And so we come to number two on our list, the overarching plot. In a nutshell: you should have one. This might not sound like much in the way of advice, but theres a surprising number of shows over the years that have obviously had no idea what their end-game is back when they were starting out. Comedy shows that force contrived character pairings in their eighth season, mystery shows that choose the it was all a dream/you were all dead cop-out; its not hard to think of examples. Serenity, flawed though it was, made it fairly obvious that Joss Whedon knew where the show was going since the first episode. The show has a (strong) overarching plot examining the virtues of Libertarian politics vs.Totalitarianism, played out through an engaging mystery and characters we grow to care about. Of course, knowing how the story ends isnt enough by itself. Firefly can also take plot material for individual episodes or story arcs by drawing on its civil war setting, its strong character base or by redesigning the standard plots from any one of its numerous genres. Its a winning formula for a TV show, and one which could have served it well for nine or ten seasons had things turned out differently. In comparison, a show like Dexter had an exceptional first couple of seasons but afterwards starts to show its age, as there are only so many times he can evade capture, try to share his secret with someone only to kill them, or contemplate his humanity without it becoming repetitive.
Laurence Gardner was born in Canterbury, England. After moving around various cities during his childhood, and spending some time travelling in Europe and America, he studied English Literature at Oxford University. Since then, he’s been living abroad, teaching English, learning a range of languages, and writing in his free time. He can currently be found in Heidelberg, working as an English Tutor and Translator and studying at the University. If you liked this article, follow him on Twitter to get automatic updates on his work.
And so we come to number two on our list, the overarching plot. In a nutshell: you should have one. This might not sound like much in the way of advice, but theres a surprising number of shows over the years that have obviously had no idea what their end-game is back when they were starting out. Comedy shows that force contrived character pairings in their eighth season, mystery shows that choose the it was all a dream/you were all dead cop-out; its not hard to think of examples. Serenity, flawed though it was, made it fairly obvious that Joss Whedon knew where the show was going since the first episode. The show has a (strong) overarching plot examining the virtues of Libertarian politics vs.Totalitarianism, played out through an engaging mystery and characters we grow to care about. 