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Friday 13 July 2018

Why sharks get jumped

Maybe one reason why I enjoy role-playing campaigns is because I came early to episodic stories. Long before discovering my great love, comic books, I was glued to Doctor Who and big books of Norse myths. The weekly UK comic TV Century 21 (which I collected from the second issue; it was always just “TV21” to me) presented all those Gerry Anderson shows as taking place in one universe, which fuelled the idea that stories don’t have to have an end.

But that’s for kids. The Norse myths mirror the dramas of childhood, where massive fallings-out and reconciliations can happen in the space of a summer’s afternoon and we don’t mind that each morning is a chance to reset the games and interests of the day before.

As we get older, we demand that stories go somewhere. Things must change. And that’s where they can go wrong, because if you’re going to have change you must also have an ending. When a story is forcibly kept going beyond its natural life, the shark is going to be waiting and one day you must jump it. And then we end up wondering what we even saw in that setting and those characters in the first place.

Breaking Bad and The Shield were designed right from the start so that their narrative trajectory would have an end. Likewise the Harry Potter novels. The Sopranos was originally expected to run for a single season, hence the frenzy of plotting in the twelfth and thirteenth episode when commercial success demanded a jolt of boosterspice. I’d rather have had one perfect season myself. A good show should build in its own Hayflick limit.

What goes wrong with an indefinite run? There’s the escalation of dramatic twists. Take Cracker, Jimmy McGovern’s seminal ‘90s TV drama that started so well. After a time, story logic demanded that the danger Fitz and his colleagues tackled would have to strike close to home. But once we’d seen the team sprint to Fitz’s front door once, the next shock twist had to be bigger. One police officer raped another, and then jumped off a roof. Fitz’s family began to be threatened on a regular basis, until finally his son was targeted by a serial killer who strapped him to an electrified bedstead. He was saved from electrocution in the nick of time. If the show had continued, the only place left to go would have been strapping a bomb to the baby’s pram.

Drama isn’t an Escher staircase. You can’t keep upping the threat. But once you succumb to the understandable urge to grab audiences with a big shock, where else can you go? The Doctor has to save the universe every season, and it has to be from a bigger and badder threat, and the personal secrets revealed (or cooked up) have to be ever more profound, ever more earth-shattering. It’s like taking a hit of heroin. You think it’s the answer to everything, but the doses get bigger and eventually you’re going to OD.

But just as toxic as escalating threat is the self-referential archness that creeps into the writing on a long-running series. It’s narrowcasting, as each instalment calls back to events that only the diehard fans remember – and those fans are the ones who wriggle and giggle at every knowing quote, while the rest of us just wonder why the characters are behaving like they’re in a pantomime.

When I began my comic Mirabilis, it was with the intention of telling the story of a single miraculous year. “Everything will change,” was the logline, because it would. Before the green comet appeared, it was the real historical 1901 – no vampires, no steampunk. Then there’s a year of wonders. One year. When the green comet departs, we’re back to the real world.

The first idea was to tell it all in fifty-two episodes, only they couldn’t have been fifty-two of the 5-page instalments that ran in The DFC. Fifty-two full-length comic books, maybe. Then I could tell the story. But it would still reach an end.

“Unless it’s a huge success,” said the publisher, David Fickling. “Then you’ll have to come up with more story.”

“After the comet goes we’re back to a non-fantastic universe, so there’s nothing more to tell.”

“You can just invent a new reason for there to be fantasy, can’t you?” asked Mr Fickling, flinging up his hands.

“Uh-uh.” I can be pretty stubborn in defence of what I see as creative honesty. “The whole point is that on either side of the year of the comet this is the ordinary world. The story is told. It’s over.”

Of course, having an end in sight doesn’t guarantee the writer won’t jump the shark before they get there, but it does at least let them plan out the gear-shifts of surprises and reversals so that they don’t have to start competing with their own ideas to keep the thing moving. And they can be fairly confident that they’ll never get so bored with the characters that they start having them talk with, as it were, repeated winks to the reader.

Have you been disappointed when a favourite TV show, comic book, or series of novels jumped the shark? How would you have fixed the problem? Don't say, "Get a bigger boat."

29 comments:

  1. The TV series Supernatural, now in its 13th season, is one that I still watch... but it's long past its fresh date. At this point it is so drenched in fan-service and self mockery that there is little of what originally drew me in.
    It could have had a wonderfully tragic ending in its 2nd or 3rd season... but nope.
    Like you say, they keep upping the threats and reaching for 'dramatic' reveals that feel tired and predictable at this point... so nothing feels like a serious threat at all.
    The show just needs to end... preferably with the main characters in a recreation of the ending of Dirty Mary And Crazy Larry (which is really only remembered for that ending).

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    1. I never watched Supernatural (except maybe the pilot) but if it had gone only five seasons then I might have been tempted. Anything more than that is a danger signal that a show is going to get lost in the churn. Unless they do redeem it with an ending like you suggest.

