Literary television

[ivyfic]

I finished watching the first season of Deadwood last week. On the last DVD, there's an interview with the show's creator, producer, and (almost) sole writer, David Milch. In it he talks about the role of language in defining order in a lawless society, the nature of language and profanity in the Old West, how the Hayes code led to the erroneous cliche of the laconic cowboy (if he's prohibited from cursing, well, best to have him not speak at all), the difficulty of integrating fictional and historical figures, etc. etc.

This interview gelled for me the problem that I have watching TV shows like Deadwood. On the one hand, I am in awe of the attention to detail and the amount of thought that went into the writing. Deadwood is filled with complicated, multi-layered, detailed, "rigorously specific" (as Milch said) characters. The women, in particular, are fantastically done, especially given that the show is set in a time and place where men outnumbered women twenty to one and 95% of women were prostitutes. It is worth it, to me, just to watch for the concious way he uses language--different characters speak differently, and that difference says everything about their social status and their background.

However. The show has no plot. Milch says he never plans things out in advance; he just lets the characters speak to him. Which is how I think he can portray such complexities. But there is no plot, no forward momentum at all. I've noticed this same malady in a number of other critically acclaimed shows recently, Mad Men in particular, but also to some extent Rome. And call me a stickler, but I like my well-drawn characters to exist within a plot.

In Deadwood, you have this tension between Swearengen, who is always trying to manipulate things to his advantage, and Bullock, who would rather not get involved but has this darn moral compass he can't shake. If the show had a plot, they would wrestle over some specific issue and tension would build until we saw which way it went. Given the opposition of these characters, it's almost amazing for there not to be a plot. But there isn't.

Another example from Deadwood--toward the end of the season, the minister dies of a brain tumor. This takes a number of episodes. But even though this is a story with an inevitable conclusion, it still isn't a plot. It's just something that happens.

The first season of Mad Men has an ongoing plot to some extent, in the mystery of who Don Draper is and the building tension over whether his secrets will be revealed. However, the bulk of the show is not concerned with this. Most scenes are things like Betty Draper feels malaise and drives her car into a ditch and her children laugh. NO PLOT.

Rome has a plot insofar as it follows historical events. The last few episodes are definitely plotted. But still, for the most part, it is just stuff happening.

Compare this to something like Back to the Future which manages to have vivid characters without a single extraneous scene. I rewatched it recently, and every single scene serves the plot, as well as the characters.

I guess my annoyance with this is two-fold. One, these shows are heaped with accolades, and I wish as much critical attention was spent on good plotting, because I think that's just as difficult to pull off. The second is that I really enjoy historically accurate television, so I want to like these shows. But not a one compels me to marathon a season the way I just did Fringe, because not a one has an inexorable mounting tension that I must see through.

The shows are essentially literary television, which, like literary novels, often let themselves off the hook for having a story that goes anywhere. But unlike literary novels that exist between two covers and have a beginning and an ending by virtue of the format, literary television just goes on and on until its canceled.

I will probably continue to check out these shows from time to time, but I doubt I'll become a fan of any of them.

Comments

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

This is exactly what I LIKE about Deadwood. It doesn't feel the need to say "okay, we're now going to shoehorn these amazing characters into a railroaded plot just so you have a story you can follow. This is slice-of-life stuff, which means shit happens and half of the time it doesn't go anywhere or make any sense or end in any real way." There are plenty of shows where I would hate that, and I freely admit that I am usually a plot nut, but in something like this where they are portraying such believable people in such a realistic setting, I think it works.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I'm not asking for a shoe-horned plot. There are so many things happening that could have been nudged into being plots but weren't. I just want one of them to be developed enough to hold my attention.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

The thing is, with something like Deadwood where the characters are so rich and the language so fascinating, I think having a more developed plot could actually detract from the other elements by drawing attention away from them.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I think plot is antithetical to Milch's writing process. And that's fine. The show is what it is.

I just object to a holding up of plotlessness as a virtue. Books that are all plot and no character are ridiculed (though often bestsellers; see Da Vinci Code). I think it's equally flawed to have all character and no plot. And sometimes I feel like, insofar as plot is a focus of genre, devalued fiction, sometimes no direction in the storytelling is regarded as proof of quality.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

Well, I hope you know that I don't devalue plot. Far from it. And if I watched a movie or show that was boring and plotless, I would both criticize it and stop watching it.

I think that television and movies are different than books, however. You can get away with things in one that you can't in the other. And in TV and film what you can get away with is fascinating visuals and vocals and dialogue and facial expressions and so many little things that really come to life and draw you in and distract you from other elements or the lack thereof. I don't think a book would work if it was all character and no plot, but it can work on screen if you have good actors and a good director to give it that necessary appeal.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

So what you're saying is television has enough shiny that you'll ignore flawed storytelling. No argument there! Let me show you my bookshelves full of DVDs with flawed storytelling. That doesn't make it not flawed, though.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

Well, not exactly--what I'm saying is that a lot of things go into good storytelling, and even if one aspect is weak it can still be a good or at least enjoyable story. For example, if someone's telling a story and is amazing with voices and facial expressions and turns of phrase, you're less likely to notice or care that the story is the same predictable old thing you've heard or read a million times. Visual storytelling--which definitely includes graphic novels--has the advantage over prose fiction because it has more tools at its disposal so the basic narrative elements don't have to carry as much weight. A Deadwood novel would need a real plot. The TV show, not so much.

