Showing posts with label Resolution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Resolution. Show all posts

Saturday 1 October 2022

The Chris Carter Effect



The Chris Carter Effect :

"If the fans conclude that the writing team will never resolve its plots, then they will probably stop following the work."

Contrast - Fan-Disliked Explanation.

It's said that no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the viewing public, but sometimes a show comes along that promises stories so complex and subtle that they'll make War and Peace look like "Frog and Toad Are Friends". If it's done right, then this is catnip to a certain sector of the viewing public, who will often give such a show a surprisingly long time to set up its plot arcs before getting antsy for a resolution. 

The Catch for The Creator is that, the longer an arc runs and the more complicated it gets, the more awesome its payoff must be for it to feel satisfying to the fans. It's much easier for a writer to keep kicking the can — piling mysteries on top of mysteries — rather than finish storylines. This trope was invoked in the British TV serial The Singing Detective, in which mystery novelist Philip Marlowe asserts that fiction, like Life, should be "all clues and no solutions."

That said, most audiences are savvy enough to recognise a framing device when they see one. Plots resting on a single Driving Question (Where is The Sunflower Samurai? Who is Mrs. Mosby? Who Killed Laura Palmer? Who Shot J.R.? Will Dr. Becket Ever Leap Home? Where is The Peace Conference? Who's on First? Who is The One-Armed Man? Will They or Won't They?) are allowed some leeway; otherwise, the production team would be out of work and The Story would end. The Chris Carter Effect happens when a work is wholly focused on twists or not building up to a satisfactory resolution, but on the other hand, the plotting sometimes becomes so bloated that there can no longer be a satisfactory resolution (see Ending Aversion). Another contributing effect could be the unsatisfactory resolution of long-running side-plots. At this point, even the most ardent fans will start to feel jerked around, or at the very least channel flip to something else.

Sometimes, the lack of a resolution is not the writers' fault: the network might have pulled the plug early or compromised the original vision by having it focus on more merchandisable elements or to keep adding to or expanding on the author's intended story.

See also Kudzu Plot and Commitment Anxiety. Specifically, the combination of a Kudzu Plot with Webcomic Time can have a similar effect on The Audience, even when a finale is in the works, if the piece stretches out long enough that the fans lose track of the original premise of the series. Arc Fatigue is this trope on a smaller scale, in which just a single story arc goes on for too long without any resolution rather than the entire series. Can be connected to Franchise Original Sin in that the Myth Arc is successful at first before devolving over time into less-successful territory.

If fans doubt that such a show will even survive to finish its story and don't bother tuning in, that's The Firefly Effect. Compare Writing by the Seat of Your Pants, which does not focus on how the audience reacts to it.

Named for Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files,  which some believe to be the godfather of this trope.

It has nothing to do with the former Minnesota Vikings wide receiver, Cris Carter. Note the missing "H" in his name. It also has nothing to do with Beatles DJ and former Dramarama member Chris Carter.

Contrast Fan-Disliked Explanation.

Monday 7 January 2019

Tilting at Windmills









Tilting at Windmills

I see What You Did There -

I love Qixotic Jokes.















ROOSEVELT: 
Where's Jax?
I hear he's your new president.

CHIBS: 
He's not here.

What do you want?

ROOSEVELT: 
Are you guys aware of the violence that's happening in Charming?

Two home invasions in less than a week.

CHIBS: 
Contrary to popular belief... we can read.

TIG: 
Why, you think we had something to do with it?

ROOSEVELT: 
Three weeks ago an unidentified man ran down Veronica Pope in what we can assume was an attempted hit on Laroy Wayne.

No witnesses came forward yet, but... some folks are saying that they saw the One-Niners chasing after a group of guys on motorcycles.

CHIBS: 
Really?

ROOSEVELT: 
First home invasion was Lynette Brice, one of your croweaters.

2:30 this morning, Wade Steiner was attacked in his own kitchen.

He's a mechanic here at the TM.

Do you, uh, see the pattern here?

If these home invasions are retaliation by Pope or the Niners...

TIG: 
We ain't heard of any beefs, man.

ROOSEVELT: 
No?

TIG: 
No.

ROOSEVELT: 
Hm.

Then who would attack your auto parts truck outside of Modesto last night?

HAPPY: 
Angry Pirates.

ROOSEVELT: 
I don't give a shit if Pope blows up every goddamn truck of yours, but not in my quadrant.

One innocent gets hurt, and I make Pope look like an altar boy, you understand?

CHIBS: 
I see what you did there.

I love Catholic jokes.

TIG: 
You know, remember the two nuns?

CHIBS: 
Yeah.

TIG: - 
They walk into a dyke bar... 

CHIBS: - 
Hey! Bobby!

(laughing)





Monday 7 May 2018

The Cactus







“I asked Mel to present this award for me for a reason.

When I couldn’t get sober, he told me not to give up hope and encouraged me to find my faith. 

It didn’t have to be his or anyone else’s as long as it was rooted in forgiveness

And I couldn’t get hired, so he cast me in the lead of a movie that was actually developed for him. 

He kept a roof over my head and food on the table and most importantly he said if I accepted responsibility for my wrongdoing and embraced that part of my soul that was ugly — hugging the cactus he calls it — he said that if I hugged the cactus long enough, I’d become A Man of some substance.

So, I did, and it worked.

All he asked in return was that someday I help The Next Guy in some small way. 

...it’s reasonable to assume at the time he didn’t imagine the next guy would be him or that someday was tonight. 

So anyway on this special occasion and in light of the recent holidays, including   Columbus Day, I would ask that you join me, unless you are completely without sin in which case you picked the wrong f—ing industry, in forgiving my friend his trespasses and offering him the same clean slate you have me, allowing him to continue his great and ongoing contribution to our collective art without shame. 

He’s hugged the cactus long enough.”