The Secret

[oselle]

After last night's riveting season finale of The Walking Dead, I found myself wondering what is the secret to creating great entertainment in the sci-fi/fantasy/horror genre. I think it comes down to two things --

1) Taking the subject matter seriously.

2) Respecting the audience.

Which frankly, are interrelated. If you take your subject matter seriously, you'll respect the audience because you know they take it seriously too. In contrast, if you think your story is kind of silly, then you'll no doubt think your audience is silly for liking it so much. And because it's a vicious cycle, once you start thinking your audience is silly, you'll take your story even less seriously because its biggest fans are losers who probably have nothing better to do than watch your silly show. See how that works?

Comments

[roque-clasique.livejournal.com]

D'accord

[lsketch42.livejournal.com]

Well said.

[zatnikatel.livejournal.com]

God, this. With frosting and sprinkles.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

So so true. And the thing is, you can take it seriously while still having a sense of humor. It's two different things.

[salty-catfish.livejournal.com]

So how excited are you about this season's Meta Ep? :|

[twirlycurls.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. Don't write as if your audience a bunch of drooling morons whose brains switch off the second they catch sight of your pretty lead actors.

This is my single biggest complaint about SPN and has been since they started doing meta episodes: they clearly both resent their audience and think we're idiots.

On the bright side, I am VERY pleased by The Walking Dead.

[octavius-x.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen Walking dead (have heard good things) but I know SPN is lurking in the backshadow of these 2 things and just want to say WORD esp. to thing 1. This hasn't happened in a lonng time, especially in comparison to those early seasons and look at just how dark and vast the fantasy world was then, now it's more narrowed and strained. As for #2 I feel like the writers are confusing the words "respect" and "masturbate" and as audience members we're too busy enjoying the cheap thrills to realize that eventually we're going get to the grim morning after and be like "WTF happened and how did we end up here?"

Also hello&sorry. Stumbled on this while reading All Saints. Hope you don't mind.

[mulder200.livejournal.com]

So much word to this.

2) Respecting the audience.

Bingo! And I can the disturbing impression that the writers no longer respect their viewers let alone the fanbase.

TBH, I lost any faith I had in the writers after that ridiculous excuse of a 5th season. I mean the first half was all right but towards the second half, it was clear they had no idea what they were doing.

Then again, I felt things were fucked up when I saw a commentary with the show's creator saying, "Oh shit! We have to write the Apocalypse!" Needless to say, after watching that, my worse fears were confirmed.