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

[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.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

You made me think of Mad Men which isn't a genre show but is a great example of how a show can be dead serious and still, at time, howlingly funny. I swear, some of my biggest TV laughs this year came from MM.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Totally. I remember on some commentary MW said he basically considers it a comedy. So many funny moments, they're just all totally real.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

The Don & Peggy episode was not only one of the season's best but was such a laugh riot that...I'm laughing about it right now! OMG, remember when Don found the tapes of Roger's memoir..."Miss Blankenship was a hellcat? Cooper got his balls shot off? Roger's writing a book!?!"

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Bwahahaha! And his face before he even says that where he's just listening to him.

Also Roger's there for 3 minutes and is great in all of them: One guy killed some guy with a speedboat. You know how you get over that? Drinking!

ETA: Also Jon Hamm's delivery of such lines as "I'd have my secretary do it but she's dead."

[oselle.livejournal.com]

"I'd have my secretary do it but she's dead."

Based on what I've seen on Saturday Night Live, Jon Hamm has a real gift for comedy that shines through in dry moments like this.

Everything about Miss Blankenship's death was as close as the show's come to outright slapstick comedy, and yet they made it work without breaking character or atmosphere. That's some damn good television.