Continuity: Why is This So Hard?

As an avid SFF reader, I’m deeply accustomed to extensive world-building, plotlines spanning multiple books, and characters by the bushel.  In fact, at this point, single-volume stories almost seem simplistic and bland by comparison.  (Almost.  To be clear, there are still plenty of books that aren’t part of a series that I enjoy.)

I mean, some of my favorite series (Wheel of Time, Honorverse) span over a dozen books (in fact, the latter is right around 20 books, and probably has at least 5 to go).  That’s a lot of room for plotting.

Of course, reading series like this can cause some problems in the long run, even aside from the aforementioned issue with shorter stories.  (Not to be confused with short stories, which are clearly an invention of AP English to sap all interest in reading from innocent high schoolers.) 

(No, I did not enjoy my time in AP English.  The year was kind of spoiled when the first thing we read from the textbook was a lengthy discourse on the evils of wasting time reading “escapist” fiction, since clearly “realistic” (or whatever term they had for it) fiction was the only valuable thing to do, as it would lead to a better understanding of human nature and result in magical self-improvement, which is clearly the only reason to read.  We then spent much of the rest of the year reading inane short stories and finding the symbolism.  I found myself neither understanding human nature better nor improved in my self, except in making sarcastic quips.)

(By the way, just to be clear, I don’t blame my teacher for this.  That sort of thing is clearly what the AP English exam is intended to cover, so it’s completely understandable that it’s what we covered.  But understanding that didn’t make it any more tolerable at the time, and so I compensated by sitting in the back and making the aforementioned sarcastic comments with the person next to me. (Quietly, of course; I wasn’t trying to be disruptive.)  (And when I wasn’t accidentally dozing off.))

First of all, I’m very likely to catch most foreshadowing and hidden clue drops, which makes it hard for the plot to really surprise me.  In fact, at this point, I’m generally mentally flagging things that aren’t foreshadowing, just because they’re suspicious and might be.

(The solution for this is probably to plant a ridiculous number of red herrings, or (or even better, and) have the obvious answer actually be the right one.  That would drive me nuts, but in a good way.  Much the same way I probably would have found it hysterical if (spoiler alert!) Mark Watney had actually died at the end of The Martian.)

Second, you start seeing the same tropes over and over again.  My current pet peeve is the lack of reasonable communication between characters.  I get that sometimes people need secrets or an information asymmetry to keep the plot going, but seriously, sometimes you just want to skip that whole part, because it never goes well, except it does in the end, because it just serves to make the plot more complicated for the heroes without ever totally derailing them.

(The solution to this one, of course, is Dangerously Genre Savvy characters, or real, plot-altering problems due to lack of communication.  Star Wars was a well-placed antenna away from Obi-wan’s failure to tell Luke the truth about Vader resulting in a COMPLETELY different story.  (I’m going to assume there’s no spoiler warning needed for that, although I will question how that antenna hadn’t already been knocked off by garbage or whatever coming out of the chute previously.)  Similarly, (this one does get a spoiler alert!) Memory, Sorrow and Thorn is basically, as far as I can recall, all about the heroes actually carrying out the villian’s plan, only to avert it at the last moment.  These things get SO CLOSE to real consequences, but then don’t actually follow through.  Granted, they’d be different stories if they did, but still.)

But more importantly for the purposes of this - now wildly digressive, even for me – post, you get used to authors who can actually keep their continuity straight, and who might have actually plotted a few things out ahead of time.

Unlike, say, certain TV shows that clearly had no idea what they were doing beyond a certain point that came way too early into their run.

Like, say, Lost.  Or Battlestar Galactica.  Just to name a couple from personal experience.  (I’m sure there are plenty others.  I hear Alias went way off the rails a couple seasons in, for example.)

(Just consider this a global spoiler warning now.)

Lost started off so promisingly, with lots of good ideas.  But then it gradually became very, very clear that there was no real plan or set mythology, just some good ideas with no real resolution thought out ahead of time.  I still refuse to rewatch this show because of the utter debacle that is the last season.  (Incidentally, I still think that, plot details aside, the ending of the Mistborn trilogy is what the ending of Lost should have been.)  Every time I get tempted, I remember the stupid flash-sideways, and the fate of, like, the world (I think, still not exactly clear on that, because they did a terrible job of explaining, well, anything), coming down to fisticuffs, and I’m so disgusted that it washes all temptation away.

BSG wasn’t quite so bad, and actually had a solid plot up through the midpoint of the second season.  (The Pegasus storyline was fantastic.)  New Caprica was a decent storyline, too.  But after that, things were REALLY a mess until the last few episodes, and I still don’t buy that Hera was worth risking the entire fate of humanity over.

One thing I did enjoy, though, is that they actually followed through on the “obvious answer is the right one” in the end, though.  It’s more apparent on a rewatch, but the show was hitting on the religious angle from the very beginning, and consistently through the entire show.  I’m really not sure why it surprised so many people in the end.  I guess you can find it unsatisfying, but that’s not the same as it coming out of nowhere.  (The Night’s Dawn Trilogy has a similar plotline.)  So that’s one thing it does have going for it.

My gold standard for continuity throughout a show (aside from Fringe, apparently) is Babylon 5.  Say what you will about the special effects (which weren’t that bad for the time) and the acting/scripts (it was deliberately designed to be a bit more stage-theatrical than most shows), the backstory, characterization and plotting was simply first-rate.  I mean, JMS even planned out ways to remove each and every character seamlessly and plot-consistently from the show if need be (and in some cases, even bring them back).

The story is tight, with not very much filler, which is what happens when you PLAN THINGS OUT AHEAD OF TIME.  All in all, it’s like a book on the screen.  It’s marvelous.

So why can’t more shows do that?  Why is this so hard?

I mean, I get that it’s a little foolhardy to plan out an entire 5-season show in today’s TV environment, but wouldn’t it, y’know, help to at least have a list of your core mysteries/ideas, what they mean and how they’re resolved, and the big plot points you want to hit?  Is that generally going to turn out better than just throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks?

Because to me, the latter way leads to madness, or at least an audience pissed off that you’ve suddenly dropped the numbers, that the smoke monster is pretty much nonsensical and self-contradictory, and the Island is actually so packed with people and structures and ruins and landmarks that it’s a wonder the characters can walk five feet without tripping over an Other.  And then they all die.

What the heck, Lost.