Isn't is scary that while NBC and ABC are still rolling out new shows, we're already well into pilot season. I love pilot season, love it love it love it. theres all these new shows, everything is potential hits, and its so exciting, and like all good things in life, there is much TV being consumed, so I am very very happy. I'm going to talk more about why I think pilot season is such a good thing for TV a bit later, but today I'm going to focus on the pilots themself, and more so the good ones. Why, because as I have stated before, pilots on a general rule suck, however they need no to suck, if only they paid a bit more attention in film-making school.
First up I do get why pilots usally suck, Pilots are by far the hardest TV to make. Firstly the main point of the pilot is to introduce the show, the character and the concept, but its the first episode, and these things are probably still being solidified. The production crew is new, the actors are new, and everyone is really finding there feet, but this is really the time where you need to put your best foot forward. A pilot needs to be pitched to both the TV execs and the audience, and really crucially making them want more. You need to get them excitted for the next episode, and usally this is done by over-heightened drama, about characters that you don't hugly care about, having only meet then 20 minutes ago. The fact that a pilot is suppossed to be a typical representation of an episdoe gets pushed away and good storytelling gives way to often clunky introductions, so as to squash the entire thing into 43 minutes
One way many production companies combat this is using a 2 hour. I personally hate this, firstly its a huge step to ask your audience to commit to 2 hours with characters that they don't know or care about. And ues, I am aware that this is basically what a movie is, and they still manage ok, well yes, but there are 3 crucial differences between a pilot and a movie, budget, schuduling and adds. Yes adds, don't underestimate their power, in a movie cinema, you go in, and your not leaving till the movie is over, unless the movie is really, really bad, so they can take their time, giving everyone a proper introduction, unlike a pilot, where it is competitng agaisnt multitudes of differenct distractions in your house, not the least being the remote. If the pilot is too boring, too cinfusing, or doesn't capitvate the audience enough before the first add break, there not going to stick around. So pilots have to be all go all the time, where as movies can afford to take it a bit slow, and give you some proper character stuff, stuff that you onlt get in a TV show by the 6th or so episode, and the primary way they do this is through drama, which brings me to my other points. Although the pilot is by far the most expensive hour of a television season, with the most time devoted to it, it shallows in comprasin to even an indie film budget. You cannot have big action, CGI or whatever squences in television.
Thus pilots often get stuck in between a rock and a hard place, on one hand constant drama will hopefully keep the audience occupied, but yet there is no way you can have, good, constant drama, and so some pilots fall back on the sloppy cramming background character info at you, which when done well works, but it is done well only with supremely talented actors, in which case the show is probably going to succeed anyway (not really, but you get my point). Some pilots resort to the tactic of leaving the first episode in a cliffhanger, which I also think is sloppy, are you going to end every episode in a cliff-hanger? No. So what should a pilot actually do?
Well I personally believe that a good pilot really should just be a normal episode, plucked from the middle of the season. Obviously it should be a really good normal episode, but nothing that isn't going to happen ever again on the show should happen. Why, because if you want people to attach to your show, you need them to attach to the concept, the storyline, and you shouldn't waste anytime. Just a few well thought out character introductions, that introduce each character in their element. I still remember our introduction to Sherlock, in, wel, Sherlock. Him in the morgue, making sarcastic smart-ass comments and wipping the corpse, absolutely classic Sherlock, and because he was such a well written and thought out character, you were instantly drawn to him. If a TV show is any good, the characters need to be engaging enough just to watch them in their element, and so why doesn't the pilot start us off by introducing them?
Unfortunately what most drama pilots (or most pilots in general) do is have an uber dramatic plot which sets up the rest of the series, and this dramatic event brings the team together. I get why they do this, its very easy to introduce the characters, because the characters are introducing themselves to each other. however I find that this often results in a very black and white picture of the characters, so while we know there background history, we don't see the humanity, the quirks, the things which actually draw us to the character. The pilot is pushed by the dramatic event, and not by the character who are going to push the rest of the season, thus even if the audience does come back for the second episode, with no more dramatic events, there not going to stick around.
Unfortunatly no one ever seems to take my advice (shocking I know) and I'm willing to be at least 80% of the new drama pilots will be about the team or whatever getting together, but hey, just because the pilot sucks doesn't mean the show is going to. In fact I really didn't like most of the non-cable non-BBC pilots of shows I know love. I'll talk a bit later on about originality in TV shows, and my annoyance at a million and one attempts to remake a hit, but for now I'll leave my pilot rant.
No comments:
Post a Comment