I’ve been watching TV more than playing games lately. It’s a cycle. If I’m not watching TV during the down-cycle, then I’m writing or drawing or reading. Granted, I’d much rather be writing or drawing since they are more productive than consuming TV or books, but I think I exhausted that route last quarter. So, it’s TV’s turn. It’s also a time for reflection.

I’ve noticed I’ve become more critical about the works of fiction that I read and, perhaps more importantly, write. I have been listening to a Rizzoli & Isles podcast and realized how easy it is for me to gloss over details, especially inconsistencies, but these ladies pick up on it quite well. Also similar is when I read through the recaps on AfterEllen, I see how much I actually miss. Such as the mini L-Word reunion episode on R&I. Or the rather blatant reference to Tess Gerritsen’s book which the R&I series is based on. They’re really small details, but I feel if I could practice spotting these things, I could also apply it to my own writing, whether fictional or academic. It may be a romantic idea, but I need to become more conscious and critical of my own writing.

I don’t intend to write a series akin to TV shows or works of fiction like the Dresden Files, but the Dark Trinity project that I’m working on with a friend has elements that can possibly set it up for a series. I was aiming for a trilogy with a main canon story for each character (there are three Sisters). My friend’s story (currently unnamed) is the core from which other works derive from, including the prequel story I’m working on. There are specifics that need to be smoothed out, especially since my friend’s story isn’t even half way done yet. But in an interesting twist, main elements of her story rely on the world that I have built in my older works that I carried over into my prequel. It’s a mess, but it’s all fun.

Anyway, to return to the main point of this post is the general formula of TV shows I have been watching lately. The general formula is to have one larger storyline that lasts a season and each episode takes the main character a step closer to reaching the end of that storyline. I will assume readers have familiarity with the shows, if not, reading the general summary on Wikipedia or IMDb should suffice.

First example is Lost Girl which shows on SyFy in the U.S. and Showcase in Canada. I have caught up to the latest episode, but I will focus on Season 1 since Season 2 sort of got butchered with the increased episodes and fillers. In Season 1, Bo, our heroine, is fostered as a child and grows up not knowing what she is. Once she learns what she is, she quickly learns that her mother is still alive and the larger storyline ends up being her trying to find more information about her mother. The progression of episodes gets her closer to actually meeting her mother and the season ends with a climactic fight between her and her mother. This fight reveals a lot about Bo’s character which we get to know through the previous episodes, but in a sense, materializes in this last episode. It announces, “This is Bo and this is what she’ll stand and fight for.” Unfortunately that solidarity kind of falls apart in Season 2, but I’ve also heard the sophomoric season is the most difficult for TV series.

Second example is Alcatraz which shows on Fox in the U.S. I have watched up to episode 5, but skipped 4 since I couldn’t find it. I may be incorrect in the larger storyline, but I’m basing from what I have watched so far. Det. Rebecca Madsen is our main character with unlikely sidekick Dr. Diego Soto, an expert on Alcatraz and a comic book artist/author and shop owner. The larger storyline involves Rebecca and her grandfather. Rebecca is realizes her grandfather is not the guard she was told he was, but an inmate. She is trying to find her grandfather and each episode that I have seen has a little snippit that revolves around Rebecca talking to her superior about her grandfather. It’s a point of tension and is a nice core point to return to, but aside from familial ties, what makes him so special? I’ll have to watch more to figure it out. Otherwise, each episode is fairly formulaic on its own, with the typical cop drama of finding the escaped/returned prisoner and capturing him with the least amount of casualties.

Third example is Nikita which shows on The CW. Again, I only watched four episodes of the first season, but I have a theory for the larger storyline. Nikita is an escaped agent who is seeking revenge against her agency. Pretty basic, right? Her difficulty is she can’t just go public because she would put too many people in danger. Instead, each episode focuses on some op that Nikita aims to foil. We also learn about her past as an active agent within the agency. The reason I stopped watching was because it started feeling a little too political – Nikita doesn’t quite have as much freedom in foiling their plans because it could put more people at risk when she is trying to keep those people safe. Anwyay, as with all main characters, there are supporting characters. Nikita has a mole in the agency, a young Alex who has an agenda of her own – she wants to find out who killed her parents. While she’s pretending to be in training, she’s feeding Nikita details on the ops and doing her part to help Nikita’s missions be successful. As I tend to do, I read through the summaries on Wikipedia and the larger storylines for both characters extend beyond the first season. This is a tricky thing to do with shows being cancelled, but I think they got the green-light for the second season before the first was over, letting the writers/producers continue the larger storyline into the next season.

There are more examples, like Grimm and Once Upon a Time, but there are other shows that don’t follow this formula. I regularly watch NCIS, which doesn’t quite have the feeling of a larger storyline possibly because it’s got 9 seasons. Each season to me, since I started watching regularly a couple years ago, has bled into one another. It’s like a really long season punctuated by 2-4 linked episodes of high tension. I want to go back and watch from Season 1 (when Sasha Alexander, now on Rizzoli & Isles, was part of the cast) just to see the evolution of the show. I have seen those episodes on USA marathons, which ultimately was what got me into watching it regularly. But maybe this time I’ll be able to pay more attention to the details.