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend Breaking Bad if you'd prefer strong cable TV characters with a strong plot. I'm still working through Season 3, but Seasons 1 and 2 had very clear plot arcs. Season 2's finale in particular is one of the most impressive and devastating episodes of television I've ever seen.

[regen-child.livejournal.com]

I've been having some problems with a lot of media for the same reasons too.
There's been a lot of "where's the plot ...?" with a lot of TV and movies lately.

Character study is fine - great, really - but a story needs actual direction as well...needs some long-range, plot-driven ongoing tensions in order to create long-term investments in the story...and the characters.

One of the reasons I'm beginning to lose interest in shows like for example - True Blood - is that it's all shock value and things happening - but no real long-term, compelling plot situation that's actually going somewhere.

It's like there's been this vital loss of how to tell a cohesive, beginning-middle-and-end, plot-driven story.

As for movies - god, everything lately is a sequel or the continuation of an ongoing story where things happen, but nothing really does...

Yeah...not liking this trend.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I've watched a couple of these types of shows lately, and I always come away with a sense that, I can tell they're well done shows, but I don't like them. There's a thingness about them. And watching that interview I was like aha! The thingness is lack of plot! Now I can more reliably predict when I won't like a show. No plot, no like.

[alizarin-nyc.livejournal.com]

I did feel a tension in Deadwood, which had me mainlining it like a junkie. And also very frustrated when it ended without resolution and was left dangling.

BUT. I had watched it the first time and given up because of sheer boredom and then went back to it and began enjoying it the second time. So it might be down to my mood, or whatever, but it wasn't easy to get into it in that dedicated way, at first.

Also I think you've stated why I liked but didn't watch all of Rome and Mad Men.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

There are tensions in Deadwood. They just don't go anywhere. It's stasis as statement. The first few episodes I had no idea what was going on--there were too many darn characters. But I'm more inclined to continue watching Deadwood than Mad Men, because I actually like a lot of the people in Deadwood and I find everyone in Mad Men despiccable.

Funny that I can find a murderer like Swearingen more likable than Don Draper, but I do. I think because everyone in Deadwood is clearly wrestling to survive in a very particular context, which quite often means killing. Whereas Draper (and everyone else on Mad Men) is stuck in an apathetic malaise that leads them to do despiccable things merely for temporary self-gratification. That's a lot less entertaining for me to watch.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

For the record, I saw all of part of one episode of Mad Men and couldn't stand it, for exactly the reason you mention. I don't like any of the characters enough to watch them, plot or no plot.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I kept hoping one of them wouldn't be scum, but if you watch long enough they all are.

[alizarin-nyc.livejournal.com]

You're so smart. WHY ARE YOU SO SMART? Dammit.

Maybe you haven't seen as much Deadwood as I have and therefore haven't seem things go somewhere, which I kind of think they do, and there are interesting developments in S2 that I rather liked.

But wow, you are very right about Don vs. Al. I mean, I LOVED Al Swearingen and Trixie and so many of them, despite their being rather bad at times. And I think the reason I don't love Mad Men is because I only love Joan, and everyone else annoys me with their choices, and I don't really care about why Don is such an asshole.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

My favorite character is the doctor--because he is so clearly someone who wishes he didn't give a shit but still does and it tears him up to care about people when all he sees is suffering. But to me, okay, you have a great character like that...now do something with him. Present him with a dilemma, force him to confront his views, force him to change or fail to change, just something. And this show is content for him to just be.

I really like Al's enforcer and I can't justify that at all. How can he be sweet and still gut people in a bar?

I was moderately interested in why Don was an asshole in the first season, but then they answered that, and then...he's still an asshole. PLOT REQUIRES CHANGE, YO. And Joan was my favorite character and then they did horrible things to her and I just did not care enough to watch anymore.

[yourlibrarian]

The shows are essentially literary television, which, like literary novels, often let themselves off the hook for having a story that goes anywhere. But unlike literary novels that exist between two covers and have a beginning and an ending by virtue of the format, literary television just goes on and on until its canceled.

Apt observation. The only one of the series you mentioned that I watch is Mad Men and I would say that there is some plot there on both the character and overall level. But it is certainly a slow moving series and it's more focused on moments than overall pace.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

There is some plot, but it's more "and then some stuff happened" than plot. As I say below, I feel like the first season was making a point about how bad it was for women and men to define themselves in these narrow gendered boxes. But season two didn't really move on from that. It was the same unhappiness with different office antics, plus the tearing down of the only character I felt any sympathy for on the show at all. So I stopped trying to like it.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I couldn't get past episode one of Deadwood (I didn't find the characters as interesting as you did), but I know what you're talking about in the context of Mad Men. That's what's so frustrating. The entire series is like the mystery of January Jones' "acting." Is that acting so disaffected and repressed or is she just not that good at emoting? Is the show going some place, or are things just going to happen more or less at random forever?

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

It takes a few episodes of Deadwood just to figure out who everybody is, so I'm not sure you can tell about the characterization from the first episode.

And I think for Mad Men, definitely option B. I think the first season is a good illustration of how damaging the stereotype of the American Male is to both the women and the men--Don Draper is particularly victimized by trying to live up to the ideal. (Which is a reading I get the feeling a lot of people missed... I see it as the story of how the stereotype makes him into a self-hating, self-defeating asshole. It seems like a lot of people see him as a hero...)

But then I watched season two and it was just the same thing and I hated everybody. And I watched a few episodes of season three and it was the same thing and I hated everybody and...why am I watching this? *click*