About tv plots... nothing spoilerific here
Here I'm going to try to explain my attitude about tv plots, after talking to a few people about it recently. It perfectly reflects how I feel about both BSG and Lost, among many MANY other shows.
Basically, I don't want to be part of some groupthink experiment to create plots. If that was a goal of mine, I'd probably be a writer. I'm not a writer, I don't want to be a writer, and I've watched enough tv and movies that I'm rarely if ever surprised by anything, yet I crave that surprise... although surprise might not be the right word because I don't always care about spoilers, because how you do something is often as important as that you did it, storywise. Anyway, I want there to be something for me to latch onto that will distinguish it from other things. Something that will make me stop and think. Like the end of the Dark Tower series did... love it or hate it, my mouth dropped open when I read it. Or the end of Only Forward (my exact thought was "wow, that's... unfortunate"). Basically, I want to have an opinion after the fact. Were I to think of what could happen plotwise with something, it can only go one of three ways...
1) the plot I think of could be better than the actual one, leading to disappointment.
2) the plot the actual writers come up with is better than I thought, leading to happiness.
3) we are in sync, and I am left feeling dissatisfied.
More often than not, number three is true. It's not a dissatisfaction that is soul-crushing, it just leads to me saying, "eh. was okay." Not brilliant, but entertaining. If everything else is done well enough, it doesn't even bother me, it's like a finely crafted novel that will be forgotten a week after you read it because there's nothing truly interesting about it, though it was technically good.
But I want number two to be the case. I want that so badly that I'm usually willing to let whatever show I'm watching play out without me seriously analyzing or debating even the larger arcs, never mind the minutiae. I respect that other people enjoy those things, but for me it robs the joie de vivre from the entire experience. After the fact, sure I'll debate and analyze.
Basically, what I'm saying is that I want to view the art itself and then interpret. Art can be collaborative, don't get me wrong. And obviously part of the attraction of it is that people can see different things in them. But I want to see it play out.
Basically, I don't want to be part of some groupthink experiment to create plots. If that was a goal of mine, I'd probably be a writer. I'm not a writer, I don't want to be a writer, and I've watched enough tv and movies that I'm rarely if ever surprised by anything, yet I crave that surprise... although surprise might not be the right word because I don't always care about spoilers, because how you do something is often as important as that you did it, storywise. Anyway, I want there to be something for me to latch onto that will distinguish it from other things. Something that will make me stop and think. Like the end of the Dark Tower series did... love it or hate it, my mouth dropped open when I read it. Or the end of Only Forward (my exact thought was "wow, that's... unfortunate"). Basically, I want to have an opinion after the fact. Were I to think of what could happen plotwise with something, it can only go one of three ways...
1) the plot I think of could be better than the actual one, leading to disappointment.
2) the plot the actual writers come up with is better than I thought, leading to happiness.
3) we are in sync, and I am left feeling dissatisfied.
More often than not, number three is true. It's not a dissatisfaction that is soul-crushing, it just leads to me saying, "eh. was okay." Not brilliant, but entertaining. If everything else is done well enough, it doesn't even bother me, it's like a finely crafted novel that will be forgotten a week after you read it because there's nothing truly interesting about it, though it was technically good.
But I want number two to be the case. I want that so badly that I'm usually willing to let whatever show I'm watching play out without me seriously analyzing or debating even the larger arcs, never mind the minutiae. I respect that other people enjoy those things, but for me it robs the joie de vivre from the entire experience. After the fact, sure I'll debate and analyze.
Basically, what I'm saying is that I want to view the art itself and then interpret. Art can be collaborative, don't get me wrong. And obviously part of the attraction of it is that people can see different things in them. But I want to see it play out.