Black Holes

So in my previous post on Genre, I mentioned suspension of disbelief.  How a show establishes the rules of its world and then all is fair after that, as long as it stays within those boundaries.  But what about when an otherwise fantastic show breaks that rule?

The most glaring and recent example that I can think of is the whole time travel storyline on Lost.  I buy the polar bear on the island.  I buy the smoke monster.  I buy the mysterious, whispery "others."  I buy the mystery of the island as a whole.  But when you spend a season establishing what that mystery entails, it's not fair to suddenly introduce a Giant Rule Change in the fifth season.  Now time travel?  And what about that whole "we're moving the island" deal?

Now, I love Lost.  And I will definitely talk more about it a lot (and likely have a FAVES edition on the topic), but this is just the sort of jump-the-shark sort of nonsense that I have problems with.  It doesn't cause me to hate the show.  It ruins some of the literary magic behind it -- makes it slightly less analyzable from a literary perspective.

There are examples of this on every awesome show.  Buffy.  So when she dies, another slayer is supposed to be called right?  [Spoiler Alert:  if you haven't watched Buffy and may some day partake in its excellence, please skip this paragraph.]  And when she dies at the beginning of Season 1, that happens.  But what about when she dies at the end of Season 5?  No new Slayer!  Which is extra annoying in Season 7 when they keep talking about how Buffy has to die for a new slayer to get called.  Really, though, I think Faith would have to die, according to the rules that have already been established.  And how did Angel get into Giles' house to set up that macabre death scene when he'd never been invited?

I think that the reason that this happens to shows is that, unlike other forms of literature like books and movies, television shows have indefinite time horizons over which they tell their stories.  When you establish rules at the outset, it is hard to know how rigid to make them because really, you're trying to make it to next season without getting hacked.  You define the rules and tell the story for the first season, and if you make it to next season, you work with the universe that you created for the first.  And sometimes you have to tweak it.  If you want to see an awesome example of how a show can do this brilliantly without losing credibility, check out Dollhouse Season 1, Epitaph 1 (written when the creators were almost certain they were about to get canceled), and then Season 2 and Epitaph 2.

Dollhouse: Season One (here it is on Amazon, if you're interested!)

So I think that this can at least partially get at why Alias went all supernatural a couple of seasons in, Lost began to randomly jump through time (also perhaps to tell portions of the story they couldn't figure out how to tell otherwise), the ubervamps suddenly became killable in the end of Buffy etc.

But some things are always certain.  Don't doubt Buffy when she tells you someone is a demon.  Don't mess with Veronica Mars.  And in Angel, anything can happen (although there is definitely an interesting discussion here on the overlapping but separately ordered universes of Buffy and Angel).

In the comments:  What plot black hole bothers you the most, in what show?  I know there are so many that I didn't touch on, and I'd love to find out what you are thinking!

Genre and Judginess

If you know me, you know that some of my favorite shows have definite sci-fi elements: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Lost. Some of my favorite books are by Stephen King, or feature hobbits and elves.  Some of my favorite movies occur in a galaxy far, far away. This frequently causes me to be embarrassed when I talk about my faves with new people. (I imagine that while they are nodding and smiling they are thinking “You love Lord of the Rings and Buffy the Vampire Slayer? What a nerd you must be!”)

In the United States, there is a stigma associated with science fiction and fantasy programming that [I hear] doesn’t exist in other countries. And it’s kind of a shame because some of the best literature out there fits squarely into those categories. People who reject books, films, or television shows because they have a strong association with nerd culture are really missing out – I know, because I used to be one of them. My Critical Elements of Literature may not jibe with yours, but I hope they at least share an absence of genre restrictions. To me, that’s just a question about taste, not about merit.

There’s a difference between suspension of disbelief and inconsistency in literature, regardless of the genre or venue. Buffy’s universe has vampires (among other demons), Lost’s has the smoke monster (among other mysteries), and Firefly’s has space ships (but not aliens). All of this is perfectly acceptable to me, as long as the rules don’t change partway through. Or if they do change, the shift should come with an explanation that jibes with its home universe. [Side note: this brings me to a whole separate segment about when the rules inexplicably do change in some of the best programs, why this may be, and why it makes me crazy. More on this later.]

So the moral of this post is: don’t judge a piece of programming by its genre. It is fiction after all; who cares if it couldn’t actually happen in the real world?   If that’s what you want out of television, then perhaps reality tv or documentaries are more your style (these are also sometimes great).  But the wonderful thing about fiction is that it gives us an opportunity to ask ourselves “what if the world was this way?” A little suspension of disbelief goes a long way toward making the whole experience more enjoyable. That is why most of my favorite lit shows have some sci-fi, fantasy or otherwise “unrealistic” elements to them. I don’t care what genre category a show falls into – I just care whether it is good.