Television Needs to Slow Down
Taking Hints from Sterling Cooper and Dillon High
Oct 4, 2009 William Charles McLean
Even though the public may not be lining up to watch a show about advertising in the 60s, a little statue called Emmy believes its worth watching. Creator Matthew Weiner and his bullpen of producers craft visual entertainment about largely despicable characters, but one’s to care about.
Trust That Audiences Have Patience
Don Draper (Jon Hamm) can try all he wants to hide behind his cold and steely expression, but the camera lingers just long enough for him to surrender to his real emotion. Other programs don’t operate with this kind of patience, thinking its viewers might change the channel if too much emotion slips through the sieve.
Everything is bigger in Texas, especially their capacity for sympathy. While Mad Men mostly uses fixed-position cameras, Friday Night Lights employs a documentary-style free-hand camera that shakes and vibrates like the Panther stadium on Fridays. The camera appears to be everywhere at all times and in unlikely places as if sneaking around waiting for the best shot. Why not get emotion from both sides of the face? Stress is still stress even from a low angle.
Their Stories Have Patience Too
Patience pays off in the long term as well as the short term. Looking at Don Draper again, there is still one big lingering question: How did Don Draper er, Dick Whitman become a top shelf ad man? Audience’s have learned other things about his past (relationship with the real Mrs. Draper, family dynamics as a child), but no mention of becoming a big shot on Madison Avenue.
Mad Men and Friday Night Lights are allowed such patience with there story arcs because there exists a mutual trust between the producers and the audience. In Lights' second season, Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) returns to Dillon after betraying his team and leaving for the college coaching ranks. His departure affected his quarterback Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) the most and only midway through the season does Taylor witness the effect on his most important player.
At the beginning of Mad Men’s second season, Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) deals with the knowledge that she birthed a baby fathered by the whiny and married account executive Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser). Campbell is unaware of the baby and only at the conclusion of the season does Peggy, in a cold, harsh yet sincere admission, tell Pete about the child. Gossip Girl does not have the same confidence. Scott (Chris Riggi) confesses to Vanessa (Jessica Szohr) that he is indeed Rufus’ (Matthew Settle) child after only 3 episodes.
Treat The Audience Instead of the Show
The bigger question is whether Gossip Girl could survive such a shift in story arc style. Creator Josh Schwartz knows the audience and what they require from their teen dramas. And Mad Men and Friday Night Lights know what audiences they have and they’re capability for deliberate pacing. A zebra cannot change its stripes, and neither can an audience. Prescribing a change may not solve any problems if it’s not directed at the source.
What do you think about this article?
More in Film & TV
Latest Articles