C'mon People!

[lillibet]

It's late and I should be in bed, but I had this thought tonight and felt the need to share it. The problem (let's just assume for a moment that there is one, okay?) with our media isn't too much sex and violence, it's too little communication, too few healthy responses.

Someone once related to me a conversation they'd had with a television writer who explained that the secret to keeping soap operas (I think this person wrote for Dynasty...one of the prime time soaps) going is that no one can ever have a healthy response. As I've been catching up with TV over the weekend, it's been piling up until I found myself screaming at Starbuck "JUST FUCKING TELL THE MAN...HOW MUCH WORSE COULD THAT POSSIBLY BE?!" It's not just her. It's every character on Lost, most of the ones on the O.C....they aren't allowed to have healthy responses, to trust each other, to communicate openly and honestly.

And that got me thinking, no wonder people do it so badly in real life! What models do we have of healthy responses? Even on the super-saturated sitcoms with the oh-so-tidy resolutions in the last five minutes in which we all learn valuable lessons about honesty and responsibility...the whole reason for the resolution is because the rest of the show has been spent with people being idiots, trying to get away with their lies and their bullshit and their stupid plans. How on earth can we learn any better? Yeah, pain and lots of it--I'll drink to that.

I'm hearing the argument that it's the unhealthy responses that generate plot, but come on...are we that uncreative? Can there be no drama in resolution, in honesty, in compassion? Can't Starbuck just tell Apollo she's in love with him and see what happens? Does it make it any easier for everyone on Lost to bear their secrets alone? Can't we risk a little vulnerability, a little humiliation, for the possible reward of understanding, connection, communication? Isn't that dramatic?

Comments

[entirelysonja.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with you. There are some movies, tv shows, and books that I just can't watch/read because everyone is always being so stupid.

It's one of the reasons I tend to prefer shows like Law & Order and CSI -- sure, the main characters sometimes do stupid things, but at least most of the point of the show is catching the criminal.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

are we that uncreative?

Well, probably not, but television operates under a number of constraints which--as many people have observed--don't necessarily work in the direction of creativity. One is simply the economic reality of the business: soap operas exist to sell soap. So if one really creative script works (at selling soap) no better than one which isn't, but the more creative script takes more effort, there's no particular incentive to produce it.

Another is that producers tend to follow trends: a few years ago, game shows; more recently, "reality" TV. In that environment, it's not surprising that scripts often follow each other down the same dysfunctional road.

Moreover, we may be seeing a situation arise where people raised on unhealthy responses expect their fiction to reflect unhealthy responses. There are a lot of people who behave like idiots, for whatever reason, and a realistic--to them--portrayal may require idiotic behavior.

Finally, it's clear the "these people are all idiots" approach succeeds on some level even with people who think they're all idiots; it's clear you're engaged with these scripts, even if it's only to post about your frustration with the lousy writing.

[istemi.livejournal.com]

Can't Starbuck just tell Apollo she's in love with him and see what happens?

Until you mentioned "him", I had assumed that since Starbuck was changed to a female character Apollo had become female too.

The show has just become a much less interesting proposition.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

There have been times when this sort of issues has frustrated me to no end. I'd sit and yell at the screen "Just tell him/her! Just be f&*king honest and it'll all be fine!! What's the problem here???" etc. Or in the case of a movie, rant about it afterwards. And then people tell me I need to work on my suspension of disbelief. :)

I know that often that would eliminate the drama, or the comedy, or the plot, or whatever, so maybe it's just a issue of lack of imagination. I wonder if more of this in the media causes people to think it's more common in real life and therefore do it more, or if its presence in media is a reflection of real behavior that is more rampant than I realize.

[johnromkey.livejournal.com]

I think you're missing the point.

The characters, if they're interesting, are informed by the way people behave. If Starbuck were able to just tell Apollo she was in love with him, she wouldn't be Starbuck. She wouldn't be true to certain essentials of her personality. Can't she just tell Apollo she's in love with him? No, of course she can't. Maybe you just don't like Starbuck, but that's who she is.

I'm not sure what you're expecting the folks on Lost to tell one another without them failing to be true to themselves. Of course Locke's not going to tell anyone he couldn't walk before the crash. He's scared to. He wants to protect this information. He wants to protect his ability to walk. And he doesn't want to get off the island. Of course Sawyer's not going to be open about anything, he's a con-man and it's not in his nature. Kate's a criminal, do you expect she's really going to go around telling people who have no reason to know this and risk their reactions?

But more than this - these shows are supposed to be dramas. I see you're complaining that of course people don't behave better because entertainment doesn't provide them with better role-models. But I don't see "Lost" or "Battlestar Galactica" as shows that are trying to do that - they're trying to tell a story, dramatically. Do you want them to do this by representing people unrealistically? The shows that come to mind that do that are the Star Trek shows, where everyone is actualized and (mostly) says what's on their mind and is bland and unrealistic as hell, and the stories have all become cardboard.