Even professional screenwriters think the 2020 writers are over the top
October 29, 2020 8:37 AM Subscribe
2020 reads like a TV script. So we asked screenwriters how it should end.
If 2020 were a TV show, the first draft would be terrible. The premise is promising — what happens when political dysfunction meets a deadly virus? — but the execution needs work. Think about how messy it all has been: competing plotlines, too-abrupt soap opera twists, one-dimensional villains, stories introduced and then just as quickly dropped. Like it or not, we’re barreling toward the finale, and no one knows what’s going to happen in the last episode. Will there be a satisfying ending? Or one of those unsettling, ambiguous ones that gnaws at you long after you’ve finished the show? Will it be an ending at all?
“I would say to this screenwriter, ‘Whoa, slow down,’ ” says Eli Attie, a writer for NBC’s “The West Wing” and former vice president Al Gore’s speechwriter. “Like, show us who the people are, or draw out and take out some of these plot events, and let the one story breathe.”
...
“The first thought that I had was like, is this a season finale or is this a series finale?” Schofield asks. “Is this a wrap on America, as a country?” It will be hard, he thinks, to wrap up all the loose ends of this year in any meaningful or satisfying way.
“The fact that the president’s dopey son’s girlfriend is also the ex-wife of the governor whose state is on fire — like, that just feels too convenient,” Schofield says. “That feels like a contrivance where the producers of a show were like, ‘Oh, we already have this actress that we like. Let’s just make it the same person.’ ”posted by box at 8:59 AM on October 29, 2020 [40 favorites]
Pandemics in real life are slow and grinding, which is not super-compelling television.
Nor novels, which is why I never finished The Plague by Camus.
How did that one end, anyway? Lemmie guess -- more pointless misery?
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:59 AM on October 29, 2020 [4 favorites]
Nor novels, which is why I never finished The Plague by Camus.
How did that one end, anyway? Lemmie guess -- more pointless misery?
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:59 AM on October 29, 2020 [4 favorites]
Heads up that the first link is a WaPo article and thus behind a paywall.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:07 AM on October 29, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:07 AM on October 29, 2020 [3 favorites]
(But if you have free articles remaining, this is a worthy article to spend it on)
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 9:11 AM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 9:11 AM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
As long as it doesn't end with Sam Tyler waking up on a spacecraft about to land on Mars.
posted by ckape at 9:12 AM on October 29, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by ckape at 9:12 AM on October 29, 2020 [3 favorites]
If you ever write anything and people say the characters behave unrealistically, just point to 2016 & on and then laugh in their faces.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 9:14 AM on October 29, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by scaryblackdeath at 9:14 AM on October 29, 2020 [4 favorites]
Eli Attie, a writer for NBC’s “The West Wing” and former vice president Al Gore’s speechwriter
The revolving door between the Democrats and "The West Wing" needs to be banned by law
posted by Beardman at 9:25 AM on October 29, 2020 [7 favorites]
The revolving door between the Democrats and "The West Wing" needs to be banned by law
posted by Beardman at 9:25 AM on October 29, 2020 [7 favorites]
I am currently watching Scandal and the bonkers insanity of it all is pretty on point. What I'm saying is Shonda Rhimes should be in charge of writing 2020: The Limited Series.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:31 AM on October 29, 2020 [9 favorites]
posted by jacquilynne at 9:31 AM on October 29, 2020 [9 favorites]
I am currently watching Scandal and the bonkers insanity of it all is pretty on point. What I'm saying is Shonda Rhimes should be in charge of writing 2020: The Limited Series.
Oh, I am all for this. The Shonda Rhimes American would certainly be bonkers but it would also be queer-positive, full of powerful Black women, and committed to the power that friendship can have in people's lives.
posted by Orlop at 9:45 AM on October 29, 2020 [13 favorites]
Oh, I am all for this. The Shonda Rhimes American would certainly be bonkers but it would also be queer-positive, full of powerful Black women, and committed to the power that friendship can have in people's lives.
posted by Orlop at 9:45 AM on October 29, 2020 [13 favorites]
I just watched the first new episode of This is Us last night, and I know "your favorite show sucks" and no spoilers and all that but let me just say it totally went there and got me right in the feels.
posted by rekrap at 9:47 AM on October 29, 2020
posted by rekrap at 9:47 AM on October 29, 2020
Schofield puts it in starker terms: “He’s almost like Jaws,” he says. “A massive creature causing destruction, but without anything that seems to resemble, you know, motivation or logic. So, that’s good for spectacle, but bad for character.”posted by Lexica at 9:59 AM on October 29, 2020 [11 favorites]
Every staffer in the Biden administration will have written at least one episode of "Happy Days"
posted by Beardman at 10:07 AM on October 29, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Beardman at 10:07 AM on October 29, 2020 [3 favorites]
If you saw a movie that was like real lifeposted by Johnny Assay at 10:12 AM on October 29, 2020 [7 favorites]
You’d be like, “What the hell was that movie about?
