how serial fiction broke clio's heart, part 3: reality saves the day, with help from NPH

[jlh]

Sorry for the delay--I went home last night and basically just passed out in the chair. Anyway, on to part three, which won't get to Avatar because my shipping PTSD story got way too long.

So Clio (you might ask) why did you run off into some reality television haze? Well, the first reason is that it gave me what I was looking for, and the second reason was timing.

But let's talk timing first. Spring-Summer-Fall 2007 gave me fantastic, amazing reality television that soothed my wounds from the huge let down of serial fiction. First, there was American Idol season 6, that Cake season, and while I had written my first Rymon fic in season 4 and first posted on and followed idolslash in season 5, Cake was the first time I got into a singer pairing, or got involved in a really active part of the Idol fandom. And while it wasn't a simple, "new fandom ate my head bye bye old fandom" it was soothing to be doing something completely different. That summer we got the amazing season 2 of So You Think You Can Dance (Benjelle!Trivan!) and season 3 of Top Chef (CJ! Casey! Dale! No weird bullying!). And finally, in November, season 4 of Project Runway (Chris March! Christian! Fierce!).

But that's just chance, that I got four great seasons of my four reality shows at that exact moment. Let's go back and look at the lessons:

Lesson 1, endings matter: Reality shows have an ending, an ending that you know is coming and always makes a kind of rational sense. Now, I'm no conspiracy theorist, and while I'm not always happy with who wins (AI5, hello) it always makes a kind of sense to me. I don't feel like, woah, that ending went against what I thought the show actually was.

Lesson 2, romance done well: This applies in that there are almost never romances on the reality shows I watch, which are reality-competition shows rather than the "follow people around" type of reality shows. So they just don't do them, rather than doing them badly. And there aren't nearly as many ship fights in the fandom as a result.

Lesson 3, action/genre about characters: Well, this isn't genre.

Lesson 4, different narrative priorities: The priorities are pretty clear. PR wants to find a high end designer, someone who would have their own house eventually, someone who can mold the challenge to fit their own style, but who is adaptable enough to create different garments for different occasions. Top Chef wants a chef with the potential to open a four-star restaurant, but who could also do more downscale home cooking or catering, or figure out how to make frozen dinners, etc--in other words, Tom, or Wolfgang Puck. Idol wants someone who's going to sound good on the radio right now and who will be a marketable mainstream pop/rock/country/R&B musician. SYTYCD wants someone who has enough personality to be entertaining and come through on the screen, but also have the dancing skills and a great deal of versatility--note how Lacey is on Dancing with the Stars this season. I get this, the systems behind these shows are pretty clear to me. If they were more chaotic, I likely wouldn't watch them at all, because they'd be frustrating. This is part of why I don't watch reality shows where the competition has to do with personalities and gamesmanship, like Survivor or Big Brother, because it's too chaotic and I sort of don't care. I like watching creative people being creative.

Lesson 5, unnecessary drama: This happens sort of around the edges, with a new judge or a new spin on the competition, or new rules, but the essential nature of the show isn't changed, and even the new things make a kind of sense.

Lesson 6, open shipping: See lesson 2.

So the reality shows that I watch, these creative reality-competition shows, give me most of what I was looking for in a fictional serial narrative, including tons of character change and development. I mean, how great is it to watch the contestants rise to a challenge they've never thought of? Christian became a better designer, Stephanie a better cook, Benji a better dancer, D.Cook a better singer, just by having to think their way through all those damn challenges. That is absolutely the most fun of all.

Meanwhile, there was one scripted series I didn't drop from my TIVO: How I Met Your Mother. I know that many of you are pretty dismissive of this show and of sitcoms in general, but (1) it knows where it's headed (2) it does romance incredibly well even with the couple that it got together and broke up (3) it isn't genre and therefore doesn't have those problems to overcome (4) I feel from the DVD commentary tracks that I have the same narrative priorities as Craig and Carter do (not unlike with Alan Ball) (5) no unnecessary drama needs to be introduced to "shake things up" because it's a sitcom and they don't work that way and finally (6) two of the five main characters are already married and we've seen in flash forwards that they will be until they're very old; one is the "father" to the "mother" and equally we've seen in flash forwards that this is a long marriage and the only mystery there is really the mother; which leaves Robin and Barney and I'm really willing to trust Craig and Carter with those two. It's smart, it's funny, it has heart and is willing to show it, it has NPH, great writing, directing, acting, a fantastic sense of both time and timing--it's really just about everything I want in a show.

