08-20-2014, 10:04 AM
This might not make sense since I've been up for a ridiculous amount of hours. TBBT characters don't exist in reality but in 'tv time' which can stop, accelerate and be stretched every which way. When I wrote my current story I noticed a whack-load of episodes occur between the Halloween episode and the Christmas one to the point where in reality episode plots would be virtually tripping on each other. So either they had an eventful November/December or else something kinda warped time for them to allow the other episodes in. It's through the episodes that we can see character growth, particularly when a character continuity log is adhered to by the writer. When you look at Sheldon in the 'two months' there is a lot of character development which occurs as he interacts with and reacts to the various plots. Therefore it's up to the writer to keep the interesting plots a flowin' so the character can be fleshed out and flourish. In a way, characters can get 'bored' too with stale plots as there's nothing to make them 'pop', nothing to alert the writer that, 'hey, here's something different. I wonder how Sheldon would react if...?' and then add this reaction to the continuity log to fall back on as new episodes are written.
The 'growth' we're seeing in the later seasons doesn't follow this model as instead character continuity is tossed out the window to make room for rom-com plot ideas. What's being pushed forward into episodes are agendas, not characters, which is why the characters have been warped as much as they have--Shamy is a central idea and Sheldon will lose his life-long compulsions to fulfill his role as Amy's love-mate, for example. Ditto Penny's deterioration that's oblivious to her friends and yet the Lenny progresses to an engagement.
What this all boils down to is that the writers are writing an agenda and the plot is just the means of advancing it as opposed to the plot advancing the characters in the pursuit of entertaining the audience. As the episode tournament is showing, people value the strong laughs over the relationship 'aww' moments; we know that the majority of the laughter has come in Shenny moments in early seasons and what makes them shine is the strength of the plots and dialogue that the actors had to rise to the challenge to bring alive. The characters are 'brought to life' and it's their dynamic that entertains as we watch them 'grow'.
...There's something else I was gonna say but all that's coming out now is 'something, something, something, dark side' so I guess I'll leave it at that!
The 'growth' we're seeing in the later seasons doesn't follow this model as instead character continuity is tossed out the window to make room for rom-com plot ideas. What's being pushed forward into episodes are agendas, not characters, which is why the characters have been warped as much as they have--Shamy is a central idea and Sheldon will lose his life-long compulsions to fulfill his role as Amy's love-mate, for example. Ditto Penny's deterioration that's oblivious to her friends and yet the Lenny progresses to an engagement.
What this all boils down to is that the writers are writing an agenda and the plot is just the means of advancing it as opposed to the plot advancing the characters in the pursuit of entertaining the audience. As the episode tournament is showing, people value the strong laughs over the relationship 'aww' moments; we know that the majority of the laughter has come in Shenny moments in early seasons and what makes them shine is the strength of the plots and dialogue that the actors had to rise to the challenge to bring alive. The characters are 'brought to life' and it's their dynamic that entertains as we watch them 'grow'.
...There's something else I was gonna say but all that's coming out now is 'something, something, something, dark side' so I guess I'll leave it at that!
Let's go exploring!