Why We Watch
This post is in answer to Sam Butler requesting that I reproduce a conversation we had back in November. Of course I have absolutely no memory of what I said, but according to Sam it was thoughtful, so I’m going to try and remember that, apparently, I was once brilliant.
As I recall this was in answer to why characters on television shows will make a choice that seems totally out of character, or against their best interests simply to keep them in a relationship, or on the island, or working as a cop when you’ve won the lottery, etc. Basically why television characters are static.
I think it’s a question of the need that television fills in our entertainment lives. Watching a TV show isn’t as intense as watching a movie. The events in a television series take place over weeks, months, even years. Most successful movies cover a very limited amount of time.
We don’t bond with movie characters as deeply as we bond to our TV friends. People tune in week after week, year after year to see if House ever stops being such a bastard and finds love, or if Buffy and Angel will ever find happiness, or Lee Adama will ever come out of his father’s shadow, etc. etc. Not that we every want House to find love, or Buffy and Angel move in together. We have an emotional connection to these people, and as viewers _don’t want them to change_.
Our lives are stressful and chaotic right now. It’s comforting to come back to a situation and a group of friends that are always going to be there for you. Tony Soprano isn’t going to become a priest and dedicate his life to working among the lepers. Buffy isn’t going to decide to go to work for Exxon-Mobile and become an executive.
Daniel Abraham www.bram452.livejournal.com has a theory that readers/viewers bond and identify with the first characters they meet in a book or a TV series. I think he may be on to something and that’s why it’s very hard to replace that first beloved character. When Linda Hamilton aka Catherine left BEAUTY AND THE BEAST the viewers never accepted the new leading lady. (Whose name I’ve completely forgotten. Indeed, I’ve forgotten everything about her. But god help me I remember Vincent and Catherine.)
So, here’s my bottom line — television is comfort food. It’s a plate of pasta or a piece of chocolate cake after a really bad and stressful day.
March 31st, 2008 at 9:26 am
Thanks, Melinda. Very appropriate you posted this on my birthday - an excellent present. This is basically what I remember you saying in November too.
A thought occurrs to me based on the way people’s viewing habits are changing. Maybe one of the reason’s I’m bothered by what I see as static storytelling in shows like Battlestar is that I’m not watching it on a regular, week by week basis. Instead I’m watching it in three and four episode bursts over one or two days, as the discs come in from Netflix. Maybe I’m not really watching this as a TV show at all, but as a movie. Perhaps that’s why I keep wanting more.
In the old days, no one ever expected anything more than episodes from TV. Five-O and Star Trek were only about that week’s story. I think the X-Files changed all that by introducing major themes that ran throughout the show. The X-Files ultimately failed by never resolving those issues, but then Buffy came along, with perfect story arcs arranged in each season, and raised the bar.
I think Buffy’s storytelling has spoiled me completely.
March 31st, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Happy birthday, Sam.
Actually the networks and local stations hated shows that built on each subsequent episode. They want to be able to show a repeat and not worry about the order they are shown. Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, The Fugitive were all very much stand alone stories.
I don’t think modern viewers would stand for that. Although the success of Law and Order makes me an idiot for even saying that. I don’t know. Why do some shows require this sense of continuity and other shows you don’t really care?
March 31st, 2008 at 3:56 pm
The late great Jerry Orbach suggested that what made Law & Order so appealing was its ritualistic nature. It was not just that each episode was stand-alone, but also that it was structured in a very specific way that never changed. Rituals by nature have a comforting, relaxing element — hence the paradox of a show all about murder and crime being comforting. It also explains why the show has survived so many cast-changes … how many complete turn-overs in cast have there been in the show’s 18 years of existence? Four or five? But it doesn’t matter, because the ritual remains the same.
One of the most bizarre examples of a recent show that was far too rigidly “status quo”-y is Smallville. Here’s a show whose whole premise is that you’re seeing the evolution of a character from boy to man to superman … change and growth is right there in the basic concept. And yet the show spent years spinning its wheels and would often go through rigorously contrived plots to go back to the status quo whenever it was disrupted (e.g., season finales). I don’t know if the show is still like that — I ultimately couldn’t get myself to keep watching. But it was really ridiculous for a while there.
As for why some shows require strong continuity while other ones work better as a sequence of stand-alone events … could it be as simple as that it’s just two different types of show? I mean in the same way that a drama and a comedy are two different types? You know, one would never ask “Why do shows like Seinfeld make us laugh but ER makes us cry?” (I don’t know if ER is the best example there…).
Melinda, what are your thoughts on “Star Trek The Next Generation”? (Sorry if that’s a loaded question …) That was a show whose fans were inherently continuity-obsessed in the sense of not wanting any contradictions from episode to episode, yet the characters seemed locked in place, developmentally — i.e., poor Data never got anymore human, even in seven years. Do you think Next Gen would have been better and/or more successful if it had changed as much in its seven years as, say, Buffy?
April 5th, 2008 at 12:51 am
The Sarah Connor Chronicles was very much a single story arc. I really enjoyed that show — and generally speaking I don’t watch TV at all except for news and some movies. There’s no other series I’m following now.