With finale season and season finales beginning to emerge from a long deliberation – erotic, legal twists and turns knotting themselves in their trial-addled brains – I thought it might be interesting to take a look at how disparate shows are handling what can at times make or break a season. Hence, Anatomy Of A Finale.
And of course, as ever, SPOILERS AHEAD.
There is a lot to be said for plotting. In fact, there is a lot to be said about plotting.
Over the past week I’ve watched the final two episodes of this season of Spartacus (which will very much be getting an Anatomy Of A Finale of its own), not long after giving up the game on the whole Mad Men enterprise. As I was discussing it with my friends, I realised that what I simply could not accept from the perfectly imperfect world of Mad Men was its almost wilful lack of plot direction or continuity. It is, as more esteemed critics than me are wont to say, like real life – directionless, unexpected, and unfulfilled. For the first four seasons of Mad Men, as I scraped my way through trying to like it, I felt guilty that I couldn’t admire this vagueness. Was it wrong that I felt bored by a gritty mirror that reflected the flaws and boredom of life? But the truth was, I was bored. I like plot. I like direction. I like being told a story, rather than watching my dull life pointed back at me.
Spartacus occupies the other end of the scale – a show so riddled with plot (and tits, cock and gore) that it is thrilling, if sometimes vacant. So much is going on that it’s hard to cling to something real. Good fiction, in my opinion, occupies the space between these two – allowing character, emotion and nuance to unfold against the backdrop of a real story.
And then, every once in a while, there are shows like The Good Wife. Shows like rich melted chocolate, an instant indulgence that somehow imparts pleasure without feeling cheap.
Part of the influence of heavily serialised shows like Mad Men has been to render any show that engages in procedural elements “dumbed down”: lumping everything in with the CSI mould of case-of-the-week and glacial, false character development when an episode deems it necessary. But to discard every piece of procedural drama as being such is to do a dis-service to shows like ER, Homicide: Life On The Street and even Buffy (though that was more monster-of-the-week). Hell, you might as well discard The Twilight Zone if you believe that a new story in each episode represents a betrayal of the medium of television.
For me, the ideal show is one that successfully mixes elements of procedural and serialised drama. Shows that are solely plot feel heartless, but shows that eschew any sort of week-on-week drama render themselves dull as we are forced to watch the glacial pace at which human beings evolve.
The Good Wife strikes the balance perfectly. Continue reading →
I’m casting my Edinburgh Fringe show in the coming weeks, so wanted to get word out there for all and sundry to get involved. Spread the word!
alfla
