Non-Gaming Hot Takes

[Pandaprewmaster325]

Yeah just a reminder snakes and alligators are more cute than cats and dogs

 

[ciro64]

I don't think people should judge a show just by watching the very first few episodes of it

I think the opposite of this. If a show isn't hinting me it's going to be consistently good from the get go, I'm not gonna put the effort.

 

[Sinmenon]

I think the opposite of this. If a show isn't hinting me it's going to be consistently good from the get go, I'm not gonna put the effort.

Technically speaking, a well-written script should snatch you in the first 15 minutes, so you are right. That's how movie critics go to those festivals and see 10-ish movies in the same day: they watch the first 15 minutes, and if they vibe with it and see good consistency in the first 15 minutes, they stay for the rest of the movie. Otherwise, it is a pass.

Sure, some series are slow-burning, but they shouldn't be meandering. There are signs that they should be good, like making the characters and their motivations clear. Sometimes, the show spends time doing the worldbuilding or has you connect with the characters, and so on. Even slow-paced shows can respect the viewer's time.

don't mind me, I took a bunch of scripting and creative writing classes

 

[Antilocal123]

I think all you guys suck that’s my hot take < 3

 

[ciro64]

Technically speaking, a well-written script should snatch you in the first 15 minutes, so you are right. That's how movie critics go to those festivals and see 10-ish movies in the same day: they watch the first 15 minutes, and if they vibe with it and see good consistency in the first 15 minutes, they stay for the rest of the movie. Otherwise, it is a pass.

Sure, some series are slow-burning, but they shouldn't be meandering. There are signs that they should be good, like making the characters and their motivations clear. Sometimes, the show spends time doing the worldbuilding or has you connect with the characters, and so on. Even slow-paced shows can respect the viewer's time.

don't mind me, I took a bunch of scripting and creative writing classes

I heard something like this yesterday: A proper story unfolds, instead of arbitrarily withholding information from you.

Coming up with twists out of nowhere or making characters appear in places for no reason is already bad enough, but in case of bad series it's very common for them to deliver information as slowly as possible for no good reason. Then put a twist on the ending of the episode just to make it look like that wasn't the case.

 

[Sinmenon]

I heard something like this yesterday: A proper story unfolds, instead of arbitrarily withholding information from you.

Coming up with twists out of nowhere or making characters appear in places for no reason is already bad enough, but in case of bad series it's very common for them to deliver information as slowly as possible for no good reason. Then put a twist on the ending of the episode just to make it look like that wasn't the case.

Exactly.
A good story is made of set-ups and pay-offs. If you place a piece of information, it should have a reason for it to be in the story. If you want us to care about a character when something bad happens to them, you should give us a reason why we should care - and why watching this character overcome the challenge should be rewarding.

There are many structural studies that are deemed as "rules" for writing, which are taught in classes and courses. They were created by people who analyzed many old stories, and breaking these usually leads to bad writing if you don't understand why they work. Like how nowadays every Disney story makes fun of its romantic plots, or how everyone is throwing plot twists to outsmart the audience without a set-up.

I like mentioning the Twenty Rules of Mysteries because its first rule is simply perfect for the plot twists:

The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.

A good plot twist is one that when you rewatch you get that "why didn't I notice this hint here" whenever you notice a clue. Withholding information without a good reason is just bad writing even when it doesn't lead to a plot twist.

The tl;dr is that many movies and show nowadays try to pull the things they liked from the past, but they don't know why it worked and don't do the proper setup so it doesn't cause the impact they think it would.

 

[UnDubious]

Technically speaking, a well-written script should snatch you in the first 15 minutes, so you are right. That's how movie critics go to those festivals and see 10-ish movies in the same day: they watch the first 15 minutes, and if they vibe with it and see good consistency in the first 15 minutes, they stay for the rest of the movie. Otherwise, it is a pass.

Sure, some series are slow-burning, but they shouldn't be meandering. There are signs that they should be good, like making the characters and their motivations clear. Sometimes, the show spends time doing the worldbuilding or has you connect with the characters, and so on. Even slow-paced shows can respect the viewer's time.

don't mind me, I took a bunch of scripting and creative writing classes

A movie doesn't last nearly as long as a TV series and it's normal for a TV series to take more time to set up its story considering the scale of it. The "15 minutes rule" does not apply to a longer form of storytelling. While I agree it shouldn't take too, too long, it could very well take a few episodes.

Nowadays I wouldn't stick with a series for entire seasons because "it gets good later", but to be real, I didn't think Breaking Bad was all that great until the third season or so and people call it one of the greatest series of all time. It was at least decent before that, but it didn't impress me until it got less cardboard gangster characters in (Gus was good, the uncle Salamanca was good... the first few ones were ridiculous).

I also don't know about your rules of mystery or whatever. There's a popular storytelling channel on youtube called Mr. Ballen, millions of views on everything and every comment swears he's the greatest. His entire method to create plot twists in the true stories he tells is witholding key information from the viewer until the reveal. It doesn't seem to bother anyone. But then they're 30-40 minute videos, not entire novels. It really depends on the format.