Serial Show Structure and Atlantis
Oct. 27th, 2007 07:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chase_acow
I've thought about this a little bit, but I'm very bad at applying the rules of academia to fandom. So, instead of a well written, cohesive essay you get me rambling and probably contradicting myself. I just needed to jot this down so I can hopefully let it go.
When you have a weekly television show, I guess there are only about two ways to go about making the episodes and storyline.
One - It could be a far reaching arc that connects episode one to episode twenty, and often employs such techniques as continuance, and character call backs. Sure there will be subplots and the occasional stand alone episode but everything is incredibly cohesive. Same main cast vs the same main obstacle and it's a journey you take with the characters where you can definitively see them grow and change. Examples include Buffy and Angel,and most soap opera style dramedies (almost everything on the CW actually).
Two - The season is made up mostly of standalone episodes, the timeline of which can be changed at the drop of a hat because though there is a tenuous linking throughout there is little structure. It's easier for the casual viewer to skip a few episodes or join in during the middle of the season, and so there's less connection to the characters. Examples include House, Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis, and CSI.
"Stand alone" episodes are actually good for character development. I think of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's season two episode The Zeppo which gives time to Xander and follows him around for the POV. We learned a lot more about Xander in that one episode than in any other and it's a good one. But when that's all it is, I find it so hard to connect the characters to one another and then to me in any meaningful way.
What I dislike most about Stargate Atlantis is that except for certain cast changes, you could pick out an episode from the second season and easily insert it into the third and vice versa. I'm too needy in the storytelling department to be wooed by a beautiful cast alone. In episodes like Reunion and Travelers we find out more about the characters, but is it actually character development? At the end of the show, are we, or more importantly the character actually in a different place (either mentally or even physically) than when the episode started? It often seems to me like the development happens off screen or in between episodes and we're just supposed to assume it happens by filling in the blanks ourselves.
Am I being unreasonably harsh here? I honestly can't tell anymore. Feel free to tell me I'm a dope, I really don't mind if you think I am.
On a related note:
I suppose it would be a little tacky to start up a postcard campaign for Joe Mallozzi? Something like:
Joe M - How are you such an asshole? No really.
I swear, my next Atlantis post will be happier, because I can find things to enjoy and that's what I'm going to focus on for the rest of the year. Seriously, hold me to it.
When you have a weekly television show, I guess there are only about two ways to go about making the episodes and storyline.
One - It could be a far reaching arc that connects episode one to episode twenty, and often employs such techniques as continuance, and character call backs. Sure there will be subplots and the occasional stand alone episode but everything is incredibly cohesive. Same main cast vs the same main obstacle and it's a journey you take with the characters where you can definitively see them grow and change. Examples include Buffy and Angel,and most soap opera style dramedies (almost everything on the CW actually).
Two - The season is made up mostly of standalone episodes, the timeline of which can be changed at the drop of a hat because though there is a tenuous linking throughout there is little structure. It's easier for the casual viewer to skip a few episodes or join in during the middle of the season, and so there's less connection to the characters. Examples include House, Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis, and CSI.
"Stand alone" episodes are actually good for character development. I think of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's season two episode The Zeppo which gives time to Xander and follows him around for the POV. We learned a lot more about Xander in that one episode than in any other and it's a good one. But when that's all it is, I find it so hard to connect the characters to one another and then to me in any meaningful way.
What I dislike most about Stargate Atlantis is that except for certain cast changes, you could pick out an episode from the second season and easily insert it into the third and vice versa. I'm too needy in the storytelling department to be wooed by a beautiful cast alone. In episodes like Reunion and Travelers we find out more about the characters, but is it actually character development? At the end of the show, are we, or more importantly the character actually in a different place (either mentally or even physically) than when the episode started? It often seems to me like the development happens off screen or in between episodes and we're just supposed to assume it happens by filling in the blanks ourselves.
Am I being unreasonably harsh here? I honestly can't tell anymore. Feel free to tell me I'm a dope, I really don't mind if you think I am.
On a related note:
I suppose it would be a little tacky to start up a postcard campaign for Joe Mallozzi? Something like:
Joe M - How are you such an asshole? No really.
I swear, my next Atlantis post will be happier, because I can find things to enjoy and that's what I'm going to focus on for the rest of the year. Seriously, hold me to it.
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no subject
Date: 2007-10-28 03:30 am (UTC)So they're fighting the Wraith, Genii, Replicators or whatever, and the writers have this great idea like hey- let's have a truce between Atlantis and a rogue hive ship (or Koyla or Michael etc). Then they throw it away in a single episode, or if we're "lucky" a two parter or separated episodes. An idea like that could have supported half a dozen episodes and been the link that I needed to string the episodes along like beads on a necklace. Maybe that's not it for everyone, but that's how I like my tv.
The best segue I can think of right now is after Pegasus Project when Rodney is talking about the McKay-Carter bridge of Stargates. I can't remember that this is often the case. In Travelers for instance, there's nothing that tells us that it comes after Doppleganger. I'm pretty sure that it could have happened in the second season without much suspension of disbelief on my part. The team is a little - teamier, but that's about it that I could see. Shep is still dorky yet snarky and weird around girls, he's smart and thinks on his feet, but lacks that push to develop him more.
Thinking about it, Rodney is the only character we've seen an actual change in. During SG-1 he was a total jerk. In Season one he was a jerk with redeemable qualities, and in season two, he became a guy that is sometimes a jerk who is still flawed but has learned the value of teamwork and to some extent friendship. Maybe I'm wanting more angst or reflection from a show that is essentially only supposed to be action-adventure movie popcorn for the brain. You enjoy it when it's there, but the second it's gone you can't even remember what it tastes like.
until the time is right both plot-wise and ratings-wise to bring them to a head.
Except that rating can't have much to do with it when they have the entire season shot and in the can before it starts to air. JoeM has basically said they write an episode at a time, and sure they leave loose ends so they can come back to it, but it never feels premeditated to me.
Their season-wide arcs are just too tenuous for me. If season two is about fighting the wraith then why have so many eps devoted to something else? (Intruder, Epiphany, Critical Mass, Grace Under Pressure, The Tower, The Long Goodby, Coup D'etat to name a few.)
In season two, the wraith are given the back seat and just about five episodes. The Asurans are set up as an enemy but are given only three episodes in the beginning of the season. Then, for the season ender we're supposed the think back and remember what a threat they are.
Personally, there's just not enough of a connection there.