2 posts tagged “audience”

So we've watched the first three episodes of Drive, and I have to say, I'm really impressed... what they've essentially done is they've stripped down the "unfolding mystery" element that has enervated some modern shows since Twin Peaks and later, The X Files really took advantage of it, and made it something that doesn't dominate the concept in the way that it does as a matter of course in a show like Lost or Heroes. Those shows are so concerned with misdirection, obfuscation and interconnected secrets that if a major piece of hidden information isn't dropped every episode, less patient viewers start to get fidgetty. But Drive only really has one dominating mystery, which is all about the organisation running the race, and in some ways can be ignored for weeks at a time, because you don't really NEED to know it to enjoy the frenetic action and self-contained nature of the episodes.

Of course, each character has their secrets, but they aren't the focus of the show, and we're already finding out lots about them, which is refreshing when we spend so much time rivetted week after week to Heroes and Lost, grateful for scraps. Unravelling these characters IS an important part of the fun, but so far Drive seems more concerned with where the players are going as much as where they have been... The race bits are a lot of fun, the fairly basic detective work involved with each car working out that day's destination is engaging and light, so the exploration of the protagonists' backgrounds and motives are just little pockets of data that inform the decisions that they make, rather than being the core of the text.

Both Heroes and Lost do the same thing, but the ratios are shifted around in Drive, so that where those shows are focussed about 20% forward/80% back (and of course, by using time-travel, Heroes manages to fudge that further, so that actually even the 20% forward is also filling in backstory!), Drive is 80/20 the other way.

Plus, the major crash at the beginning of the second episode of Drive is one of the most impressive things I have ever seen on a tv screen... It was such a cool example of taking movie sensibilities and production values into a tv setting, in the way that BSG used to do in every single episode, and the way Lost does every time they revisit the actual plane crash, but at the same time, it genuinely felt like something that we had NEVER seen quite like that before. For me, it was like the first time I saw the plane being ripped apart in Alive, or further back, when the failing aircraft rips through the other plane, spilling occupants, in Memphis Belle. Horrific, intense and chillingly authentic all at the same time.

Also, thus far, the cast and scripts are very good indeed...

And by the way, if you are one of the people on IMDB who keeps complaining about the re-use of locations, or the fact that it's obvious that they're just reusing the same stretches of road, well, you're an idiot. I'm not going to tell you that you should have low expectations of your entertainment, but at the same time, this is tv, with tv budgets. If the choice is between telling a cool story but making reasonable compromises to practicality and cost, or not telling that cool story at all, I'll always choose the opportunity over the resignation. I'll suspend disbelief, because my imagination's strong enough to take the cast all over the US, even if the budget can't.

So, obviously, this isn't news to anyone in the US, but we've got the latest Heroes coming down the pipe as we speak, and will hopefully be able to watch it remarkably soon. I'm relatively confident that the show is going to see this season out shark-jump free, at least by my fairly open-minded standards, and am extremely intrigued to see where they go with it next series. I guess that it's pretty difficult to really screw up the world of the fiction when that world is so firmly based on a soft and floppy take on reality.

The way I see this sort of thing, as with Lost, is that it doesn't even really matter if the edges of all of the plot twists and coincidences match up with each other, as long as they at least appear to under light scrutiny. There will always be viewers who, completely in spite of the way that serial fiction is produced, look too hard at such things and start to see the tiniest inconsistencies as ingrained flaws, but as long as a show is good enough to have a general appeal, those viewers should stay in the (admittedly loud) minority. A nice meta-system running alongside a show will always be a cool idea to reward the close viewer (such as the online conspiracy stuff that comes with Lost), but at a basic level, a show has to hit the most basic requirements to keep a tenable audience. I guess those would be:

• That for the duration of the show, you are entertained enough to not wish you were doing something else.
• That you are interested enough in the premise of the show, you will actively attempt to watch it, one way or another.
• That missing the odd episode is not going to completely kill any understanding of, and so enjoyment of, the show.

Not really adding much here, am I? Sorry.

The other thing I wanted quickly to say is that I find it funny that the IMDB tags attached to Heroes can be read, with very little tweaking, as a whole story by themselves...

"Superhero Nurse Saves The World. She is part of an Interracial Couple with a Biracial Child, suffers Memory Loss, and becomes a Cheerleader in New York City, where there is a Japanese Politician Villain, who ends up Dead."