Straight to television
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While I no longer go out of my way to watch television, there are still a tiny handful of shows that I am partial to. Even so, in these cases, I will normally purchase a DVD or blu-ray boxed set of the entire series rather than watch it on television when it is scheduled to be on. On occasion, however, even these shows remind me why it is I decided to give up watching television in the first place.
I recently watched a complete season of a popular show that I'd bought on blu-ray. While on the whole it was still enjoyable, there were times when some of the writing left a lot to desired. I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated with how often I was being asked to accept some very tenuous plot explanations.
The weakness with television as a medium is that time is precious. While a full television series may amount to many hours of 'entertainment', each individual episode needs to be complete as a standalone unit. Any given show needs to create and resolve its own stories an allotted time.
The problem is that this time isn't very much. A typical half hour show on a commercial network has only about twenty-two minutes of actual air time, while an hour long show has around forty. I could write a separate blog on my feelings towards the commercials that consume the remainder of this time, but suffice to say here that they are devouring a valuable resource that could have allowed the writers to deliver a much more engaging story.
Unlike a movie, where there is sufficient time to build up and provide explanations for everything, television has only a finite allocation in which to fill in the blanks. Sometimes plot devices—that in a film would have a back-story of their own—have to be explained in a simple one-liner for a television audience. There is a strong reliance on assumption and this sometimes leads to an overly convenient or matter-of-fact way of introducing core elements of a story that should really be better explained. For me this weakens the story.
Now I could not, should not and would not wish to imply that I could do better. While I aspire to be a writer myself, I have yet to have anything published beyond this blog site and certainly haven't produced anything that has been turned into a television show. I just suppose I would have hoped for more from a successful show with the budget to employ a team of professional writers.
I don't blame the writers. There are still some brilliant writers out there who are producing some superb material. I fear, however, that an increasing amount of pressure to do more in less time—so as to accommodate yet more commercials—is leading to a further dumbing down of the medium, and ultimately its audience. Unfortunately, I don’t see the situation changing for the better. And I certainly don't see me being convinced to become an avid television watcher again anytime soon.