|
Originally Posted by DanAronG
The first sentence of your post was "you can't do this" which kinda got me ranting, but I do see your point about trashy shows compared to deeper more considerate ones. I still think the first episode is important though, in fact extremely important, and after all the hype of The Wire, I had huge expectations which were simply not met.
I've always used Saving Private Ryan as a premier example of how the beginning of any film should be very gripping. All the amateur stories I've written have adhered to this idea, and any in the future will as well
However, I've come to realize that many storytellers don't bother with this. FWIW, I was bored for the first 100 pages of East of Eden, but that turned out to be the best classic novel I've read, and I was bored for the majority of the entire first season of Carnivale, but that turned out to be my favorite story to date. I mean I love that show so much I would gladly pay a 100$ per episode for them to finish the final 3 seasons they had planned, but if you watch just the first episode or maybe first couple episodes you'll likely be thinking WTF is so great about this... With Carnivale specifically, you don't actually find out what the plot of the series is about until about episode 8-9. Even though I think it would be nice if they could really grip you in the first episode, I think that could have actually detracted from Carnivale's awesomeness in building up everything and revealing the truth further in.
With regards to some shows, you just gotta stick it out. I personally did not care for The Wire at all until about midway first season, but because I knew exactly how highly rated it was, I was determined to get into the meat before I judged it. That's just how it happens when a story is meant to be very involved
And FWIW, I shut off Dexter too. First episode didn't get me at all, or I wasn't in a great mood or something. But I love cinema so much that I decided to come back to it later and give it another and longer shot, and after I began to see the meat of the show and get acquainted to its style, I found it to be supremely entertaining
|