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

[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.