1 Michelle Ryan of Bionic Woman
TV for robots
The fall season’s pilot crop begs the question: What happened to ‘character’ in ‘characterization’?
By Catherine Disabato
Published: October 22nd, 2007 | 1:41pm
When a good television show is cancelled, it can be cause for depression. Gone are the days when a million tiny bottles of Tabasco sauce mailed to a studio can save a sinking ship, as Roswell was saved by its fans when the show was initially cancelled after its first season. That said, when a bad TV show is cancelled, it’s cause for celebration; and since the majority of the fall 2007 pilot crop has about as much flavor as corn during a drought season, it’s time we start making party plans.
The problem with this season’s pilots isn’t premise or concept, though if one more show gets promoted as “Sex and the City for guys!” (this season’s Big Shots, for example) we should puke our party cocktails out; the problem is with casting and characterization. For the most part, fall 2007’s pilots are clogged with characters that are poorly written and horribly acted. Indeed, scanning the majority of them it’s clear that most have given up on that pesky little thing called “characterization,” floating by on plot device alone.
To be fair, it’s not necessarily the fault of the shows’ creators. There has been a slow move — beginning when the ’90s-era sitcom petered out — to television that functions more as serialized narratives instead of episode-driven dramas and comedies. When J.J. Abrams’ Lost generated huge revenue (and even bigger ratings), the switch was complete.
Consider this, too: five or six years ago, comedies had little or no through-lines. Viewers could skip weeks of new episodes and pick right back up on the plot lines. Dramas, on the other hand, often had simple through-lines that weren’t addressed in every episode. Through-line development occurred in dramas mostly at the end of the season with full episodes. Shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer excelled at that formula. Nowadays, almost every television show has a through-line that builds in each episode. Current shows depend on this serial plot line to keep viewers coming back week after week, instead of developing interesting characters that people can identify with and want to follow, despite lack of knowledge as to the story.
The serialized narrative can inspire amazing television like the late, great Carnivale and Rome. But a problem arises when television shows use the through-line as a hook rather than using character pull. And while most of this season’s pilots have interesting through-lines, the characters are completely blah and don’t improve in later episodes. Journeyman suffers from this problem, as does Bionic Woman, a show absolutely murdered by Michelle Ryan’s dull, unmoving portrayal of the main character, Jaime Sommers. The show is just barely brought back to life by Katee Sackhoff’s comparatively amazing portrayal of Sarah Corvus, the first Bionic Woman, a feat that can be attributed to great casting, if not great scripting.
This is not the case with most of this season’s blandly written, blandly acted television shows. In 2005, when most networks announced that they were devoting more money to bankable and less costly programs, i.e. game shows and reality shows, critics mourned, perhaps prematurely, the end of an era in television writing. What they missed commenting on is the simultaneous rise of the Aaron Spelling television writer, who could churn out a stock of robotic stereotypes with little to offer a TV viewer outside of vacant asides delivered with knowing glances and a pair of perfectly pouty lips.
The issue is further complicated by the physical similarity of characters. Many of these shows’ characters look like each other, particularly female characters. Jaime Sommors looks like Lisa George (played by Zoe McLellan) on Dirty Sexy Money, who looks like Ellie Bartowski (played by Sarah Lancaster) on Chuck, who looks like Marla Walker (played by Jessica Collins) on Big Shots. Unfortunately, none of these actresses really do anything to distinguish themselves from the other, presenting the same slightly waspish, mildly distant, and cutely mechanical characterization, despite their lack of bionic limbs.
Luckily, there are a few new TV shows that avoid dull writing and boring character development, and a few of them even have a serialized plot to follow from week to week. Dirty Sexy Money manages to have a whole gaggle of characters and juggles them by starting characters out as archetypes. What’s more, the show’s writers seem to be expanding on characters’ personalities as the show progresses. Pushing Daisies manages it through some of the best acting on a new series and a well-written, truly inventive (though overly-stylized) script.
Here’s hoping the most insulting of the new series will be swiftly shuffled off the air at the end of one season. Until then, let’s hope that the new shows we’re really enjoying don’t get infected with the non-characters disease and continue to give us positive reasons to celebrate.
Issue #35
Comments
Please login to be able to comment on this article.
more