Binge Watching

This is something that has been nagging me for a while.  Netflix has ruined certain TV shows for me.  The reason why is simple, because I can watch a whole season or even a whole show in the course of a few days has allowed me to see the huge flaws that exist in some shows writing. 

Some people would say that I’m being nitpicky about some of the things I’m going to bring up.  My response is, so what?  Other shows, other forms of entertainment don’t make these kinds of glaring mistakes.  Why are these shows allowed a pass?  And I’m not just referring to those shows that are canceled for being bad.  Some of these shows won awards.

First off just a reminder I don’t do negative reviews beyond saying “Wasn’t my kind of book/movie/TV show”, so I won’t be naming any of these shows.

Okay now for some of the issues I’ve been having.  The first that comes to mind is ignoring character development between seasons.  What happens in the pilot gets a pass in my book, in the pilot things are still being sorted out.  The actors and directors are trying to get a good handle on the characters and where the show is going.  And I’m fine with that.  I expect the characters to change a bit even during the first few episodes. 

What bothers me is when the writers take a clearly defined aspect of a character’s personality and ignore/change it to make a joke or to tell the story they want.  Now if this happens organically, through experiences that character has gone through that’s different.  The issue comes when they have a character make a decision completely against their nature, like the person who is afraid of being alone suddenly wandering off by themselves.  I just want smack someone upside the head.  Manufacturing artificial drama is not necessary. 

In my opinion it’s a sign of laziness on the part of the writer.  If the story or characters as they’ve been crafted don’t meet the requirements for the gag/scene that is being presented then change it, not the characters.  I already have to suspend certain amounts of disbelief, don’t strain it anymore by making the characters act out of character.

Now some of the shows I’m talking about are sitcoms and some would argue that they should get a pass.  I say, why?  Why should comedy get a pass and drama not?  Shouldn’t we rate all entertainment by the same standards?  If that’s the case then what if I, as a writer, decide that I really need my characters to be completely different in the next book in a series, but I don’t want to put in the time to give them that kind of character development, what then?  Do I get a pass if it’s funny?

People like to point out that the writers on these shows have no time, or there’s a group of them, or other excuses, but why do they get a pass?  Their job is to write entertaining shows, so shouldn’t they make certain that they are consistent, so people don’t get annoyed by glaring character inconsistencies, or glaring plot holes?

Before anyone starts pointing fingers back at me I know, intimately, my own writing flaws.  I’ve had them pointed out to me by English teachers, members of my writers group, my wife numerous times.  I’m trying to fix them, but the “entertainment” industry just keeps on churning out garbage and then they get awards for it.

In the end is one blog post by one relatively unknown fiction writer really going to make a difference?  Not likely.  Do I feel better having got this off my chest?  Most definitely.  Now hopefully I can start posting more regularly, but don’t hold out any hope on that…