Hello, Readers! Clevenger here.

As Graham laid out, this week’s conversation is regarding TV and its influence on me. First things first. I cannot do an article on this “better” than Graham. I keep poking him about comparing our tales and he keeps self-deprecating himself and his story. We are different people, and we have different views. Neither is better than the other. (Maybe he’ll listen to me eventually :P)

Now, on to the meat and potatoes.

I love telelvison.

I also love books, comic books, movies, video games, table top rpgs, and any other media that promotes a story that I can consume. I’ve escaped into different worlds of fiction for most of my life. But why? What made me fascinated by them?

Well, because I’ve always secretly wanted to write and tell stories.

Wait, what?! Did I just say that?

Yes. I will formally admit that Graham did not “trick” me into writing. I was attending writing seminars nine years ago. Taking the time to gather details about writing was a thing I invested in. I took a creative writing course in college. I’ve always “wanted” to write. Graham just somehow found the right combination to give me the push I needed.

So, what does TV give me?

Well, much like Graham, I’ve learned a lot about what I like to see and hear. While visualization of characters isn’t as “intriguing” to me, character archetypes are. As TV has developed, and my understanding of story structure has grown, I love seeing the layers and subtleties of all characters. Especially antagonists.

I’ve learned that having a bad guy with understandable motivations is powerful, and that it can drive the story from new angles. When combined with the right actor and charisma, you get a magical formula of a villain who you actually enjoy watching and hearing from. Villains like Vincent D’Onofrio’s take on “The Kingpin” and Walton Goggins as “Boyd Crowder” make you understand why they are doing the despicable things they need to do. It makes the line good and evil “believable.”

But sometimes, you need a villain that you don’t. An irredeemable, unlikeable, and absolute “baddie.” Villains like “Joffrey” from Game of Thrones, played brilliantly by Jack Gleeson, as well as Iwan Rheon’s “Ramsey Bolton” were made to be hated. When reaching into the inspiration hat for Olivar, his baseline was established, but I got introduced to Chris Webster as “KJ” in Reacher. I suddenly had a visual representation of the persona tone I was shooting at with Olivar. I could see how he would walk into a room, and how he would hold himself. And he became more “real” to me.

I agree with Graham, that Netflix, Amazon, HBO, and others have revolutionized TV for the better. Story formats are less formulaic, characters seem a bit deeper, and we are getting a wider spectrum of representation. I do applaud channels like FX, AMC, and other cable channels that were paving the way early in their runs as well.

Just like Graham, I also see some pretty heavy failures out there, too. Now, I’m going to approach this a bit differently. A few years ago, I made a vow that I would be less prone to “attacking” specific entertainment. Music, TV, movies, books, anything. It occurred to me that if I called a song “trash” or a show “garbage” that I was inadvertently demeaning anyone that liked it. That just because I saw flaws in it, or didn’t enjoy it, did not devalue it from the eyes of someone else. So, I’m going to point at a specific flaw that I saw… but I shall not name the show.

Recently, in the later seasons of a pretty large TV show, I felt that the writing was scaling downhill VERY fast. It seemed that the studio, show-runners, or someone above, was forcing the writers’ room to shoehorn things in and the plot suffered from it. They were selling a “love-story” for one of the latest replacement secondary characters THROUGH a brand new introduced “spin-off” character. Literally, the “spin-off” character was telling another character the events of this love story that they themselves were not a part of. So I felt that I was being sold something I DID NOT WANT, through someone I DID NOT KNOW. And it just felt flat.

Because of decisions like that, the pacing of the entire season was off. Things that should have been an arc were being introduced, told, and resolved in two or three episodes. Plot points that could have been an episode focus were being dragged out for seven or eight. All because they were trying to “push” certain characters and actors. The writing was so off to me I gave up on the series. (Which as a completionist was VERY hard for me to do).

And that’s how TV continues to help me. Seeing things that work, that don’t work. Looking for “new” takes on classic tropes or story arcs. And seeing how the right character can make a good show GREAT!

Well, I know what’s coming up next… but you’ll have to stay tuned to find out.

Same Manticore-Time, Same Manticore-Channel!

Be Kind

-Clevenger