All TV shows have a "formula." That is not to say that they are formulaic; even the most original TV premises and concepts lead to shows which eventually develop a formula. Eureka is a great example: one of the most original shows on TV in a long time - possibly ever, when you think about it - Eureka has a clear formula that you can see in action throughout each episode. All TV shows have them and they usually take a season or two to develop; by the fourth season or so, the better ones have them down to a science, while the best ones know well enough to shake things up at least once in a while.
By season six of Sex and the City, they'd just given-up. Every show is a narrowly-defined and streamlined formula: introduce the "plot"; have Carrie drop a few puns, then hammer it out as a log line in her article; have the gay characters prance about, dropping flamboyantly bitchy puns; then the "twist" is introduced to keep you tuning-in next week; fin. It was obvious it needed to end when it did - actually, it probably could have called it quits after season five.
This is what I was saying about Smallville the other night: it, too, has become boiled-down to a formula. And while the formula has been present for some time now, it's gotten so that they're just churning them out. There's no passion and even the actors seem just to be going through the motions. Smallville has been such a great show that has fallen off the wagon in recent seasons. In watching reruns years from now, we're going to be able to basically pinpoint the season and even the episode where it jumped the shark, and I don't want to have the "Season Seven Discussion" time and again at cons.
You know the Discussion - in music, it's referred to as "The Black Album Discussion":
- I loved Metallica until The Black Album.
- I thought The Black Album was a definite move toward maturity for them - they needed to take that turn in order to lead their fans into growing along with them.
- The Black Album was a total sell-out. Metallica are a bunch of complete sell-outs, that's why Jason left... but not before he'd made his money, too.
And I'm sure real fans of Sex and the City have a similar discussion, though I don't know if it starts with season six. Still, season six sucks.
© C Harris Lynn, 2008
1 comment:
HAHAHAHAHAHA! I forgot he slapped her!
On behalf of all men everywhere, thank you, Mikhail Baryshnikov!
They had lost the whole train of thought by this point, so let me give some Carrie Bradshaws that would have made the series finale watchable:
Paris may be a cracking-good city, but for this New York girl, it was a slap in the face.
After chowing-down on a hairy knuckle sandwich, I was no longer hungry for the life I thought I would find in the City of Love.
Our relationship wasn't quite the hit his show was, but I had to hand it to him - his show wasn't a spoiled, sassed-mouth American with more shoes than brains.
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