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    2. I'm only up to date with season 12 of Supernatural, but I have to say that I have *never* been disappointed with a single episode of it. The way it manages to keep moving forward is nothing short of extraordinary. It does things that simply should not work, and yet they do. I agree there is a degree of self-mockery, but if it took itself too seriously then that's when it would fail.

      Incidentally Dave, the long storyline that the creator originally envisaged was wrapped up in season 5, so you could just watch those and leave it at that. But then you'd miss the Leviathan series (a favourite of mine) and a lot of other good stuff.

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  2. Ending of Season 40: After breaking out of the retirement home run by evil leprechauns, Sam, Dean and Dean's portable dialysis machine make a run for the Mexican border only to be stopped by a cliff (the Impala's GPS failed). So, they drive off the cliff like Thelma and Louise, only to land on a rainbow bridge that takes them to Valhalla to hunt giants. Season you in Season 41.

    As far as not jumping the shark, the Marvel movie universe seems to have its stuff together. After the ginoratroniousness of Avengers: Infinity War, the next movie, Ant-Man and the Wasp is a mostly personal scale story. But stay through the credits. Really.

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    1. Don't worry, I *always* stay through the credits.

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  3. Good post. Let's just think at X-Files, Lost....

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    1. Lost was especially problematic because it was on a collision course with a shark from episode 1. There was lots of great character stuff, and interesting developments even up to season 5, but ultimately it could go nowhere because it had started from the premise of The Third Policeman and that would have worked out fine as the explanation if it had just been one season, but it developed so many obviously improvised plot elements and twists that the "they were dead all along" finale was a damp squib.

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  4. Your five series point certainly holds true for a lot of comedies, Dave. Red Dwarf, Peep Show, Only Fools and Horses, all of them peaked around then. Going on past waters down their classic status somewhat. Better to quit whilst you're ahead, Fawlty Towers, The Young Ones, The Office, Blackadder, Spaced, Father Ted and (hopefully) Detectorists.

    Fighting Fantasy around book 20. We'll perhaps give number 43 special dispensation. I must get around to re-reading that, or the reworked version.


    Blake's 7, if not jumping the shark, was strapping its water skis on.

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    1. I can forgive Blake's 7 a lot for the bleakness of its ending, Andy, but there's no doubt that once the Avon fans took over the writers' room it dropped sharply from the standard set by the first two seasons. To that list of classic comedies that quit while they were ahead, let me just add Black Books and Action!

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    2. Agree completely with your Blake's 7 comments, Dave. The last two series can be described as "fun" at best. With the exception of the ending you mention, which probably ranks as my favourite episode of any non comedy on television. Black Books is brilliant. Action is a new one on me though. Must be quite obscure as doesn't come up anywhere on internet that I can see? I'm Alan Partridge should probably be added to the list. I also have a soft spot for The Inbetweeners and Plebs, although having just watched series four of the latter, maybe three is the magic number after all.

      At the end of Jaws 4: The Revenge, the shark jumps the shark.

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    3. Action was a 1999 series starring Jay Mohr. It got cancelled midway through its first season, probably for being too smart. (Nowadays it would be on cable and find a smart audience.) I'm not sure if it's out there in any form, but worth a look if you can find it.

      Alan Partridge is coming back, I see. We have to trust Coogan and Ianucci to have thought up a fresh angle, as I don't think they'd be content just to revisit past glories.

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    4. I'll keep a look out should it ever be repeated on an obscure channel. At least I've found it on Wikipedia now. A good comedy also never released on DVD is Strutter.


      Mid Morning Matters was ok, but it missed Ianucci's input. I'll look forward to the new ones. Related to Iannucci, not a sitcom, but Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle is up there with my favourites. I'd also strongly recommend his stand up shows, If You Prefer A Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One, being the best. This Morning With Richard Not Judy another relatively obscure one never released on DVD. He is marmite though.

      I'm currently watching repeats of Tales Of The Unexpected. It's just entering Shark territory now, around series four.

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    5. Back in the day I took to calling that Tales of the Bleedin' Obvious. It's a shame that later seasons wiped out the memory of some good creepy/strange stories early on. I'm thinking especially of the guesthouse one, though not sure if I'm remembering the actual TV version or the mental images the Dahl story evoked.

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    6. Agree, from what I've seen so far anyway. Kiss Kiss and Someone Like You were excellent collections. I watched one a few weeks back called The Flypaper. It was only right at the very end I remembered I'd watched it as a child, which was disturbing in itself! Not a Dahl episode, but quite well done. I had thought there was an episode with Prunella Scales as a serial murderer who knocked off boyfriends by locking them in a room and gassing them. However, I can't find any reference to it, so I can only surmise it wasn't Prunella Scales nor Tales Of The Unexpected! Funny how the mind/memory plays tricks.

