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Literary television
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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