It was really all over the place"
Life doesn’t make narrative sense.
If you saw a movie that was like real life
You’d be like, “What the hell was that movie about?
It was really all over the place"
Life doesn’t make narrative sense.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend for the win, forever.
posted by lon_star at 10:23 AM on October 29, 2020 [2 favorites]
You’d be like, “What the hell was that movie about?
It was really all over the place"
Life doesn’t make narrative sense.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend for the win, forever.
posted by lon_star at 10:23 AM on October 29, 2020 [2 favorites]
If you saw a movie that was like real life
There's not much difference between Fox News and Kuso.
posted by flabdablet at 10:26 AM on October 29, 2020
There's not much difference between Fox News and Kuso.
posted by flabdablet at 10:26 AM on October 29, 2020
This inspired me to re-watch this crazy prophetic video posted here to Metafilter in 2017. Of course the details aren't quite right, but the sense of national insanity is. I mean eating each other, That's UnAmerican
posted by Schmucko at 10:28 AM on October 29, 2020
posted by Schmucko at 10:28 AM on October 29, 2020
I've personally been getting ever more bugged by the "writers" trope, where life is treated as if this is some wild fictional universe that's become so common a response to events. I'd thought it was just because it's become a cliche, but the article makes me realize that it's as much that the trope is backwards. Most of the events mentioned in the article, or that could be referenced over the past four years, save for Trump himself, aren't really that singular either by themselves or in concert with each other. AIDS, the Rodney King beating, riots, killer bees, fears over various international incidents, the Middle East, Japan "taking over", a hole in the ozone layer, oil prices, wars, protests, and terrorism, go further back and you even get a president committing crimes and being impeached, among many other things.
Surprising events have been common enough throughout the past few decades, in ways that could have claimed as fictional I suppose, but the big difference is that those in power projected some sense of purpose and authority, they acted as if they were in charge and had a plan. Sometimes that plan was just to lull white Americans into believing there was no problem, or that it was just a "gay thing" or the fault of some other minority group, so white America would go back to their TVs and forget or ignore the problem. Now that we have a criminally incompetent narcissist in power, who doesn't care at all about the role of government, the least bit of honesty or reality or any other people at all, the facade has come down and people forced to look at these events with the realization there is no one in charge at all.
Previously white America could sit back and watch events with a sense that they aren't in any peril since the government will protect them, so it was all just another type of entertainment to gripe about. Trump's utter lack of responsibility or care, paradoxically, makes events seem fictional for it finally becoming clear there is no "writer" or anyone else in charge and that bad, "wild" events can actually affect even white Americans. The want for it to be fictional seems a lot like a desire to go back to when people could watch TV and think bad things only happened to those "other people", not real Americans. Of course true believers in Trump see this all as a radical change that only their enlightened leader can protect them from rather than the result of chaos and privilege being all that Trump knows.
posted by gusottertrout at 10:34 AM on October 29, 2020 [11 favorites]
Surprising events have been common enough throughout the past few decades, in ways that could have claimed as fictional I suppose, but the big difference is that those in power projected some sense of purpose and authority, they acted as if they were in charge and had a plan. Sometimes that plan was just to lull white Americans into believing there was no problem, or that it was just a "gay thing" or the fault of some other minority group, so white America would go back to their TVs and forget or ignore the problem. Now that we have a criminally incompetent narcissist in power, who doesn't care at all about the role of government, the least bit of honesty or reality or any other people at all, the facade has come down and people forced to look at these events with the realization there is no one in charge at all.