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    7. I loved Action! I don't think being too smart doomed it, though it didn't help. I think it was more that it was dark and the protagonist was too unlikable. Dramas could get away with that, but for comedies you need someone at the center to like and root for. Which is why none of Dabney Coleman's sitcoms lasted long. Of course, that's the American perspective. Nowadays, with so many cable stations and streaming services needing content, you can find those comedies, like Bojack Horseman on Netflix.

      Action did end with one of my favorite meta jokes ever. When they called the time of Peter Dragon's death, it was the same time that the finale aired.

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    8. I just realized I often prefer comedies with unlikeable characters: Basil Fawlty, Selina Meyer, Larry David (fictional version), the Young Ones. (I'd include David Brent and the fictional version of Warwick Davis, only they are rather likeable underneath it all.)

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    9. Circa 20 years ago in my first management role, someone likened me to Brent. At the time, I wasn't exactly mortified, but let's say perturbed. In retrospect, although I've come to the conclusion that the person saying this was an idiot, I'm not entirely uncomfortable with the comparison.

      For your American colleagues, I'll clarify the statement in the morning, Dave.

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  5. I loved Michael Caine's take on Jaws: The Revenge

    "I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific."

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    1. Those were the days. When a movie star could build a house with their fee from one picture.

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    2. Classic quote, John. He did look quite smug throughout the film, now you mention it.

      I'm currently relating Tales of the Unexpected to one of Roz's novels, Dave. Usually when out with the lads, a drunken default setting is to pick out rubbish lookalikes of celebrities past. With TOTU, it's celebrities forward. We've already had rubbish Robert Webb (Julian Fellowes), David Thewlis (no), Jude Law (no), Jeremy Brett (yes). Could be worth buying the box set and getting the lads around for a few. *Disclaimer to this game, don't read opening TV credits.

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  6. Yes, all TV series should have term limits like the American Presidency. Maybe let them come back for 3 seasons; but no more than that.

    When Buffy dies, she should stay dead. Probably Angel as well actually, although I am an old romantic and loved seeing him and Buffy reunited in Season 3...

    Generally, the prime offenders in terms of 'not knowing when to end' are TV shows because of their nature as commercial products belonging to the Network rather than novels which are the personal project of one individual. That being said, I feel that whilst we are on this subject I want to flag up the heinous act of vandalism which was done to the legacy of Winnie the Pooh, when the author's estate commissioned a sequel from David Benedictus called "Return to Hundred Acre Wood".

    Which means that the heartrending final lines of "The House at Pooh Corner" - “But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.” - are now meaningless, because, don't worry, at the end of the school term, Christopher Robin rides back into the wood and resumes his adventures with the gang !

    You see I *thought* that was a beautiful metaphor about memory and loss, life and death, children and parents, but no, apparently we were meant to read it *literally* !

    Wait until the Tolkien estate authorise "The Return of Frodo !"

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    1. I would round up any author implicated in returns to Pemberley, Manderley, Hundred Acre Wood, Toad Hall, etc, and place them on a special circle of hell to be eternally tormented by misplaced apostrophes. That said, I have been goading my wife to write Thirteenth Night (after she pointed out that Malvolio's departing words really set it up for a sequel). And Buffy coming back from the dead did make for a killer season...

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    2. My wife's mother has been in love with the Wind in the Willows all her life... and she absolutely adored the William Horwood sequels.

      There room for this kind of thing. When it's good, that's great. When it's not, well, then it never happened, and the originals are still there.

      Sorry to be so contrary this evening, but as you suggest with Buffy and Thirteenth Night things are never that simple.

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    3. Well, hang on now, Robin. I don't want anybody but Joss Whedon doing Buffy sequels -- and I'm not even sure about him. Reboots, though, they're another matter.

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  7. I'd mention Elementary as an ongoing show that's never jumped the sharked (or even approached the water all that closely). After a weaker (but still good) fifth season, the sixth season is back in form.

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    1. I'm relieved to hear that, John. I liked season 5 but it wasn't quite up to the standard of earlier seasons so I was worried the show had started to flag.

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    2. The only real issue for this season is that some "seams" show from alterations. The sixth (and likely final) season was originally supposed to be 13 episodes. Then it got bumped to 21 episodes. Then it got renewed for a seventh season. Still, so far it's better than the fifth season. Really, the biggest problem with the fifth season was Nelson Ellis' character, who just seemed to suck all the joy and energy out of any scene he was in most of the time. Of course, it turned out he was ill as he died soon after the show's fifth season, so I feel a bit bad about criticizing him.

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    3. I wondered what was going on with the Shinwell Johnson character, but I thought he was playing the character as closed-down and devoid of energy for story reasons. Huh. Anyway, I'm excited by the thought of a 7th season; maybe I'll have disown this post.

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  8. Part of it might have been an acting choice as well. I think the biggest problem for me was that Shinwell Johnson seemed to be from a show very different from Elementary, a network version of The Wire or something. You could make an excellent, compelling show about someone going undercover to take down a gang (the show, Wiseguy, from the 80s, was one of the best examples), but that show isn't Elementary.

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