Light Cue 23

I am an outcast of my generation because I do not watch television. There is the immediate dislike of advertising breaking into story and providing an unpleasant interruption. But there is something in the medium itself that I dislike. Something in the mechanics of storytelling, the mode of discourse employed by television that I find unsatisfying.

Television can be broken down into roughly two categories of storytelling. The Short Form and the Long Form. The Short Form is the sitcom. It can range anywhere from a half an hour to an hour and the rules are quite simple. Status quo upon first scene. Some quirky bit of action interrupts the status quo. Total resolution causing a return of the status quo in the last five minutes. Repeat as needed throughout the season. The Long Form is the soap opera. Never resolve a situation fully, never provide an ending.

The Short Form of television is every nighttime sitcom, police drama, etc. It is easy to watch and predictable. You get just enough thrill to make it worth spending the time staring at a little blinking box with the satisfaction of knowing you will return to the status quo within the hour. There is no risk, but also very little payoff. There is no evolution. Rather there is a continually revolving hamster wheel that gives off the illusion of transformation. Some shows like The Simpsons play into this and comment on the absurdity of Television’s Short Form. This affords them a little more latitude in terms of what becomes possible within the medium itself.

The Long Form is the Soap Opera. Here we have pure growth. Everything is change. The trick with this is that there is never any true resolution. Every episode is a cliff hanger. It always ends somewhat unfinished, leaving the viewer wanting more. But not more as in different, simply more of the same. It can, and does, go on for years without ever truly resolving anything.

There are of course hybrids. Six Feet Under is a perfect example. It is Long Form Television with sitcom stability. It provides a degree of resolution in each episode and is, to an extent self-contained. It is also a specific story arc that begins in one place and ends somewhere else, over the course of five years. In a way it is of a wholly separate genre. It employs the medium of television to extend the storytelling possibilities of mediums like Theatre, Dance, Opera and Film.

These mediums employ a balance between suspense and resolution, between revolution and conclusion that allows them to provide a wholly satisfying experience in and of itself while still providing for an extended experience beyond container of the theater. These mediums are not just about change and growth, they are about evolution. Even when we return to some sense of status quo, as in MacBeth for example, it is a status quo that is changed. Order and law may have been restored, but at a great cost, and after learning powerful and important lessons. The players are all different and the question is opened up as we leave the theater, “What will happen next?”

The balance between change and restoration of the status quo is critical to give a truly dramatic power to a piece of entertainment. Be it Theatre, Film or Television, for it have real power it must both allow for change and provide a means of landing us in some conclusive place. Even if that final place is inconclusive or uncertain, it needs must find a place of final rest. The twenty year Long Form can only tempt us, it can never truly give us the power of the Film or the Opera experience.