Previously white America could sit back and watch events with a sense that they aren't in any peril since the government will protect them, so it was all just another type of entertainment to gripe about. Trump's utter lack of responsibility or care, paradoxically, makes events seem fictional for it finally becoming clear there is no "writer" or anyone else in charge and that bad, "wild" events can actually affect even white Americans. The want for it to be fictional seems a lot like a desire to go back to when people could watch TV and think bad things only happened to those "other people", not real Americans. Of course true believers in Trump see this all as a radical change that only their enlightened leader can protect them from rather than the result of chaos and privilege being all that Trump knows.
posted by gusottertrout at 10:34 AM on October 29, 2020 [11 favorites]
Yeah reading this just... wasn't fun. I mean the image of trump as a giant mechanical shark head is fun, but. Do I want to read about the shitshow as I live the shitshow? I have this overwhelming feeling of inadequacy regarding current events. I've always been bad at history and politics. My adhd made it hard for me to follow along. As a teen watching jeopardy I'd be amazed that the adults who knew the secretary of state was during random presidencies. I would tell myself "you'll understand when you're older" to make myself feel better. I'm 30 and I still don't understand. Bills and congressional hearings and foreign affairs and military involvements - they're in one ear out the other. I can barely follow along with which people are in what cabinet and advising who. I had no idea that that woman who was screaming at the trump rally used to be the governor of CA's wife. I honestly didn't even know who the governor of CA was. That doesn't even to begin to touch on the civil unrest or the pandemic or climate change! Im drowning in bad news
posted by FirstMateKate at 10:41 AM on October 29, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by FirstMateKate at 10:41 AM on October 29, 2020 [7 favorites]
You might think President Trump would be a good character to center a show on. Our screenwriting experts disagree.posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:49 AM on October 29, 2020 [2 favorites]
“You can’t get inside him,” Attie says. “He doesn’t have the same inner life, emotional life, as a three-dimensional character that you want to write about. I don’t know how to make that interesting. It’s not nuanced. It’s not contradictory. He’s not at war with himself.”
Schofield puts it in starker terms: “He’s almost like Jaws,” he says. “A massive creature causing destruction, but without anything that seems to resemble, you know, motivation or logic. So, that’s good for spectacle, but bad for character.”
Trump and Biden turn out to be Androids created and operated by Barron.
posted by Liquidwolf at 10:51 AM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Liquidwolf at 10:51 AM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
Of all things, it was the Justin Turner Covid diagnosis in the 8th inning of the World Series that put me over the edge...
posted by albion moonlight at 10:51 AM on October 29, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by albion moonlight at 10:51 AM on October 29, 2020 [4 favorites]
For Checkov’s-gun reasons, it absolutely can’t end without Trump shooting somebody on Fifth Avenue. Also, a pee tape.
posted by mbrubeck at 10:52 AM on October 29, 2020 [20 favorites]
posted by mbrubeck at 10:52 AM on October 29, 2020 [20 favorites]
The want for it to be fictional seems a lot like a desire to go back to when people could watch TV and think bad things only happened to those "other people", not real Americans.
I didn't read it as people wishing for this to be fictional. To me it seemed more an acknowledgement that humans want to believe that life follows a comprehensible narrative structure. It’s a subtle difference, but an important one, I think.
We love narrative, as humans. Humans love stories. They are how we have traditionally made sense of the world, taught younger generations how to behave in a prosocial manner, and passed on the knowledge and wisdom needed to survive.
But now the world doesn’t seem to make narrative sense. Sure, this isn’t the first period of bad world leadership, of pandemic, of violation of civil rights, of environmental catastrophes. But I think it feels like it’s the first time it’s all come at us so thick and fast that the narrative is jumbled and so hard to follow that it doesn’t make sense. Part of it is that we are now able to find out what’s happening everywhere in real time and our narrative loving brains can’t cope with the firehose of information coming at us. It doesn’t help that so much of it is negative, but it’s also the lack of structure. There’s no “First this happened, then this, and as a result this.” It’s just all happening at once with sometimes no obvious logic connecting events.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:03 AM on October 29, 2020 [19 favorites]
I didn't read it as people wishing for this to be fictional. To me it seemed more an acknowledgement that humans want to believe that life follows a comprehensible narrative structure. It’s a subtle difference, but an important one, I think.
We love narrative, as humans. Humans love stories. They are how we have traditionally made sense of the world, taught younger generations how to behave in a prosocial manner, and passed on the knowledge and wisdom needed to survive.
