the tyranny of explication
Mar. 12th, 2009 10:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
adelaideseanJames Bradley (author of The Deep Field, the best SF novel never to appear on an Aurealis Award ballot (and more)) has a blog: City of Tongues. It's eclectic and insightful, and full of appeal for SF nerds like me.
The spoiler-free latest post concerns the encroaching finale of Battlestar Galactica.I can't read it because I'm a couple of episodes behind, but I'll go back to it when the season's over. James's article in Meanjin was the most interesting writing on the show I've read to date, for fans and non-fans alike.
Check out his thoughts on Lost, too. And keep reading. It's ripper blog.
The spoiler-free latest post concerns the encroaching finale of Battlestar Galactica.
Check out his thoughts on Lost, too. And keep reading. It's ripper blog.
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"All Of This Has Happened Before And Will Happen Again", indeed
Date: 2009-03-12 03:52 am (UTC)I'd argue story arc made the last couple of seasons of Deep Space Nine watchable, so clearly I'm big believer. But we've all seen this kind of thing before, haven't we? Looked in fervent hope for the kind of holistic arc BSG would need in Twin Peaks, in Babylon 5, even in the Buffy/Angel cycle, all in vain? I'm beginning to think that maybe strong, fully pre-scripted story arcs are simply incompatible with the vicissitudes of network television.
As Bradley points out (http://cityoftongues.com/2009/02/11/some-thoughts-on-lost/), the show's co-producer has publicly admitted making last-minute decisions about major plot points. ("Who shall we make the last of the Final Five? Adama? The President? Ellen?????" — Ronald D. Moore (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_D._Moore), apparently.) And there are numerous Season Four developments (the nature of Earth, for example) which it's hard to imagine being tucked away neatly in the denouement.
What good examples are there of multi-season TV series tied together with a complex, consistent story arc, after all? Perhaps, like a DJ who wants to remain responsive to the floor, you're better off not pre-preparing these things. And should we really expect a show where, as Bradley puts it (http://cityoftongues.com/2009/03/11/this-ship-is-dead-battlestar-galactica-and-the-tyranny-of-explication/), "the ambiguities its political and mythic allegories suggest are much of the point", to be the exception?
Re: "All Of This Has Happened Before And Will Happen Again", indeed
Date: 2009-03-12 06:36 am (UTC)Absolutely, and it happens in written stories as well. Look at LeGuin's Earthsea quintet, Sheri S Tepper's True Game books, the endlessly turning Wheel of Time...
fully pre-scripted story arcs are simply incompatible with the vicissitudes of network television
Again, I'm inclined to agree. For every Rome there's an unfinished Deadwood. And you'd think with real history to hang the drama on, they'd get it right.
We're watching The Wire at the moment, and I'm thoroughly impressed with the arcs that show is following. Also Lost, despite being a bit wandery in the early seasons, seems to be heading towards a definite conclusion. I don't mind the meandering, the coming and going of certain characters as external obligations get in the way, etc, as long as the ending is there. Even BSG, for all its faffing about, I could almost forgive.
We're in a very different world (some might say) than the one in which BSG started. It'll be interesting to see how the whole things stands up over time. Probably less well than we'd like to think, at present, although certain episodes or sequences of episodes may retain some reverence.
Re: "All Of This Has Happened Before And Will Happen Again", indeed
Date: 2009-03-12 11:04 pm (UTC)I haven't read the Tepper or (shudder) the Jordan, but I know what you mean. These non-resolving sagas should really carry some kind of "more tales from the world of" warning. Then again, perhaps this expectation of an overarching meta-story is the reader's issue, rather than the writer's. After all, it's really only in fiction that events are meaningful and have satisfying resolutions; the real world is random.
For every Rome there's an unfinished Deadwood.
Aha; thanks for the warning! :)
The Wire
...and the recommendation. (Mind you, the cop drama aspect put
Lost
I think you're optimistic, but then I gave up after the first season. I'm going to wait until it's all done and dusted to find out whether I should revisit it.
certain episodes or sequences of episodes may retain some reverence.
Nod. The new BSG's sophistication may be its undoing. Once you strip away the original series' iconic "monocular chrome robots chasing refugees who say 'frack' a lot", all you've really got is some angsting about the nature of humanity and the irrelevance of difference. Worthy, just not especially enduring.
Re: "All Of This Has Happened Before And Will Happen Again", indeed
Date: 2009-03-12 11:45 pm (UTC)As Tim Powers says, the real world is first draft.
Deadwood: still worth watching, imho--the best unfinished TV series ever made. They were heading to a definite ending (the first burning of the town) but the final series was cancelled. Alas.
Lost: the first two seasons are flabby in the middle, but still worth watching (again, imho). I admire the show particularly because the season finales are hooks a writer would love. Not just story-based, but cleverly fucking with the way the story is told. Particularly the end of season three, when you realise that the flashback structure is actually important. I swoon. But yes, the ending will decide all. One and a half seasons to go...
Life on Mars: US or UK? I enjoyed the UK series but found the remake unwatchable.
BSG: also an engaging naval drama set during a rout of one empire by another. It'd be interesting to reimagine it during the Napoleonic wars, a la Patrick O'Brian, with Jack Aubrey leading a ragtag fleet of English survivors in the HMAS Galactica for the lost colony, Australia...
Re: "All Of This Has Happened Before And Will Happen Again", indeed
Date: 2009-03-13 01:07 am (UTC)Strong recommendation!
And it reminds me of another example: I haven't watched the final season of The Sopranos because of what I've heard of the ending. Still, neither of these promised the kind of fundamental arc story—the "now it all makes sense" thing—we're being led to expect from BSG and Lost.
the end of season three, when you realise that the flashback structure is actually important
Well, that tends to support the possibility that it will deliver. And I guess, despite how it's looking, BSG could still pull a rabbit out and leave us gasping.
Life on Mars: US or UK?
UK. US = scary.
BSG: also an engaging naval drama set during a rout of one empire by another. It'd be interesting to reimagine it during the Napoleonic wars, a la Patrick O'Brian, with Jack Aubrey leading a ragtag fleet of English survivors in the HMAS Galactica for the lost colony, Australia...
If BSG were STTNG, that would be a holodeck episode. :)
Re: "All Of This Has Happened Before And Will Happen Again", indeed
Date: 2009-03-14 02:14 am (UTC)Ha! Too true.
I never made it past the first season of The Sopranos, not because it wasn't brilliant, but because the arc I was interested in ended at the end of that season. I had no story-based reason to continue. That's another reason why I'm not interested in the various NCIS, CSI, whatever cop-shows out there. If there's no arc, I'm not going to bother.
Unless it's The Wire. That show is nothing but the arc.
Re: "All Of This Has Happened Before And Will Happen Again", indeed
Date: 2009-03-14 02:56 am (UTC)Fair enough—although every season seemed to manage to introduce a new, equally compelling story arc, or I'd have given up on it much earlier. (I realise I actually watched about a third of the sixth season before spoilers about the finale ruined it for me.)
Unless it's The Wire. That show is nothing but the arc.
JB's, here I come.
Re: "All Of This Has Happened Before And Will Happen Again", indeed
Date: 2009-03-15 02:52 am (UTC)You and I both just missed a big sale, with the seasons reduced to $15. They're back up to over $40 now, but still worth every cent.