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

[salty-catfish.livejournal.com]

No, it's not mentioned. So far it looks like the episodes up 'til 6.14 are going to be something else, so I'm guessing middle of the second half of the season?
I have a lot of different issues with the meta eps, but the mention of the actors' real names is going to give me the worst case second hand embarassment ever, I know it. DNW.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Just reading that quote from TV Guide made me squirm. This is way beyond DNW. It's more like...I CAN'T FUCKING BELIEVE THEY'RE GOING THERE.

[salty-catfish.livejournal.com]

I laughed at the part where Misha Collins advertised it with "this has never been seen before!" Some things aren't done because they are a bad idea.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Not to mention it HAS been seen before, more or less. Considering Misha Collins's sense of humor, I suspect he may have been being sarcastic.

[salty-catfish.livejournal.com]

News! There's speculation it's going to be 6x15 based on the title, which is (hold yourself) "The French Mistake". Yeah.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I don't even want to know why it's "French."

You know, I'm thinking that maybe I SHOULD watch this. Because if it's as bad as it sounds, it means I can write this show off once and for all instead of pathetically sticking around waiting for some good crumbs to fall from the table now and then. I think I'll record it and then watch it so that if things get particularly mortifying I can hit the ol' fast foward button toute suite.

[salty-catfish.livejournal.com]

You are right, you don't want to know. Feed that inner masochist. ;) And maybe it's unexpectedly brilliant!

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I doubt that any unexpected brilliance will be manifesting itself in a "high-humor meta" episode, but I'll admit I've made myself curious to see how far they'll go...and if they'll drag the fans into it the way they did the last time. Or will they just be making fun of themselves? This would still make for an annoying episode (I'd much rather they spend airtime on plot and character instead of goofing around), but at least it might not be outright insulting. Sadly, I don't think they'd bother writing a comedic "show-within-a-show" episode (about a "real" Jared and Jensen) if they don't use it as a vehicle to make fun of us. Making fun of us seems to be the goal of all the recent meta, I can't imagine they'd give it up now.