But now the world doesn’t seem to make narrative sense. Sure, this isn’t the first period of bad world leadership, of pandemic, of violation of civil rights, of environmental catastrophes. But I think it feels like it’s the first time it’s all come at us so thick and fast that the narrative is jumbled and so hard to follow that it doesn’t make sense. Part of it is that we are now able to find out what’s happening everywhere in real time and our narrative loving brains can’t cope with the firehose of information coming at us. It doesn’t help that so much of it is negative, but it’s also the lack of structure. There’s no “First this happened, then this, and as a result this.” It’s just all happening at once with sometimes no obvious logic connecting events.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:03 AM on October 29, 2020 [19 favorites]
I didn't read it as people wishing for this to be fictional. To me it seemed more an acknowledgement that humans want to believe that life follows a comprehensible narrative structure.
Fair enough, I meant it more as people want to be able to read it as fiction, which is like you say, having a comprehensible narrative structure, just one that someone is providing for them.
posted by gusottertrout at 11:08 AM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
Fair enough, I meant it more as people want to be able to read it as fiction, which is like you say, having a comprehensible narrative structure, just one that someone is providing for them.
posted by gusottertrout at 11:08 AM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
“And Now, A Sinkhole Full of Rats” (Claire Lampen, The Cut)
In one of the surest signs of an impending apocalypse we have yet seen, a New York City man fell about 15 feet into a pit of rats when a sidewalk sinkhole opened under his feet. The ground simply split and swallowed its victim, 33-year-old Leonard Shoulders, as he waited for a bus on Saturday afternoon. Shoulders survived, albeit with a few broken bones, but his family says he is “deeply traumatized.” Which, yes.posted by Going To Maine at 11:09 AM on October 29, 2020 [9 favorites]
Yeah, one thing about the Newsroom -- and extremely terrible show with a 1-2 year lag on present time -- is that they'd start covering something and you'd be like "oh yeah that happened" because it usually wasn't a big deal outside of the news cycle. Anything covering the Trump years would be like "oh SHIT I forgot that fucked-up thing happened" and "wait did all that happen BEFORE SUMMER" and probably a lot of "wait did Trump really do that, he's even meaner than I remember." Note: I'm not actually talking about his cruel policies or how he threatens his adversaries. One of the wildest things about Trump, to me, is how incredibly awful he is to all his closest sycophants. That's the JAWS part, I guess. He just can't stop himself from going after whatever he sees.
It's hard to imagine wanting to ever watch a Trump administration series. I think it would turn out like Bombshells, a movie I couldn't quite bring myself to watch because who wants to accept Megyn Kelly as a hero?
posted by grandiloquiet at 11:10 AM on October 29, 2020 [3 favorites]
It's hard to imagine wanting to ever watch a Trump administration series. I think it would turn out like Bombshells, a movie I couldn't quite bring myself to watch because who wants to accept Megyn Kelly as a hero?
posted by grandiloquiet at 11:10 AM on October 29, 2020 [3 favorites]
In a historical view, why doesn't President Donald Trump make perfect narrative sense? I feel like he brings together a lot of America's longest-running plot arcs.
Saying it's all so incomprehensible means you don't really get the show you've been watching.
posted by Beardman at 11:26 AM on October 29, 2020 [4 favorites]
Saying it's all so incomprehensible means you don't really get the show you've been watching.
posted by Beardman at 11:26 AM on October 29, 2020 [4 favorites]
In a historical view, why doesn't President Donald Trump make perfect narrative sense? I feel like he brings together a lot of America's longest-running plot arcs.
One problem is that Donald Trump brings together too many plot arcs. A President Strom Thurmond (er, equivalent) would be good for a whitelash arc. A President Hillary Clinton would continue a blue-ification / race & gender equality in office arc. A President Bernie Sanders would continue the blue-ification/triumph of the young arc in the sense of pushing social policies left. By contrast, President Trump hits the racist arc, the sexist arc, the politics-as-entertainment arc, the conspiracy theory arc, the I-hate-Washington arc, the increasing-power-of-a-minority-of-the-population arc (which is really just kicking into high gear), and probably others. It’s far too over-seasoned a narrative stew, when you really need a simpler through line if you want people to understand what’s going on.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:38 AM on October 29, 2020 [5 favorites]
One problem is that Donald Trump brings together too many plot arcs. A President Strom Thurmond (er, equivalent) would be good for a whitelash arc. A President Hillary Clinton would continue a blue-ification / race & gender equality in office arc. A President Bernie Sanders would continue the blue-ification/triumph of the young arc in the sense of pushing social policies left. By contrast, President Trump hits the racist arc, the sexist arc, the politics-as-entertainment arc, the conspiracy theory arc, the I-hate-Washington arc, the increasing-power-of-a-minority-of-the-population arc (which is really just kicking into high gear), and probably others. It’s far too over-seasoned a narrative stew, when you really need a simpler through line if you want people to understand what’s going on.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:38 AM on October 29, 2020 [5 favorites]
There's not much difference between Fox News and Kuso.
