I don't get people who work on television
Mar. 6th, 2005 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charliesmumI was thinking about Lost. Now the guy that created it said the reason he's killing off one of the main characters is because it 'doesn't make sense' that they'd be facing all these dangers and yet the 14 of them survive. Er...hello? It also doesn't make sense that numbers are cursed, there are other people living on the island who kidnap eternally pregnant people who didn't go into labor during the tramutic crash; that a guy who couldn't walk suddenly can; that...oh you know what I mean. It doesn't have to make sense. It's television We want to see the 14 people survive*. That's why we tune in.
Television people rarely give the audience enough credit. Notable exceptions would be the Buffy people and the Xena/Hercules people. Their risks didn't always pan out but they at least gave us interesting storylines. (Okay, Xena died a lot. But she came back. That's the main thing.) Most television people will wind up 'jumping the shark' not because they've run out of ideas, but because they've decided we're too stupid to stick to a formula we've already accepted and enjoy, and that we need to have Rachel have a baby, or Whatshername on the OC to have a lesbian fling, or whatever.
When you watch a genre show like Lost, you expect a certain suspension of disbelief. That's why we watch those shows.
*Well, Boone I could live without. But if they kill Hurley, I'll be pissed.
Television people rarely give the audience enough credit. Notable exceptions would be the Buffy people and the Xena/Hercules people. Their risks didn't always pan out but they at least gave us interesting storylines. (Okay, Xena died a lot. But she came back. That's the main thing.) Most television people will wind up 'jumping the shark' not because they've run out of ideas, but because they've decided we're too stupid to stick to a formula we've already accepted and enjoy, and that we need to have Rachel have a baby, or Whatshername on the OC to have a lesbian fling, or whatever.
When you watch a genre show like Lost, you expect a certain suspension of disbelief. That's why we watch those shows.
*Well, Boone I could live without. But if they kill Hurley, I'll be pissed.