Comments

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

One thing the shipping part made me think of, with regards to narrative, is the way that these kinds of shows produce some wonderful ships because they never compete with the narrative goal. I mean, when people don't get along it's maybe a little compelling, but there's little time for it because there's only so far contestants let themselves get distracted. Like when Dimitri was originally paired with that immature girl on SYTYCD she dropped out right away because her priorities were screwed up and she just wasn't ready to be on the show. Or when people snipe at each other it's just sniping here and there--somebody turned my burner on high or whatever.

But when you like people together it's because they work well together, like all the couples on SYTYCD. It's great watching them make magic together whichever way they do it. If people disagree about which couples they like best it can get talked about as just the regular show rather than who's better for each other.

Re: HIMYM I loved how Lily was (imo) totally wrong about Barney, saying he can't be in love with Robin and still whoring around because of course that's her way, but it's not his way, and that will keep his woobiness going in a believable way.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

these kinds of shows produce some wonderful ships because they never compete with the narrative goal

It's so true, and because they're "real" I'm not looking for the same kinds of things that I am in a scripted show. And you're right, the contestants are not interested in hooking up on these kinds of shows because that's not why they're there. (As opposed to, say, Real World or whatever.)

I honestly am becoming a little freaked out about how much I had right about Barney and Robin in my story. Seriously, it's weirding me out. What's wrong with me--unhappy about being wrong about canon, freaked out about being right?

[black-dog.livejournal.com]

In the words of Emily Litella: "Oh. Never mind." :) These are really great posts, and it was fun to think about -- and test some answers to -- your dissatisfaction with series drama in #2. But here, I can see how this sort of reality TV, with enough structure so that you have interesting people moving toward an interesting goal -- can be an answer to all that. The fact is, I'm pretty ignorant about what's on TV since it's only the last few years I started renting DVDs and getting caught up on some series. (Don't have a working TV, never watched much when I was younger.) So I guess I feel like sort of like a Martian, coming to all this. Is Top Chef on DVD? :)

I guess my first thought, maybe my prejudice, would be that something this free-form wouldn't be satisfying enough, that I'd miss the heightened intensity of character and dialog and story, the sort of controlling intention, that you'd find in a scripted series. But you're saying, obviously, that that's not the case. So that's something for me to chew on, and try out. Thank you, a lot, for a really interesting trio of essays -- this was pretty cool to read.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Top Chef is not on DVD but is available for download on Amazon and is probably on Hulu since it was on Bravo, which is owned by NBC.

I think that other sorts of reality shows, like Survivor and the dating shows and the like, where it's mostly people sitting around plotting against each other or whatever, are much more free-form, much less interesting, and while I occasionally watch them I really don't care about them in the least. These sort of creative reality competition shows, though, are much more interesting. The Mole was, as well, and I'm not sure why I never got interested in The Amazing Race because it's superbly done; possibly because the puzzles aren't that hard (as they were in The Mole) and I don't care about watching people doing random physical feats.

Besides, BD: Tim Gunn. Tim Gunn is awesome. SO AWESOME.

Thanks again! And thanks for your comments that let me think harder about what I meant.

[longtimegone]

Hmmm, the chaos thing you mention in reality TV like Survivor and BB... I think that might be what bothers me about ALL reality TV. I would definitely agree that shows like PR and SYTYCD, etc have more of a narrative structure, but overall, yeah, the chaos.

I've never been able to articulate that quite the way I wanted to, but god, it seems so freaking obvious since you said it. :))

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, those shows don't have a lot going on, but just a lot of personalities rubbing up against each other and OMG I so don't care. America's Next Top Model is also more about the backstage bitching than the onstage work. But Idol never shows us the people offstage and never talks about it; neither does SYTYCD. It isn't about what is going on back at the house. And while PR and Top Chef have a little of that, it's very minimal, and you're rewarded not for plotting against others but for your ability to work in teams while still having your voice heard. So it isn't just, all the people bitching at each other.

But I don't think any of the shows have been able to fix the problem of being confronted with a huge pile of contestants in the first episode with little guidance in sorting them out. Then again, they just presume that the right people will rise to the top in the edit, I think.

The funny thing is, I feel that there is plenty of scripted TV that is much more chaotic than PR or SYTYCD because things seem to happen for absolutely no apparent reason. Like all the "let's break up the team!" stuff. I find House in particular to be frustrating for that reason, or Doctor Who which equally seems all over the place. But then again, I don't care for action or tension, so there's no reward for me, in those shows. And I totally get that not caring for those things is very idiosyncratic of me!