| We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| Smart Writing in Television shows | |
|---|---|
| Topic Started: Jun 15 2009, 07:30 PM (157 Views) | |
| Stephen | Jun 15 2009, 07:30 PM Post #1 |
Mine! Or I will help you not.
|
What is smart writing? Normally it involves a show that relies on "high brow", intelligent writing. A more verbose vocabulary is used and rather than make obvious jokes or points, the writers are more subtle in their approach. But more than that, the show tries to speak to the audience as an equal and will educate viewers instead of trying to dumb things down. A smart written comedy might be more like a drama and be free of the common "laugh track". This isn't always the case however. Frasier was a Comedy, but it had many serious moments and the lifestyle Frasier and his brother Niles were accustomed to was that of high society. As Psychiatrists, they would frequently mention Freud and Jung and analyze problems until they had exhausted themselves. MASH was set in a very serious setting: The Korean War. It was not a happy place, it was a war zone. The doctors and nurses of MASH 4077 relied on humor to survive. There are many examples of smartly written shows. Probably one of the best would be M*A*S*H. Others would include The West Wing, Frasier, Boston Legal, House and the short lived Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Each of these shows contained a large amount of humor, but the humor wasn't always thrown in the face of the audience. With the exception of MASH and Frasier, these shows did not have a laugh track. In fact, many are considered more as dramas than comedies and simply manage to pull both of. House for example is at its core a drama, but the sarcasm that spews from the mouth of Dr. House will have you laughing. Boston Legal tackled serious issues in the world but it also had raunchy humor, crazy antics and it frequently broke the "4th wall". Dramas such as the West Wing and Studio 60 used terms in their respective business and explained them to the audience without "dumbing it down" Rather than throw in unnecessary violence or inappropriate content, the show's content would instead dwell on plots, that while interesting, were not life or death. Other dramas such as House are life or death but rather than just focus on the medicine like E.R. , the show asks thought provoking questions such as the existance of a higher power, honesty, love, death and more. In House, the characters try to answer the question "Why?". This does not always pertain solely to the diagnosis but can be applied to the main cast as well. In this topic, we will discuss specific examples of smart writing. We will also discuss how successful these shows are. Are they too high brow? Are they boring? Are they too preachy? How do these shows compare to other programs on the air such as Comedy, Reality tv, Action, Medical and Police dramas etc. ? Topic Rules
|
 |
 
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| « Previous Topic · Java Hut · Next Topic » |
2:33 PM Nov 22
