random ramblings: it's about hope

[orangerful]

(I think I may have posted similar thoughts before but I wrote this up for my Wordpress blog and figured I'd post it here)

Every now and then a series comes along that everyone rants and raves about. Another new adult drama that gets 5 star reviews, best-show-ever blah blah blah. And then I watch it and I feel...nothing.

Well, that's not true. I watch and episode or two and I agree that the show has quality - it's well acted, well written, beautifully shot. But it just doesn't do it for me. After years of trying to figure out why that is, I know what a story needs to keep me engaged.

Hope.

I have to believe that there is hope for the characters. They will be redeemed or survive whatever trauma the series is putting them through. By the end of their story, things will be better.

Star Wars (OT), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Doctor Who, Lord of the Rings -- these are a few of my favorite things stories and they all are full of hope. They do all have their fair share of darkness, but while evil may triumph every now and then, the characters manage to stay strong and be true to themselves.




But, you say, you have read and enjoyed all of the Hunger Games books! You watch American Horror Story - surely those are full of hopelessness. And you would be right.

But, then again, by the ending of Hunger Games, even though life is kinda shit, Katniss has survived. She has learned things from fighting against the Capital, alongside the rebellion. There is enough hope inside of her, even though she would deny it, to keep on living and to care for her fellow survivors.

American Horror Story was the real conundrum for me. The entire premise of the show is that someone is going to be in HORROR for a whole season. Except, how can you have horror without hope? It's not scary if there is no hope, you would just give up and die (which I think was the problem with Season 2 for me, the people in the Asylum had nothing to hope for after awhile). In Season 1 and 3, the families in that show hoped to survive, so every scary monster, ghost or demon that attacked them was that much worse. Horror cannot exist without hope, which is why the seasons have to end where they do because you cannot sustain that sort of emotion beyond 13 episodes.

Walking Dead and Breaking Bad were the two shows that made me realize this need for Hope. I had been watching Walking Dead since day 1 as I had read a few of the trade collections of the comics and wanted to see how it translated on the screen. I liked the first season well enough. I got through most of the second season. But once we had the whole Sophie thing, I realized this was not going to end well. Things just kept getting worse. Everyone was going to die, sooner or later. Carl was going to grow up to be a mess and one by one every person in the group was either horribly killed or turned into someone that I *wish* would be eaten. The zombies are not going away, there is no hope for anyone.



Breaking Bad I watched the entire first season in a matter of days but I never felt compelled to pick up the next season. Again, I think that is because it is clear from the beginning that there is no hope for Walt or Jesse. This will not be a show where things turn out alright in the end, or even sorta okay. It was all going to end in blue meth stained tears. Even in that first season I knew that no single character was going to make it out of that show a good person.

I watch tv and movies and read books to escape the harsh realities of life. These stories are very personal for me. I don't just watch and then move on, I tend to connect with characters and become attached to them. And I know that stories with no hope will not make me happy. I'm not denying that they are quality stories, but they are not for me.

Comments

[rhoda-rants.livejournal.com]

Word. Hope it what makes stories matter, what makes us believe in them, and ultimately believe there's enough good in the real world to keep hanging in there. For me, anyway.

Now, it is interesting that you chose to post this particular thing at this particular moment in time, because I've been thinking similar things lately. Working on a blog of my own, actually. Will keep you posted.

Did anything in particular spark this post?

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I had posted something shorter way back when I had tried to get into Breaking Bad but what sparked this particular post was a Facebook conversation earlier this week. One of my friends posted and asked if "Mad Men" got any better? He said he really didn't want to watch a show full of sexist/racist/mysoginist people. His sister jumped in with her POV, she enjoys the show, talked about the acting, the story arcs, etc. and made it clear why she enjoyed the show. Then another friend commented how it was just a stupid show and all these popular shows are stupid etc. Nothing constructive or helpful to the conversation. And I posted the counterpoint to that, not attacking "Mad Men", but just saying that I know personally that I don't enjoy shows like this because of the lack of Hope when it comes to the characters.

And then I wanted to write something longer and post it somewhere I could have a REAL discussion, so Livejournal :)

Can't wait to read your post!!!!!!

[thekaiserchief.livejournal.com]

This is a very good post. Whenever I get invested in a show, I find myself wishing and hoping that my favorite characters turn out all right in the end, or find some type of redemption.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

Exactly! Which can be horribly painful when you watch Game of Thrones because who knows who is going to make it to the finale of a season, let alone the whole show, but I feel like Tyrion, John Snow, Sansa, and Arya are still characters I can hope and root for.

[geekslave.livejournal.com]

I agree that shows without hope are kind of meaningless to me and depressing. It's one of the reasons I'm very wary of trying out "Game of Thrones" because that is a story that I feel is just going to end in tears.

I'm still going to watch "Breaking Bad" because it is a well-acted show and I don't actually think that things do end horribly for everyone.

I'm not sure where, or how, "The Walking Dead" is going to end up. If the writers gave us a heads up and sad everyone was coming to a bad end, I probably would bail. But part of the reason I stick around is because I'm just not sure. And I actually think that there is a great deal of hope sometimes in the show, otherwise it would be wall to wall depressing and very pointless.

Stacey

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

Yeah, GoT is definitely another one of my "why do I like this show?" -- but there are enough people in the show that I can still root for. Tyrion, John Snow, Sansa, even Arya still have good in them and they still want what is right. Things will get dark, but I still feel the story could have a hopeful ending. (but probably more in the Mockingjay we survived and now we will rebuild way...)