I'm probably not getting some reference, but kuso means shit in Japanese, and yes.
posted by fnerg at 11:42 AM on October 29, 2020 [3 favorites]
I'm probably not getting some reference, but kuso means shit in Japanese, and yes.
posted by fnerg at 11:42 AM on October 29, 2020 [3 favorites]
For Checkov’s-gun reasons, it absolutely can’t end without Trump shooting somebody on Fifth Avenue. Also, a pee tape.
"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" So technically he could shoot himself. And I'd bet he'd pick up a lot of voters.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:49 AM on October 29, 2020 [4 favorites]
"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" So technically he could shoot himself. And I'd bet he'd pick up a lot of voters.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:49 AM on October 29, 2020 [4 favorites]
Re: shooting on Fifth Avenue: just wait until his second inauguration.
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:13 PM on October 29, 2020
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:13 PM on October 29, 2020
Every staffer in the Biden administration will have written at least one episode of "Happy Days"
Ron Howard or Samuel Beckett?
posted by Grangousier at 12:54 PM on October 29, 2020 [2 favorites]
Ron Howard or Samuel Beckett?
posted by Grangousier at 12:54 PM on October 29, 2020 [2 favorites]
Scott Lang gets caught up on what he missed in 2020.
from over the summer... so missing a bunch of recent stuff but still funny but also O.O
posted by ApathyGirl at 12:54 PM on October 29, 2020 [5 favorites]
from over the summer... so missing a bunch of recent stuff but still funny but also O.O
posted by ApathyGirl at 12:54 PM on October 29, 2020 [5 favorites]
I don't have the link handy, but there was a comic that posited that it was extremely unlikely that we all survived the Cold War and in general the existence of massive numbers of nukes ready to fly, and therefore the surviving timelines were inherently weirder and weirder.
posted by tavella at 1:04 PM on October 29, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by tavella at 1:04 PM on October 29, 2020 [4 favorites]
Will there be a satisfying ending? Or one of those unsettling, ambiguous ones that gnaws at you long after you’ve finished the show? Will it be an ending at all?
7 seasons and a movie?
More seriously, I guess we'll be learning about whether or not some aspects of this gets renewed next week.
posted by nubs at 1:09 PM on October 29, 2020
7 seasons and a movie?
More seriously, I guess we'll be learning about whether or not some aspects of this gets renewed next week.
posted by nubs at 1:09 PM on October 29, 2020
Writing the Finale: 21 Fever-Dream Endings for the Trump Show
For four years, together and alone, we’ve quietly authored our own endings to the Trumpian roller coaster, whether in a week or another 100 years. Here, in part one of two, writers, poets, and politicos—from Adam McKay to Alexander Chee to Eileen Myles—weigh in with ideas of their own.posted by kirkaracha at 2:09 PM on October 29, 2020 [2 favorites]
Sounds fun, wish it wasn't paywalled.
posted by tiny frying pan at 2:19 PM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by tiny frying pan at 2:19 PM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
One problem is that Donald Trump brings together too many plot arcs ... It’s far too over-seasoned a narrative stew
I hear you. But maybe Trump's like the climax of The Cabin in the Woods, where every monster from every horror movie is unleashed at the same time, in one ridiculous orgy of blood.
posted by Beardman at 2:22 PM on October 29, 2020 [3 favorites]
I hear you. But maybe Trump's like the climax of The Cabin in the Woods, where every monster from every horror movie is unleashed at the same time, in one ridiculous orgy of blood.
posted by Beardman at 2:22 PM on October 29, 2020 [3 favorites]
I don't have the link handy, but there was a comic that posited that it was extremely unlikely that we all survived the Cold War and in general the existence of massive numbers of nukes ready to fly, and therefore the surviving timelines were inherently weirder and weirder.
