What I’d like to see: A road map
This week, with all the characters checked-up on, I’ve done some looking ahead to what I’d like to see more of in upcoming episodes of Brothers & Sisters — sometimes specific stories, sometimes general directions. And speaking of directions, I’d like to feel that the writers had some. My final wish for Brothers & Sisters is a coherent plan to get from here to the end of next season, as though we were going someplace and not just racing down every sidestreet that shows up.
I think even those of us who love the show and forgive it its flaws have to admit that it’s had an exceptionally difficult time finding its feet. The first pilot was scrapped and substantially re-cast. The first show-runner was ditched early on. For much of the first season, the tone swerved between dark secrets-of-a-suburban-family drama and snarky banter-filled comedy.
Things seemed to be settling out by the end of the first season, but then the show-runner changed again and the plot ran off in all directions, veering dangerously close to prime-time soap territory — brothers sharing a mistress! husband-and-wife affairs! unexpected pregnancy! paternity questions! — before running smack into the writer’s strike. Even then there was drama, with the very noisy ouster of creator Jon Robin Baitz and another shifting of show-runners. It’s enough chaos to make a Walker dinner party look sedate by comparison.
Enough of that now, don’t you think? We can write off the sophomore season to the strike, and hope that a lot of the questionable developments were due to the hurry of getting scripts done before pencils went down. They’re getting a nice jump now on Season 3, and may I respectfully, desperately suggest that somebody sit down and write an outline of the dang season before they start writing those scripts? Not that it has to be set in stone, but there should be a general sense of where the show is going and what stories are going to get told.
Like Justin, it’s time for the show to grow up a little.
Photo: ABC.com
April 18th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
I agree that it would be nice if they would have a bit of an idea as to where they want to Walkers to go.
So what would be the road-map?
April 18th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
I totally agree, Terri. B&S excels in terms of dialogue and characterization (and of course in terms of the acting), but its plotting has always been its weakest element.
There were some good individual episodes in Season 2, but it lacked the necessary coherence. Some plots were by too rapidly, while other languished in the background. There needs to be a more concrete plan next season. This is especially true given the large ensemble — if you have a more set road map, you can better assure that all the storylines are done justice.
The main responsibility of season-long planning falls on the showrunner, and so I’m hoping that with Perry out and Monica/Alison in (along with greater involvement by Berlanti) that the show’s plotting will be stronger next season. As you say, they have a heads-up on Season 3 this year given the scheduling, so they really should have enough time and foresight to make it happen.