There’s a story linked to by boingboing.net about why a certain TV programme called Lost doesn’t work. I suppose it’s not really surprising that someone who gets paid to write for New York magazine took over two series worth of programming to notice what I did within two episodes. What is surprising is that so many viewers are still tuning in to have their plonkers pulled. It beggars every convention of standard dramatic plotting. It’s like a commercial Waiting for Godot without the existentialism, humour, artistic value and sense of purpose.
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13/11/2006
I’m guessing you don’t have the luxury of ignoring it then…?
14/11/2006
Not the first few episodes, which played in the US when Courtney and I were still in the old place. Thankfully she eventually agreed with me that it’s pointless. Thing is, there’s some kind of promotional oddness that happens outside the TV show, where fans of the show search for clues on websites and in one case a book that’s somehow related to the series, but not explicitly. Anyhow, Courtney’s thinking about doing her PhD thesis on forms of interactive fiction – things where the audience has some say in what happens. She’ll have to explain it.
Lonelygirl is also going to get a mention in the thesis, if it happens. The girl’s got screen presence, even if the programme itself sometimes lacks internal logical consistency.
14/11/2006
I see it more as a long drawn out magic trick, but one where you can see quite clearly wha the magician is doing. Meg and I also turned off after two episodes, and it would have been one, if we weren’t being generous. It’s an inherently flawed concept in which they can’t maintain the mystery without testing the audience’s patience, and can’t reveal it without ending the show, and the lucrative income.
And if Courtney’s interested in Alternative Reality Games, she might want to look at this, which is getting ARG fans in a twist.
14/11/2006
I haven’t watched the show, so I can’t comment on its quality or its use (or misuse) of narrative devices. However, I think the reason why it took the author two years to “notice” the deficiencies in Lost where you saw them in two episodes is that you two are speaking about two different things; you think the show sucks in general, whereas he likes the show but thinks that it has just run for longer than its premise can sustain. Why he can’t notice that he’s getting his “plonker pulled” I can’t say; perhaps enjoys getting it pulled. God knows I do.
I am amused that his suggestion (which he seems to consider very novel) is to make it a mini-series; I distinctly recall having a discussion with you about how mini-series are far more common in the UK, even for shows that probably had quite a bit of steam in them.
14/11/2006
In the early part of the year a show called “Life on Mars” was screened about a policeman who gets inexplicably sent back in time. It was only about eight episodes and although good and kept you guessing about whether the cop really was in the seventies or in a coma, it’s already run its course and I can’t be bothered to see how they spin it out further series because it should have ended.
Not that it’s the same kind of series but “Casualty” should have ended well over a decade ago.If the audience is there and the cynical programme makers can get by with churning out a certain standard and are determined to hang on to the lifestyles that they have acquired whilst making that show then a show can run and run.
14/11/2006
Rehash: Yeah, it was rubbish in other ways, but the main problem was that it’s a mystery story where the mystery will be strung out as long as possible. When someone’s been kept waiting so long the final payoff can never be good enough to justify the teasing.
James: Just ’cause they can make money by churning the stuff out, doesn’t mean they should – or that one should refrain from criticising it.
I’m interested to see how the coma situation works in Life on Mars. Is it like the dream/reality divide you get in movies like Science of Sleep, or most of the stuff David Lynch does, or is it important to the plot in a literal manner? For example, in Life on Mars whether or not the cop’s in a coma is a yes/no/maybe question, and it could be that it’s best left deliberately unresolved. Even without the issue of whether or not the cop’s in a coma, there is still a degree of narrative satisfaction to be had from the programme because in other respects it offers a similar narrative satisfaction to other cop programmes. Bad guy does wrong, cops work out what happened, catch the guy and beat the shit out of him.
The question in Lost is why? which is more fundamental on a literal level, and there is little narrative satisfaction to be had from the programme until that question is answered. It’s simply not very rewarding to watch unless you like being kept in the dark for an inordinate amount of time. I’m just amazed at how many people are happy to be strung along like this. It probably says a lot about 21st century consumer culture.