I'd love to read that
posted by oflinkey at 2:25 PM on October 29, 2020
I'd love to read that
posted by oflinkey at 2:25 PM on October 29, 2020
I read a lot of Kafka years ago, it helped prepare me for life and politics.
posted by benzenedream at 2:34 PM on October 29, 2020
posted by benzenedream at 2:34 PM on October 29, 2020
It will end with a battle to the death on top of Mount Rushmore between MechaTrump and Zombie Harambe, the whole lit by the ruby red beams that grid the sky between the Starlink satellites and complete the Cage of Musk.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 3:09 PM on October 29, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by thatwhichfalls at 3:09 PM on October 29, 2020 [2 favorites]
There is an amusing Twitter account called DJTStudioNotes in which a film studio critiques the script for the Trump presidency.
posted by larrybob at 3:30 PM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by larrybob at 3:30 PM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
The Pee Tape will be the after credits scene.
posted by inpHilltr8r at 3:39 PM on October 29, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by inpHilltr8r at 3:39 PM on October 29, 2020 [4 favorites]
Turns out the tweeter of DJTStudioNotes contributed the 2nd item in the Vanity Fair "Writing the Finale" article.
posted by larrybob at 3:45 PM on October 29, 2020
posted by larrybob at 3:45 PM on October 29, 2020
The parade of people and plotlines that just kind of fall away makes 2020 feel different from a TV show.
Has this person never heard of Lost?
Cracked.com used to do a really good show where a group of people talked about the Trump administration as if it was a TV show and they were doing one of those "show after the show" things. It featured Cody Johnson of Some More News fame and was both funny and cathartic, but Cracked got rid of it when they abruptly fired most of their staff and quit making videos. Now they seem to focus mostly on reader-generated content with typos in the headlines.
I used to say that the only logic Trump followed was satire logic. He's a guy straight out of a dark comedy about a corrupt, blowhard idiot president. When you think of him as a character who somehow escaped from a script written by Mel Brooks, Larry Gelbart or Trey Parker, Trump makes a lot more sense. But then the pandemic hit, and the Republicans started to follow George Romero zombie apocalypse satire logic. Like, you see some smug asshole senator giving a speech about how zombies are a hoax by the liberal newsmedia, then you smash cut to that same senator shuffling down the street as a zombie.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 4:22 PM on October 29, 2020 [6 favorites]
Has this person never heard of Lost?
Cracked.com used to do a really good show where a group of people talked about the Trump administration as if it was a TV show and they were doing one of those "show after the show" things. It featured Cody Johnson of Some More News fame and was both funny and cathartic, but Cracked got rid of it when they abruptly fired most of their staff and quit making videos. Now they seem to focus mostly on reader-generated content with typos in the headlines.
I used to say that the only logic Trump followed was satire logic. He's a guy straight out of a dark comedy about a corrupt, blowhard idiot president. When you think of him as a character who somehow escaped from a script written by Mel Brooks, Larry Gelbart or Trey Parker, Trump makes a lot more sense. But then the pandemic hit, and the Republicans started to follow George Romero zombie apocalypse satire logic. Like, you see some smug asshole senator giving a speech about how zombies are a hoax by the liberal newsmedia, then you smash cut to that same senator shuffling down the street as a zombie.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 4:22 PM on October 29, 2020 [6 favorites]
I’ve always avoided movies “based on a true story” for one pretty simple reason: for any decent fiction, we need to be able to suspend our disbelief. Sure, fine, the science exists to bring dinosaurs back from blood inside mosquitos trapped in amber millions of years ago. That’s the premise, they follow the premise, but the people in this world where this technology is available, they still have to act in recognizably human ways.
Hell, that’s one thing I loved about Pacific Rim, that there was a clear and visible world existing around the concept of a world where giant monsters regularly attack cities, like the black market in kaiju bits, the environmental damage the decaying kaiju caused, even the church that seemed to spring up worshipping them. No matter how little sense the rest of the movie makes, it’s grounded in a world that says “this exists, and this is how arguably believable humans* would adapt in this situation.
Real life, though, we all live in it. More than likely, no movie is going to be made about our trip to the supermarket. In fact, if a movie were to be made about it, it would only be because something so outlandish, so out of the norm, so unbelievable had happened that it would make bad fiction. Stories based on true stories don’t have to obey any of the rules of a oof story because they can just say “but that’s what happened” and ignore the point that it fails as a story.
