One of the main selling points of serial television is some form of compelling arc plot that connects season to season, demanding that the viewer tune in to the next season. Cliffhanger finales alone dont tend to cut it, because details tend to be forgotten by audiences in the long wait till the next episode. But people remember good stories, and with arc-based narratives youve got a even larger ongoing story to play with (lets call it the AA plot). Castles Kate Beckett had the conspiracy behind her mothers murder and The Mentalists Patrick Jane was driven to catch Red John, the serial killer that murdered his wife and child. Meanwhile, The Blacklist has spies and assassins desperate to uncover Lizzie Keen's mysterious family background. All of these are examples of classic AA plots. So is there anything that hooks viewers to True Blood from season to season? Viewing figures have only slightly declined from the shows series high in season three, meaning people are still watching... but, judging from blog posts and comments online, its often despite themselves. A common thread emerges when you read complaints about how bad True Blood has become. People are literally only hanging in there to see how messed up the show can get. True Blood has no AA plot, no storytelling through-line. Sure, we have loose threads of plot skittering around unattended here and there, but theres nothing we need to know the answers to, nothing in the story that needs resolution to give us closure. In fact, the nearest we have to a narrative that runs through every season is Sookies perennially high-stakes love polygon
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
