Author:
Simulacrum
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Date:
8/22/2022 12:22:24 PM
Subject:
RE: I'm like 3 years late on this but The Boys is
Fiction -- and by extension television series -- must begin with a mandate: events will be driven either by plot or by character. If you want to emphasize plot, the characters don't have to be deeply interesting, but it's nice if they are. What you don't do is bring the plot to a railroad crossing and invent a 500-car train so you can dwell on the misery of the people waiting for the train to pass.
If you want to dwell on character hour after hour, write a Russian novel and stay off television. You should also not dwell on the intimate problems and relationships of super heroes. They're impossible people who were originally created as kiddie role models. They fly through the air, battle menacing aliens, rescue people from exploding planes, boats, buildings, etc. Then they go back in their secret identity boxes until the next imperiling situation comes up. They're not drunks, whores, addicts, or serial dog rapists. Nobody cares about their flaws or personal problems. They're basically cartoons. I love Donald Duck, but if he has a coping problem, I don't want to hear about it. He's there to make me laugh and that's all.
The reason character studies work in series like The Sopranos and Breaking Bad is that the characters are real, believable people, but they are not ordinary and their problems are very unusual. There's also a persistent incongruity between their home lives and what they do for money. This incongruity is profound because they are dangerous people. That makes for a good character study, and the plot does not have to move quickly. If they weren't dangerous, their home and personal lives would not be worth considering.
All this is just common writing sense. The people in charge of modern television get this extreme disconnect confused with mere misery and relationship failure. You cannot sustain a series simply by having your characters degenerate or persist in bad decision-making. Even the stupidest audiences are going to fall away.
So pro tip: don't let Donald Duck go to the casino and develop a gambling addiction unless he owes money to Tony Soprano.