This year, as a fiction? Hell no. No one would buy it. Of course, now that we know this is our actual baseline, I’m not really looking forward to where we reset our rules for fiction going forward.
*except for one thing: no matter how fucked up the world is, no matter how many giant monsters rise up from the ocean and destroy cities, no one is believably naming their child Stacker Pentecost
posted by Ghidorah at 4:30 PM on October 29, 2020 [3 favorites]
Hell, that’s one thing I loved about Pacific Rim, that there was a clear and visible world existing around the concept of a world where giant monsters regularly attack cities, like the black market in kaiju bits, the environmental damage the decaying kaiju caused, even the church that seemed to spring up worshipping them. No matter how little sense the rest of the movie makes, it’s grounded in a world that says “this exists, and this is how arguably believable humans* would adapt in this situation.
Real life, though, we all live in it. More than likely, no movie is going to be made about our trip to the supermarket. In fact, if a movie were to be made about it, it would only be because something so outlandish, so out of the norm, so unbelievable had happened that it would make bad fiction. Stories based on true stories don’t have to obey any of the rules of a oof story because they can just say “but that’s what happened” and ignore the point that it fails as a story.
This year, as a fiction? Hell no. No one would buy it. Of course, now that we know this is our actual baseline, I’m not really looking forward to where we reset our rules for fiction going forward.
*except for one thing: no matter how fucked up the world is, no matter how many giant monsters rise up from the ocean and destroy cities, no one is believably naming their child Stacker Pentecost
posted by Ghidorah at 4:30 PM on October 29, 2020 [3 favorites]
Shoulders survived, albeit with a few broken bones, but his family says he is “deeply traumatized.” Which, yes.
Perfect metaphor for how I feel. I mean, I'm living my life, day to day, there's back and forth, some people have dumb ideas, some good, some politicians are crooks, others somewhat noble, da-dee-dum, da-dee-dum, and then, like a sinkhole opening up and dropping me into a filthy nest of rats, Trumpification of the GOP happens, and since that shocking, bone-breaking fall, I've been scrabbling to get out of this hellhole to no avail.
And, yes, I am deeply traumatized.
posted by Mental Wimp at 5:22 PM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
Perfect metaphor for how I feel. I mean, I'm living my life, day to day, there's back and forth, some people have dumb ideas, some good, some politicians are crooks, others somewhat noble, da-dee-dum, da-dee-dum, and then, like a sinkhole opening up and dropping me into a filthy nest of rats, Trumpification of the GOP happens, and since that shocking, bone-breaking fall, I've been scrabbling to get out of this hellhole to no avail.
And, yes, I am deeply traumatized.
posted by Mental Wimp at 5:22 PM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
I can understand why this year has been divisive, but even if you're not a fan, you have to admit it's been a wild, fascinating, unique ride. The choice not to reveal the director or writer seems like an annoying stunt until you realize why they didn't want you knowing who made this year as you're living it. Bear with me on this.
See, most of this year I've been running under the assumption that 2020 was Utopia 3, was a direct continuation of the original series, and I have been duly impressed. Super bleak, super tense, really top notch seat of your pants stuff with this mix of absurd comedy thrown in that makes it special. Characters have been grim, soundtrack's been stellar, the background gag about an American adaptation of the show was cute. And then it turned out the manuscript is real? Great stuff, absolutely worth the wait. Today, though, this thread got me really thinking about it and as I was stumbling into my clothes and out the bedroom window of the alien I'm involved with, Catherine Wheel started playing and I realized - everything's been colorful, high, horny and apocalyptic this year. This is a Gregg Araki film.
Really inspired choice of director for this, now that it's even occurred to me. Perfect but not obvious fit and that's always the most interesting kind.
posted by Lonnrot at 5:58 PM on October 29, 2020 [3 favorites]
See, most of this year I've been running under the assumption that 2020 was Utopia 3, was a direct continuation of the original series, and I have been duly impressed. Super bleak, super tense, really top notch seat of your pants stuff with this mix of absurd comedy thrown in that makes it special. Characters have been grim, soundtrack's been stellar, the background gag about an American adaptation of the show was cute. And then it turned out the manuscript is real? Great stuff, absolutely worth the wait. Today, though, this thread got me really thinking about it and as I was stumbling into my clothes and out the bedroom window of the alien I'm involved with, Catherine Wheel started playing and I realized - everything's been colorful, high, horny and apocalyptic this year. This is a Gregg Araki film.
