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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 8876188" data-attributes="member: 4937">Bad unoriginal writing is more likely to be at fault than any sort of intentionality on the part of the show producers.&nbsp; I mean, we can see signs of intentionality in certain character choices that are being made by seemingly almost everyone now, so that characters rarely feel original or interesting, but I think fundamentally that also comes down to a lack of originality and the adoption of the easiest and laziest possible stereotypes.I was big in the Tolkien online community in the run up to PJ's movies, and I got the chance to argue a lot with some professional script writers and I have to say that there is this tension between not having the arrogance enough to write professionally and at the same time not having so much arrogance that you think everything you write is a masterpiece.&nbsp; What I found is that a lot of script writers had no real idea how to write, but they were absolutely 100% convinced that they could follow some commonsense formulas and it would just work.I'm reminded of an episode of the short lived and largely regrettable reboot of the classic sitcom WKRP in Cincinatti.&nbsp; Amidst the banal attempts to wring more story out of a setting and characters that had largely run their course, there was a thought-provoking episode of meta-commentary in which the writers of a TV Sit Com were inspired by the stories of the original cast and wanted to make a TV sit com about WKRP in Cincinatti.&nbsp; But instead of telling the original funny stories (in the real sit com) they were all convinced that they could alter the stories to make them more humorous using rules - &quot;The Letter K is Funny&quot;, and so forth.&nbsp; &quot;It's not funny that Les Newman's office doesn't have walls.&nbsp; It's funny that he doesn't have a desk.&nbsp; Walls aren't funny.&nbsp; Desks are funny, because they have the letter K.&quot;&nbsp; And so forth.&nbsp; When I see these scripts for fantasy and sci-fi shows, I often think of that.&nbsp;&nbsp; Just assume that at least 2/3rds of the people in the profession are completely incompetent but because 2/3rds of their bosses are also incompetent, they are able to continue working in the profession.&nbsp; It's not that they are trying to emulate D&amp;D - it's that they don't have any more storytelling or writing talent (and often less talent) than the average player of D&amp;D and so their show ends up no more well written or interesting (or even less interesting) than the average story generated by a game of D&amp;D.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 8876188, member: 4937"] Bad unoriginal writing is more likely to be at fault than any sort of intentionality on the part of the show producers. I mean, we can see signs of intentionality in certain character choices that are being made by seemingly almost everyone now, so that characters rarely feel original or interesting, but I think fundamentally that also comes down to a lack of originality and the adoption of the easiest and laziest possible stereotypes. I was big in the Tolkien online community in the run up to PJ's movies, and I got the chance to argue a lot with some professional script writers and I have to say that there is this tension between not having the arrogance enough to write professionally and at the same time not having so much arrogance that you think everything you write is a masterpiece. What I found is that a lot of script writers had no real idea how to write, but they were absolutely 100% convinced that they could follow some commonsense formulas and it would just work. I'm reminded of an episode of the short lived and largely regrettable reboot of the classic sitcom WKRP in Cincinatti. Amidst the banal attempts to wring more story out of a setting and characters that had largely run their course, there was a thought-provoking episode of meta-commentary in which the writers of a TV Sit Com were inspired by the stories of the original cast and wanted to make a TV sit com about WKRP in Cincinatti. But instead of telling the original funny stories (in the real sit com) they were all convinced that they could alter the stories to make them more humorous using rules - "The Letter K is Funny", and so forth. "It's not funny that Les Newman's office doesn't have walls. It's funny that he doesn't have a desk. Walls aren't funny. Desks are funny, because they have the letter K." And so forth. When I see these scripts for fantasy and sci-fi shows, I often think of that. Just assume that at least 2/3rds of the people in the profession are completely incompetent but because 2/3rds of their bosses are also incompetent, they are able to continue working in the profession. It's not that they are trying to emulate D&D - it's that they don't have any more storytelling or writing talent (and often less talent) than the average player of D&D and so their show ends up no more well written or interesting (or even less interesting) than the average story generated by a game of D&D. [/QUOTE]

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