Never Get To The Fireworks Factory

[cassielsander]

The biggest change in television in the past decade or so is, to me, that many people have gone from wanting a show that progresses by hitting various universal notes, to one that hits the notes especially well, to one that resists the lure of the usual notes altogether, at least as far as its central elements go. In other words, to adapt Millhouse

Comments

[cdk]

Have you watched Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated? If not, I found it worthwhile to watch the whole thing completely unspoiled.

That said, without spoiling details, it reminds me of The Five Obstructions, in a way - it's as if the challenge presented was: "Tell an engaging story across multiple episodes that all follow exactly the same structure, down to ending every single episode in some variation of 'And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling kids.' You can have as many episodes as you like, but each and every episode has to meet this exact checklist of events." It's as if every single episode MUST go to the fireworks factory, and yet there's also a series-long constraint that the eventual arrival at a completely different fireworks factory must be well-done.

[cassielsander]

Sounds very interesting. I've long found extreme-formula television fascinating, and strangely freeing, and I like the comparison to Five Obs. I remember liking the Freddy's Nightmares series from the late 80s for the same reason. Every episode had to have a half-hour story in which someone both met Freddy and died (without there necessarily being a causal link), and a second half-hour in which someone introduced in the first half-hour was killed by Freddy. Beyond that, as far as I can tell, they could do whatever the hell they wanted, and it got very off-the-wall.

[andrewducker]

Seconding Mystery Incorporated for being absolutely marvellous.

And also for approaching things in the spirit of contradiction and being happy to be multiple different kinds of show over its run.

Worth watching from beginning to end in order.

[cdk]

Life on Mars (BBC) strikes me as an excellent example of a series that sought from the beginning to avoid the fireworks factory. I think that's a big part of what I love about it - because it was intended from the start to be a fixed-length engagement, you are completely freed from the worry that the direction the show went was in any way an attempt to prolong its life. So you know that the unresolved mystery was intended from the start. Except of course that then you go to the internet, and you learn that the writer actually intended to write a completely unambiguous finale. So. Oops.

[cassielsander]

Yeah, sometimes a writer not being able to make their intentions clear is a blessing. q.v. most viewers liking the theatrical cut of Donnie Darko more than the Director's Cut, and me finding well-made political-message films like Jungle Fever a lot more ambiguous than the Spike Lees, Oliver Stones, and even Tom Clancys of the world intended. (It's as if, when they're at their best, their talent won't allow them to make the message as clunky as they meant for it to be.)

[duck2ducks]

I think Ashes to Ashes is an even more fascinating example - both in the way the final season relentlessly teases a major guest star that never actually happens, as well as having a resolution of the mystery that is completely batshit insane. :D

[yendi]

Yes! Have you read Max Gladstone's excellent essay on Agent Carter and friendship?

[cassielsander]

No! That show's on my list but I haven't started it yet. Will keep this in mind, thanks.

[duck2ducks]

I love all of this. :)

[wolflady26]

I've seen a lot of pushback against mysteries that never get resolved, I think in large part sparked by "Lost."

People waited season after season to find out what was going on behind "Lost," and were really pissed when it wasn't suitably resolved.

Afterwards, getting teased by mysteries lost a lot of appeal. I saw it after the first season of "The Killing" didn't resolve the basic mystery. People were furious, and many vowed not to watch the second season, because they didn't want to be teased for nothing.

I hope that "The Leftovers" won't go that route. I hope the mystery will be resolved slowly, and satisfactorily.

[cassielsander]

I think the difference is that Leftovers pretty much said in ep 1 that literally no one knows the answer to the mystery, which I think makes it okay if no one ever finds out. Whereas Lost or even Twin Peaks raised expectations by having the characters constantly trying to investigate, which raises audience expectations even if the creators never intended to give an answer. Leftovers skips over three years of the other stages of grief and starts with Acceptance.

[wolflady26]

But the characters in the Leftovers do try to find out. Or at least, they are confronted by people who do, and who seem to be finding some answers, which also raises expectations that there could be an answer.

[cassielsander]

I dunno, it seems like the people who are still trying to figure it out are kind of parodied, like the Yale people or the "Host Of Azrael" people. And stuff like the lens theory comes up but then switfly turns out to never have been valid (I think the latest ep pretty much kills the idea that Nora brought the Departures to Jardin with her).

And it's true that the characters are still in a lot of pain, but I think the ones we respect are coping with the Departure as "something that happened" not a problem to be solved.