Actor #1:”Have you seen this woman?”

Actor #2:”No I have not.”

Actor #1: “Have you seen this man?”

Actor #2:”Did he kidnap her?”

Now hold the phone. How can you make a leap like that? Maybe they ran off together. Perhaps they are both missing. There is a chance she did something to him? It is not a small leap but to me it is still one.  As time goes by and I try to improve my craft of being an author I am noticing things that use to not faze me when it came to tv and movies. I now see loose ends, scenes that don’t connect the dot and leaps of faith that I can not wrap my mind around.

This same show had the main character and a detective at the Arctic Circle. The submarine falls into the waters and the car that the bad guy came in well kinda of got blown up. The bad guy runs toward the airplane, our hero’s only way out, leaving the two stuck on the tundra. Could these two have flown a plane we do not know since the bad guy killed the pilot. However the very next scene you see the two arriving by helicopter atop some building of the city they live in. Hello? Bridge the gap somehow. All that would have been needed was a line or two about how this occurred but no the audience was not privy to this. So we have to make assumptions how it happened.  Stuff like this use to just fly by me and I rarely paid attention, the times I did I just went with it and kept watching. But now that I am editing and revising and learning from various avenues of writing groups and so on stuff just does not go by me as readily as before.

I was all prepared to send this blog post out until last night another show got me thinking. The program “The Following” is one that I been watching from the get go. I do enjoy watching it with my son. But last night the episode got me thinking. The premise of it is that anyone unknown to the viewers can be a follower of the main bad guy Joe. So the suspense is we never know when his crew will be revealed to us. This was fascinating to me at first. But now it seems to just carry a plot that has no substance.

Indulge me if you will. Last night the bad guys were surrounded by the FBI, cops, a SWAT team and so on. Yet every one got out okay since they had infiltrated the law. That got me thinking. Anytime the bad guys are in trouble all they have to do is make one of the good guys a follower which then helps them get out of the jam. That got me a bit ticked and made me think that their plot is a little bit weak if they are always relying on unknown followers to get them out of a bind if they can’t reasonable do it on their own. Got a problem no worries. Make a follower appear and viola all is good again. I know this is just me rambling on but again I relate this back to my being a writer. I see things differently then I use to before.

Granted I am not familiar with scrip writing for films and tv shows so maybe there are rules I am just missing here. True this does get in the way of me enjoying some shows as I dissect it from beginning to end not enjoying the show but instead fussing as I yell at the tv, “ Come on are you kidding me?”

But I will take this as a good thing. That means I am improving my craft. And also it is one less show for me to watch giving me more time to watch shows that make more sense to me. When I watch a film or tv I want to be taken away. I want to forget the crap that is going on in life and just for a few minute enjoy what I am viewing not tearing it down bit by bit. Those are still out there waiting for me with a side of popcorn by my side and a cold drink in my hand.