During lunch today we started discussing what constituted good television that has an addictive nature to it.
Drama shows like Battlestar Galactica and Lost pull you in. But it seems the better the show, the more likely it is to disappear. Firefly and Farscape vanished due to budget reasons, rather than failed content.
Clearly, someone out there knows how to write good television: it’s possible.
But is it sustainable?
My co-worker mentioned that he’s gotten sucked into watching the television series 24. And, while he reports that it has reached absurd proportions for plot, that made me ponder there just may be a solution to bad television.
We’re all familiar with the direction of Friends; the cast demanded higher and higher salaries, and without the popularity of the times, the show would have budgeted itself out of existance. Worse yet, without compensation to throw at writers, a show is more likely to jump the shark. What’s popular becomes boring.
24 is one of those rare shows where they aren’t afraid to kill off main characters. This does two positive things.
One, it means, as a viewer, one doesn’t know what to expect – anything is possible; that’s been a big problem with many shows, if the main characters gets in mortal peril, it’s actually just a matter of how they get out, not if. This keeps viewers interested and builds a tighter emotional relationship with the characters.
Two, if any character can be written out of a show, then they can be written out for real-world contractual reasons; an actor demanding an inflated salary can no longer hold the show hostage, which in turns means a good show can stay fresh and have a longer life span.
The up shot is that with disposable characters, a show will have to be of better quality and it will be more affordable to produce if it does well.