Conversation

Storytelling has gotten so damn efficient due to screen media. A well-scripted modern TV show moves along incredibly briskly. It’s like Lean Storytelling. Shortest path through the beats of the hero’s journeys. It’s barely even writing. It’s amygdala assembly programming.
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Nothing forces efficiency more than knowing every minute of screen time is costing 10s to 100s of thousands. No time to dawdle. Can lead to mechanical effects sometimes, but damn the machine works. Slick is the word. It’s not always good storytelling but it’s slick.
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It’s the sign of a mannerist late stage or something. Like we’re on the cusp of a leap out of this local minimum with a young new kind of storytelling that can afford to be sloppy and loose because it makes big gains on an unexpected vector.
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Funny how people think this is either obviously a bad thing or obviously a good thing. 🤣 Can’t just let it be a thing huh
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Examples: Cobra Kai, The Expanse…. Not a single missed beat or sloppy discursive scene. No spezzatura. No weird narrative conceits overindulged.
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Replying to
With the best TV writing though you don’t see the mechanism. The world feels bigger than what’s really on screen, the characters more alive than the world on the page. You have to be even more efficient to leave room for the slower moments that build these things.