Conversation

Groundhog Day is a weirdly effective narrative pattern for TV/movies. I don’t think it works in text media. Watching a character repeatedly live through a loop that others forget, including dying/suffering, until they puzzle their way out, packs a big punch.
22
68
Besides Groundhog Day, there’s a Doctor Who episode (S9.11) and a Librarians episode (S2.8). Also the recent Palm Springs. A big punch comes when the character convinced others they’re in a loop, and is finally “seen” by another, only to be forgotten again next time.
13
12
I wonder what sort of life situation it’s an allegory for. I guess when you’re changing/growing in ways that are invisible to others in a very stable, unchanging environment. Every day is the same for everybody, but only you care.
6
14
Oh yeah, Russian Doll. I watched the whole first season but didn’t quite like it. It gets too literary and dilutes the punchiness of what is a very archetypal story that needs stick-figure characters. Arguably stereotypical New Yorkers are almost archetypes, but not quite.
Quote Tweet
Replying to @vgr
Russian Doll.
1
8
Librarians episode was well-done surprise in an otherwise lazy show. What makes it extra effective is that loop lead is Ezequiel Jones (why that name for an Asian-Australian character I don’t know), who is otherwise a 2d character with no inner life.
Replying to
Spoiler: in the librarians version they eventually figure out its a video game rather than a time loop. They play the difference for some good payoffs.
Quote Tweet
Replying to @vgr
Lots and lots of video games in this genre. Permadeath with learning progression is huge.
1
Adjacency
Quote Tweet
Replying to @lorakolodny
Hmm not sure. I never got the loop-story emotional arc from choose-your-own-adventure books. There’s the Bandersnatch special of Black Mirror that does that in video. It’s a depth-first tree search rather than a one-step backtrack search.
1
More refs in replies. There’s an element of time-loop to pandemic time. Though of course it’s much more messy and real life. 2020 feels like new insanity every week, but also a loop insanity we can’t break. Most explicitly in the reopen/fail/shut-down-again pattern. N=2 so far.
1
7