demand better programming and refuse to watch the crap being put out MAYBE their movies, books and shows will get better. Some critical thinking required here, people, stop acting like gobsmacked fans and demand the best from the folks writing and making the shows you claim to want to watch…
I would agree with you about “Lost” but only for the two seasons. The end of that second season, leading into the third season, was really quite disappointing for me. I think the writers that took over after JJ Abahams left weren’t entirely up-to-snuff on what was going on with the characters, and they focused too much on a) the trio of Jack, Sawyer, and Kate and b) a relatively non-linear plot that didn’t answer any questions already posed.
The first season was solid. You had a few questions: what is the creature? Who are the others? How will people survive? What is with Locke and the hatch? You got answers to those by the end of the season (at least for the most part).
The second season was solid, too, though not as much. Who are these new people? Who (still) are the others – really? What do the numbers in the hatch do? Again, we got some answers.
I think TV shows fall prey sometimes – despite their best efforts and their successes – to marketing and media hype. Fans begin to have favorite characters, so writers put them in more, and the story suffers for it – especially with a cast as large as “Lost” has.
“Heroes” suffered a bit at the end of the second season from that, too. We’ll see what happens. That is a very good show.
Thanks for the mention.