Friday, April 28, 2006

Horrifyingly Bad Writing

And not mine I'm happy to report. Last night I was watching Survivor and flicking back and forth on the commercials to other programs. I'm a bit of a flick-aholic. Anyway, I kept landing on The OC. Now I will admit I did watch the first season of this show. My sister would come over to watch. She really liked it. I found it a bit boring, but managed to suffer through since Adam Brody's character was amusing enough to keep me entertained. But when my sister moved in with her boyfriend and stopped watching, I didn't keep up with it other than during commercial flicks.

Until last night. I was drawn in by just how bad it was. It was like the car wreck you couldn't turn away from. The same trite storylines hauled out over and over ad nauseam replayed before my eyes. Skinny twit drinks, goes to rehab, breaks up with boyfriend and takes up with bad boy, starts to drink again, tries to get her life together, goes back to bad boy, gets burned. And will probably start to drink again. Mother starts to drink, goes to rehab, gets angry at hubby, starts to drink again. Good guy gets in fight, nearly loses freedom because of past record, doesn't have to go to jail for whatever reason. Good by gets in fight, nearly loses new future because of past record, doesn't have to go to jail for whatever reason. Good guy gets in fight. They leave you hanging, but I'm guessing from past experience that he won't lose his new future for whatever reason. Oh and my personal favorite. Couple get together, break up, get together, break up, get together, break zzzzzz... You see my point?

And through it all I can't help but think that these people are too stupid to live. The decisions they make have no motivation behind them. They have experienced no character growth, they have no goals and they are still dealing with the same conflict now as they were when the show started and would somebody please, please, please send these writers a copy of Deb Dixon's GMC or The Hero's Journey, plluuuuzzzeeeeee... Because apparently these writers have never heard of the word craft, and if so, they have ignored it complete as they trot out their one note drivel to the masses. It's almost as if they wake up each morning and say - hey, just what kind of crap can I churn out on paper today?

I apparently need to move to Hollywood. Because if that kind of hack writer can get hired, I can potentially make a fortune.

6 comments:

Donna Grant said...

lol. I've never watched that show, Kelly, and I sure won't know. Even the commercials that show you bits of the story look stupid to me. :)

Maxx said...

Oddly enough I stopped on that show for a few minutes as I was flicking by and I sat there... face pinched in a grimace of horrified disbelief that someone paid money to stink up the atmosphere with this crap. It was UNBELIEVABLY horrible. I actually thought it was a skit on some comedy show spoofing shows like that.

Rene said...

Well, you have to consider the demographic they are shooting for. Makes you really long for Melrose Place, doesn't it?

Kelly Boyce said...

Ummmmm...no. Where is Andrew Shue these days anyway? Now THERE was some bad acting.

Melissa Amateis said...

That show does sound like a soap opera. Makes me very glad that I don't have cable. :-)

Anonymous said...

Agh. Don't you hate train wreck shows that do that? I can't watch them.

Now on the other hand, I LOVE Sawyer's dialogue in Lost. It's a scream.