I gave up on Walking Dead because I lost a lot of respect for the main characters and I stopped caring about them. But that's just me! My main worry for that show is that the comics have no ending, I think it just passed the 100th issue last year, so what do you do with the TV show? You can get away with that in print form because the actors aren't aging or asking to go on to other things.

I was thinking the other day that they should wrap up these specific characters and then do a time jump. Jump ahead 50 years or more, to a time where all the main characters know nothing BUT this zombie world (ala Hunger Games or any other dystopian novel) and see how the children of Carl and the rest of the kids handle themselves. I think that the current characters cling too much to what was and they are never going to get that world back, and that makes me sad.

[geekslave.livejournal.com]

Yeah, with GoT, for me it's not even just the oppressive bleak vibe I get from the show. It's kind of a lot of the other stuff I hear about as well. The violence, the rapes, the incest. Add to that favorite characters dropping like flies, I don't think I would even want to have a favorite character on the show.

I have no idea what they're going to do with the comics. They do, apparently, veer off quite a bit from the comics, so at one point it just might go its own way completely and come to a suitable end for the characters. I don't know if I'd want to see a drastic time jump like that. I'm not a particular fan of radical overhauls like that. Plus, maybe I'm as naive as some of the characters, but while the world might never be exactly the same, I think there could still be hope for a cure and that people can start to rebuild.

Stacey

Stacey

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they veered off in Season 1 and it annoyed me, mostly because I thought it was one of the most powerful scenes in the comics and they changed it! Also, the comics cover time quicker and they tend to wander a lot more but you can't do that on TV...but I feel like that really hurts the show sometimes (I'm looking at you, half-a-season-searching-for-sophia year!)

[geekslave.livejournal.com]

What change are you referring to? I've never read the comics. I only know about some changes, like Andrea not dying in the comics, because of some mentions in interviews and things like that.

Stacey

[nimnod.livejournal.com]

Star Wars (OT), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Doctor Who, Lord of the Rings

I love them too.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

<3 <3 <3

[twissie.livejournal.com]

I think I may be on the other side of the fence on this one. Perhaps not 100% of the time – I agree that hope is a great motivator, I enjoy all of your examples mentioned above, they are amazing stories, and I love them too.
I think in most cases, a hopeful and positive outcome is to be desired for fictional stories. But not all of the time, and certainly not for every genre.

I guess I have a somewhat bleak outlook on life, and I am definitely drawn to stories that capture that bleakness and hopelessness. It's refreshing to me to find works of fiction that grab me with their bleakness, and remain truthful to that bleakness through to the very end. It's not even that I think this is the more realistic way to tell a story, because it's not. I guess I just like having my world view validated through fiction, this should be true for everyone, I guess.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

And that's totally fine! The whole inspiration for this post was mostly me understanding why I like things. I've just seen too many conversations where one person says they like a certain kind of story and the other person just says that's dumb, which doesn't let any kind of conversation happen!

I know I find it fascinating to read about why people like shows that I'm not really in to. :)

[twissie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, absolutely! To a certain extent I think it can be important to understand just why you enjoy the things you do. Of course it also means that, for people who think about these sort of things at least, knowing what the people around you enjoy and like, will tell you a lot about them.

I've been having a lot of interesting discussions with people about True Detective - especially about the way that first season ended. It's been a while since I've found a show that created such varied reactions within the fanbase. Interesting stuff! Conversation and understanding is important, though. All too often these sort of conversations or debates dead end with "well, no, you are wrong, my interpretation and understanding of this is the only right one" - not necessarily spelled out all nice like that, but that's the gist of their message ;)

[adam-0oo.livejournal.com]

I am fully on board with this, I watch a lot of horror and action, so if there isn't anybody to root for or if it just seems like it is getting worser and worser...then it is just too depressing, why would I keep watching it? There has to be a character to root for, some light at the end of the tunnel for them.

[ellettra.livejournal.com]

This is my philosophy as well!!

[girlwhowaited.livejournal.com]

I'm the same when it comes to stories. I've become invested in a lot of great series - Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Buffy, Angel (cancelled before it should have been!), Downton Abbey. There is darkness but there is always hope and beautiful moments.

I just watched that Doctor Who episode from your gif and now I'm watching Downton Abbey S4.

[poniesandphotos.livejournal.com]

I feel like you and I look for the same sort of stuff in media. I also enjoy books and shows centered around hope and couldn't get into any of the above things that you pointed out for pretty much the same reasons. I appreciate character driven stories and when I know that the character is going to be miserable forever I just give up caring about them.

That being said I do occasionally go in for well written downers, and have no aversion to non-fiction that has no hope at all. "We are all the same" a book about a little boy in South Africa with AIDs was brutal but still one of my favorites. *shrug* I'm strange.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

Looking at the reviews online "We Are All the Same" would still fall into this category for me. Sure it is sad and a bit of a downer, but it's about survival and adversity and love. Sounds depressing as hell but it also sounds like somewhere deep in that true story, is a bit of hope about overcoming that sadness when faced with such a horrible disease.

[poniesandphotos.livejournal.com]

That one does actually have a glimmer of hope. "We regret to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families" and "A crime so monstrous: face to face with modern day slavery" (all which were profoundly effective on me and read with "We are all the same" in my favorite professor's class) are pretty much devoid of hope. And I honestly believe all three should be required reading. For everyone.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I definitely agree a "reality check" class should be required for all college students where they make them read about lives other than their own. I know my American Studies course had a profound effect on me for the same reason - reading about American history but through the eyes of the people who lived it vs the history books praising the old white guy leaders. And when it comes to other cruelties in this world, too many people pretend they don't happen. I totally agree. Maybe this should be a required course for all high school seniors...