Friday, May 19, 2006
Killing off Characters
From Shonda Rhimes, in the Grey Writer's weblog, which I absolutely adore:
On Meredith and Derek getting back together:
"I can’t promise you anything because, like I said earlier, the characters are alive for me and thus, I can’t make them do anything against their will. But my fingers and toes are crossed for the Mer/Der love…"
On Killing off Denny:
"Look, I honestly have nothing to say for myself. No words in my own defense. Except I told you guys that the characters have to do what the characters have to do."
I like this sentiment for two reasons.
First, I really like the idea of a story taking on a life of its own beyond the people who wrote it. As if narrative itself has a life of its own.
Second, from the perspective of a fan, she is totally right. A television show is so much better when it is driven by the needs of the story and the personalities of the characters created. She is right that Denny dying felt shocking but also not wrong. It made sense for the story that Denny died and so it was good that it did. What I find more interesting is that it does not work the other way, when a character must be killed off or move away somewhere because of some outside reason, the writers putting it in the story line never quite works as well. Think of all the characters who left ER, their departure never felt very satisfying because the writers had to put it in because of various actors being sick of being on the show.
Or lets examine, my now ending favorite show, Everwood. (I am actually too numb from the news to be depressed, plus it is probably karmic punishment for having missed Everwood to watch Grey's Anatomy on Monday. Yes, you 3 million or so fans of the show, Everwood being cancelled it all my fault.) Colin's death was amazing because it was truly uncertain what was going to happen and it totally propelled the story where it needed to go. However, Marcia Cross leaving was pretty lame. Sure, she could no longer work in Everwood cause she had AIDS, but it was not a compelling story line, and she really had to leave cause she was going to be on Desperate Housewives.
Anyway, on to the Death of Marissa on last nights OC, which was the real jumping off point of this entry. Television Without Pity describes it perfectly:
Unfortunately for her, Crazy Volchok will do anything to get her back -- including driving his new car and running her and Ryan off the road. Despite his section of the car being completely smushed, Ryan survives the crash with nary an injury, making him well able to carry Marissa's body out of the car before it dramatically explodes. And wow, it looks just like all those other times he's had to carry her body around, as we see in a montage celebrating this show's love of repetition instead of creativity. And as a barely-awake Imogean Heap sings "Hallelujah" over and over again, Marissa DIES. She dies! And even more pointlessly than she lived.
Obviously, all the rumors of her leaving the show took away from any of the shock that her death may have caused. (Unlike Colin's death in the best show ever, which was totally unexpected). But also, it just felt tacked on or something. Not really an integral part of the story line.
A side issue is also the promo department, who often ruins deaths by telling us that they are going to happen. See the final episode of the Dawson's Creek which I think would have been much better if we did not know Jen was going to die from all the dumb WB commercials. And maybe I would have forgotten the rumors, if the FOX promo departments did not remind me of it with thier stupid commercials.
On Meredith and Derek getting back together:
"I can’t promise you anything because, like I said earlier, the characters are alive for me and thus, I can’t make them do anything against their will. But my fingers and toes are crossed for the Mer/Der love…"
On Killing off Denny:
"Look, I honestly have nothing to say for myself. No words in my own defense. Except I told you guys that the characters have to do what the characters have to do."
I like this sentiment for two reasons.
First, I really like the idea of a story taking on a life of its own beyond the people who wrote it. As if narrative itself has a life of its own.
Second, from the perspective of a fan, she is totally right. A television show is so much better when it is driven by the needs of the story and the personalities of the characters created. She is right that Denny dying felt shocking but also not wrong. It made sense for the story that Denny died and so it was good that it did. What I find more interesting is that it does not work the other way, when a character must be killed off or move away somewhere because of some outside reason, the writers putting it in the story line never quite works as well. Think of all the characters who left ER, their departure never felt very satisfying because the writers had to put it in because of various actors being sick of being on the show.
Or lets examine, my now ending favorite show, Everwood. (I am actually too numb from the news to be depressed, plus it is probably karmic punishment for having missed Everwood to watch Grey's Anatomy on Monday. Yes, you 3 million or so fans of the show, Everwood being cancelled it all my fault.) Colin's death was amazing because it was truly uncertain what was going to happen and it totally propelled the story where it needed to go. However, Marcia Cross leaving was pretty lame. Sure, she could no longer work in Everwood cause she had AIDS, but it was not a compelling story line, and she really had to leave cause she was going to be on Desperate Housewives.
Anyway, on to the Death of Marissa on last nights OC, which was the real jumping off point of this entry. Television Without Pity describes it perfectly:
Unfortunately for her, Crazy Volchok will do anything to get her back -- including driving his new car and running her and Ryan off the road. Despite his section of the car being completely smushed, Ryan survives the crash with nary an injury, making him well able to carry Marissa's body out of the car before it dramatically explodes. And wow, it looks just like all those other times he's had to carry her body around, as we see in a montage celebrating this show's love of repetition instead of creativity. And as a barely-awake Imogean Heap sings "Hallelujah" over and over again, Marissa DIES. She dies! And even more pointlessly than she lived.
Obviously, all the rumors of her leaving the show took away from any of the shock that her death may have caused. (Unlike Colin's death in the best show ever, which was totally unexpected). But also, it just felt tacked on or something. Not really an integral part of the story line.
A side issue is also the promo department, who often ruins deaths by telling us that they are going to happen. See the final episode of the Dawson's Creek which I think would have been much better if we did not know Jen was going to die from all the dumb WB commercials. And maybe I would have forgotten the rumors, if the FOX promo departments did not remind me of it with thier stupid commercials.
# posted by Julia @ 7:43 PM 