14/11/2006
K: Courtney is interested in ARGs, so I showed her the link. I keep telling her about Kit Williams, who my friend Paul adores. She really needs to look at his stuff if she wants to work on ARGs. She’s not sure exactly which direction she’s going to take with it, but a lot of it looks like it’s going to be how people interpret and misinterpret narratives – ARGs, movies, books, and the new phenomenon of fictional video blogs, which aren’t movies in a traditional sense.
She was very interested in how people have started posting their own video blogs that are supposed to link into the Lonelygirl story. She’s also fascintated by the “performativity” of people who put their lives up on Myspace.
Frankly, I’m being a boring old fuddy-duddy about the whole thing because my interest lies in old-fashioned celluloid and stories that are told over one and a half to three(ish) hours with little opportunity for interaction beyond hoots, whistles or snogging in the back row.
15/11/2006
There’s something undeniably compelling about these games, but if the central product is strong enough, they wouldn’t need the games to keep interest going. That the most famous ARGs are associated with Lost and Spielberg’s AI abortion says something I think.
17/11/2006
Perhaps they could re-imagine (urgh!) Lost as a series of commercials to
slot between real programmes? You know, just 30 second grabs of people – “So, we’re still here…”
Have you managed to see any of The State Within out there, yet? Kinda like 24 meets The Wire. Without (so far) the episodes of amnesia and Dennis Hopper’s bizarre ‘eastern European’ accent.
17/11/2006
N: They could trim down the sequences that make up an episode until they’re the length of the average commercial, thus making room for more commercials. I bet nobody would notice. Most of the time with American TV it feels like the programmes are squeezed in around the adverts rather than the other way around.
I haven’t seen The State Within, or even heard of it. Lots of people are recommending Rome, Battlestar Galactica, and Deadwood, but being me, I’ll probably fail to see any of them. Of course, all the quality TV programmes aren’t on the channels we get with our “standard cable” ($12/month) package.
I worked it out – in the US if you want to get as many programmes of a quality similar to those which you get in the UK you have to take out a subscription to a cable or satellite company which, over the course of a year, will cost you more than double the license fee.
18/11/2006
Well, Deadwood’s worth it just to watch Lovejoy eff and blind his way through every week…!
18/11/2006
N: Yup. That sounds pretty fun. Apparently he’s in line to be the voice of Iorek Byrnison in the His Dark Materials films. Oddly enough if it’s just his voice I can imagine it working.
18/11/2006
You may be glad to know that “Lost” has been bought by Sky for its 3rd series, so even fewer people will now watch it here. Sky take-up in UK is a lot less than they’d like you to believe, so “Lost”, “Deadwood” and others – after initial mega-hype – stagger on into limbo, mainly unregarded.
20/11/2006
On the subject of His Dark Materials (and yes, I heard the Iorek Swearengen rumour, too) – while I’m concerned that the script has had such high writer turnover, the fact that it’s got both the new Bond (as Lord Asriel) and his latest squeeze from Casino Royale, the delectable Eva Green (as Serafina Pekkala – though a trailer mash-up with The Dreamers would be interesting, and disturbingly arousing..) is intriguing. Though if Ms Kidman is anywhere near it, given her form of late, I’m far from uncrossing my fingers at present.
21/11/2006
I’m not convinced there’s any way it can be any good at all. Not with Hollywood’s unwillingness to tackle the central themes. That and Nicole Kidman sucks.
22/11/2006
Steel Warrior Bears. As long as they’re in it, and double-hard too, I’ll be happy. I suspect The State Within (which I’m not watching) will turn up on PBS or BBC America, but not for a while. Actually, the Beeb probably got funding from some US network or another, and that’ll hint at where it’ll get sown over there. Google says it’s a BBC America co-production, so that’s where it’ll be.
Circular!
29/11/2006
Doesn’t anyone get it?
It’s not about the big story behind it all – there never was one when they created it.
It’s about the fracking characters, and putting them through hell, or Hell if you belive that idea. People are the interesting thing about the series, not the plot. Plot has maybe two minutes per episode, the rest is character back story and charcters changing from the situation they’re presented with (or, beautifully, not redeeming themselves at all).
12/02/2007
Which would be fine, if the characters were written to any decent standard…