Sunday, December 31, 2006
The Everpresent Now.
(Warning, spoiler for early episodes of season three of Battlestar Galactica)
If you've watched Lost you've seen it. If you're watching Heroes you're seeing it. I suspect that Twenty-Four may use that but I've never watched an episode since the first season ended (although I know enough to say 'dust to dust and fun to funky, we know Major Jack's a junkie!'). Continuity is a pain in the neck for TV shows. They would be happy if they don't have to worry about what happens in week 13 when writing and producing week 14. But continuity is in. If a viewer is expected to give up an hour of their time to watch some crummy show they generally like to feel that if they do this more than once they get more out of the experience than someone who only does it once. But that takes effort.
Shows that can't be bothered tend to operate in the Everpresent Now. Rather than the forty-five minutes being a self-enclosed little world it's that episode and the preceeding two or three that matter. Anything before that gets forgotten. It's then less obvious that nothing else has happened in the episode other than making some glasses for the redneck. Or, take Heroes . I'm currently about six episodes in. The slightly sleazy politician is still refusing to accept that he has the ability to fly, despite doing it at the end of the first episode or a few episodes later. This is because it didn't happen in the Everpresent Now but instead the Forgotten Past and thusly, never happened at all. Battlestar Galactica doesn't tend to fall into this trap in quite the same way, it instead consigns whole plot-threads that might have been active as recently as last week to The Forgotten Past only to return them to The Everpresent Now several weeks later. The wherabouts of Little Baby Hera was of paramount importance to Xena the Cylon during the Occupation and, by it's end, she'd got her claws on the little tyke. Hera is then not even mentioned for about six episodes, not even in some "hey, what did you do with baby Hera?" "Oh I gave her to the Cylon Granny Service", aside. But BSG scores over the other shows by not filling it's episodes with self-contained and often fairly pointless quests. More on this tomorrow maybe, when I've had time to think this through some more.
If you've watched Lost you've seen it. If you're watching Heroes you're seeing it. I suspect that Twenty-Four may use that but I've never watched an episode since the first season ended (although I know enough to say 'dust to dust and fun to funky, we know Major Jack's a junkie!'). Continuity is a pain in the neck for TV shows. They would be happy if they don't have to worry about what happens in week 13 when writing and producing week 14. But continuity is in. If a viewer is expected to give up an hour of their time to watch some crummy show they generally like to feel that if they do this more than once they get more out of the experience than someone who only does it once. But that takes effort.
Shows that can't be bothered tend to operate in the Everpresent Now. Rather than the forty-five minutes being a self-enclosed little world it's that episode and the preceeding two or three that matter. Anything before that gets forgotten. It's then less obvious that nothing else has happened in the episode other than making some glasses for the redneck. Or, take Heroes . I'm currently about six episodes in. The slightly sleazy politician is still refusing to accept that he has the ability to fly, despite doing it at the end of the first episode or a few episodes later. This is because it didn't happen in the Everpresent Now but instead the Forgotten Past and thusly, never happened at all. Battlestar Galactica doesn't tend to fall into this trap in quite the same way, it instead consigns whole plot-threads that might have been active as recently as last week to The Forgotten Past only to return them to The Everpresent Now several weeks later. The wherabouts of Little Baby Hera was of paramount importance to Xena the Cylon during the Occupation and, by it's end, she'd got her claws on the little tyke. Hera is then not even mentioned for about six episodes, not even in some "hey, what did you do with baby Hera?" "Oh I gave her to the Cylon Granny Service", aside. But BSG scores over the other shows by not filling it's episodes with self-contained and often fairly pointless quests. More on this tomorrow maybe, when I've had time to think this through some more.
Labels: Battlestar Galactica, continuity, Television