Really inspired choice of director for this, now that it's even occurred to me. Perfect but not obvious fit and that's always the most interesting kind.
posted by Lonnrot at 5:58 PM on October 29, 2020 [3 favorites]
"Senator, there's nothing in the rule book that says a Galapagos tortoise can't serve on the Supreme Court."
I think the sense that this is absurd is important, to counteract the pernicious ideas that it is inevitable, or acceptable, or normal, or expected. It's not flippant to note that this isn't just bad, it's fucked up. Too much so for fiction.
posted by Wrinkled Stumpskin at 6:05 PM on October 29, 2020 [3 favorites]
I think the sense that this is absurd is important, to counteract the pernicious ideas that it is inevitable, or acceptable, or normal, or expected. It's not flippant to note that this isn't just bad, it's fucked up. Too much so for fiction.
posted by Wrinkled Stumpskin at 6:05 PM on October 29, 2020 [3 favorites]
Apparently, over in England, Wattpad has assumed control of the simulation.
(I hadn't actually heard of Wattpad before reading the linked item. But it seems relevant to the current discussion.)
posted by eviemath at 6:20 PM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
(I hadn't actually heard of Wattpad before reading the linked item. But it seems relevant to the current discussion.)
posted by eviemath at 6:20 PM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
Aha, found the comic I mentioned above, it's from SMBC. "History is Weird"
posted by tavella at 7:05 PM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by tavella at 7:05 PM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
"For my birthday, Kanye got me the most thoughtful gift of a lifetime. A special surprise from heaven. A hologram of my dad. It is so lifelike! We watched it over and over, filled with emotion."
The shade of Philip K. Dick is in charge. Reality is what you can get away with.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 7:19 PM on October 29, 2020 [4 favorites]
The shade of Philip K. Dick is in charge. Reality is what you can get away with.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 7:19 PM on October 29, 2020 [4 favorites]
Apparently, none of the writers have been fired, just cycled out for a while. Murder hornets are back.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 7:48 PM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 7:48 PM on October 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
The choice not to reveal the director or writer seems like an annoying stunt until you realize why they didn't want you knowing who made this year as you're living it.
2020: An Alan Smithee Film
posted by kirkaracha at 10:44 PM on October 29, 2020 [5 favorites]
2020: An Alan Smithee Film
posted by kirkaracha at 10:44 PM on October 29, 2020 [5 favorites]
Michelle Goldberg in The New York Times: “Four Wasted Years Thinking About Donald Trump”
Before Trump, I’d never had the feeling of wanting to fast-forward through the era I was living in, of longing to be in the future, looking back at how it all turned out. The conceit that there’s a gonzo writers room scripting current events is partly about astonishment at how crazy everything seems, but it’s also about a fantasy of narrative coherence — that one day all of this will make sense. When you are living through a baffling, all-encompassing drama, it becomes harder to lose yourself in other, unrelated stories.posted by Going To Maine at 11:17 PM on October 29, 2020 [2 favorites]
I want to go hide back in the past, myself. I am terrified of the future.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:08 AM on October 30, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:08 AM on October 30, 2020 [2 favorites]
I wish to god that west wing never existed. Is there any other piece of the culture war been so effective at de-mobilizing liberals?
posted by eustatic at 11:19 AM on October 30, 2020
posted by eustatic at 11:19 AM on October 30, 2020
I wish to god that west wing never existed. Is there any other piece of the culture war been so effective at de-mobilizing liberals?
I don't understand this perspective?
posted by ApathyGirl at 11:58 AM on October 30, 2020 [1 favorite]
I wish to god that west wing never existed. Is there any other piece of the culture war been so effective at de-mobilizing liberals?
I don't understand this perspective?
posted by ApathyGirl at 11:58 AM on October 30
Eponhysterical.
posted by benzenedream at 5:00 PM on October 30, 2020
I don't understand this perspective?
posted by ApathyGirl at 11:58 AM on October 30
Eponhysterical.
posted by benzenedream at 5:00 PM on October 30, 2020
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posted by The Card Cheat at 8:42 AM on October 29, 2020 [6 favorites]