01-08-2015, 10:33 AM
Quote:"The nature of television is that you're telling a story without an ending. By economic necessity it can't end so the trick is to find a way to keep it alive, and that's frustrating."
Very interesting, to me, how he admits that $$$, not any other factor, is the reason for a long-running show's continued existence. We all know that, of course, but IMO it's interesting to see him state it so openly and matter-of-factly.
The thing is...if the show's "ending" consists of everyone being paired-up, then the plot has been over since the end of S3. Literally nothing new has happened. P is with L, H is with B, S is with A, and the majority of people don't seem to care much about poor R, anyway. If this show's true premise, the premise Lorre intended it to have, is "Even weirdos can find a partner", then this sh*t has been over for five years. And don't tell me "Howard went to space" or "Leonard went to such-and-such", because those storylines suck, especially the former, which I find ultra-cringey, tasteless, and cruel.
Also, I know this is a very unpopular opinion, but I don't see why "formulaic" is such a dirty word. If the formula WORKS, then that's good. I'm gonna come right out and say it; I like things that are formulaic. That doesn't mean there are *never* any surprises and *never* anything new or risk-taking, but I don't need or want "big events."
I know I've said this a million times before, but I *like* a "show about nothing" approach. Think of a "bottle episode", where the characters are stuck in one location for the duration of the ep. Not much can actually *happen*, yet you can make a really entertaining episode out of that situation. I don't need or want to see a bunch of dramatic, life-changing, game-changing events in a barely-20-minute mainstream sitcom.
You could have episodes where the characters did nothing but go to work, have dinner, play games, and go to the comic book store, and you could extract so much good stuff out of those simple, everyday things. *Every*episode could be like that, and yet it wouldn't get boring, to me. And indeed, most of the early-season eps ARE like that, at least on the surface.