So much of TV is way too concerned with being Clever™ right now. There’s this pervasive myth that audiences won’t enjoy a narrative climax unless it’s a total surprise. “Predictable” is always used as a pejorative term when it comes to storytelling, but I think that’s absolute crap, because here’s the thing:
Unpredictability is not, inherently, a virtue. Unpredictability can mean: a) you don’t have a clear grasp on who your characters are or what direction they’re growing. b) you don’t have a clear vision for the story you’re trying to tell. c) you don’t know how to tell the story (for example, you have a Point A and a Point B but the middle is a bunch of disjointed time-wasting filler.
“But,” the showrunners cry, “you never saw that twist coming! We kept you on your toes!” That does not make it good. Cleverness is often just smoke and mirrors designed to distract the audience from a lack of substance; it doesn’t guarantee a worthwhile story. I don’t want to be shocked for the sake of surprise – I want to feel like the experience was worth my time.
I want to be introduced to a character, and then I want to be taken on a journey with that character. I want every step of that journey to teach me who they are; what they believe, what they want, what they hate, what they fear, and what they love, so that when they are faced with a conflict or a critical moment of decision, I understand exactly why they do what they do. I’m hoping their choices in that moment will reveal something truthful and powerful and worth knowing about another person’s experience.
That’s what I want in a story. I genuinely don’t care whether it’s clever or predictable or whatever; I just want a worthwhile journey in which every moment of every episode means something – to the character(s), and to me. That’s what makes serial television satisfying. It has nothing to do with shock or intellect or reinventing the wheel, it’s just about telling the damn story in a way that makes you feel it.
Me when everyone was disappointed in the end of True Detective s1. Me when the only “big moment” at the end of Mad Men was a Coke commercial.
Don’t Meep. Meep and you’re dead. They’re fast. Faster than you can believe. Don’t turn your back. Don’t look away. And don’t meep. Good Luck.
One of our favorite pop culture mashups (previously featured here) has been brought to life in glorious cosplay form. Behold, the Meeping Angel, created by costumer and cosplayer Shanola22 and her friend Will.
Shanola22 reached out to us to talk about how they brought this geektastic mashup to life and shared some very exciting news with us about future plans for this awesome costume. Are you ready? The Meeping Angel is getting a companion in the form of… wait for it… Dr. Honey-Who!
“As for construction, I pretty much followed the Weeping Angel tutorial on the RPF for the wings, with a few changes. I’m not sure any costumer/cosplayer ever does anything the same way another costumer/costumer does, and that is the fun! But I had to make changes the angel dress because I didn’t want to just put a Beaker head on a Weeping Angel body. I wanted it to look like Beaker had been accidentally turned into an angel by Dr. Honey-Who. That is just their dynamic and I wanted it to reflect in the costume. So the Meeping Angel has sleeves, because I’ve never seen Beaker’s arms actually exposed. The collar of the dress goes around his head instead of the head sitting on top of dress, and the shoulders sort of slant down, because that is a key shape that Beaker always has and I felt it was really important to keep that shape.”
“For practical matters, the dress is in two parts instead of one piece, to make getting dressed easier. So I can put the toe socks and shoes on, then the skirt, then the gloves, then the wings, then the top and fix that around the wings. Finally, the head is the last thing to go on, and it Velcros to the head. The pictures I posted on Facebook are of the first time we assembled the entire costume. It was a trial, to see how it worked together, how hard it was to put on and take off, what changes need to be made, how hot it was going to be. I shared the pictures because I feel confident it can work as a walking costume and I can finish it before the con.”
326 Miles 