Bad writing for film and television really irks me because of how avoidable it is. I’m not talking about mediocre or lackluster writing, but the actual bad writing.
TV shows and movies are tremendously expensive to make. Every part of it costs a fortune except for one: the writing. Even if a studio or production company was paying for a whole team of writers to work full time it’s still only a fraction of the cost of paying film crews, actors, editors, and VFX artists.
Given the relatively lower expense, relative lack of time constraints, and enormous importance of the script to the overall quality of the product it absolutely boggles my mind that production companies consistently fuck up the writing process.
It’s like reading a news article and seeing horribly constructed sentences and typos. Like, this is your main job! I know there are a lot of English majors out there who would love to find work.
Dropped subplots is like reading a news article with sentences that are
Great, now I have to find page B12.
At least for some of those there’s an excuse of needing to get the news out ASAP, but there’s no reason an in depth piece or an online article that’s been up for a few days should be butchered.
Really though writing should be the least important part of a journalists job, digging through stories and finding the truth or understanding the complex strands of the story should be and that often involves going back and editing, restructuring, reediting, reworking and adding to it over and over again.
It gets really hard to see your writing with fresh eyes once you’ve got it so perfectly constructed in your head, it’s super easy to miss awkward mistakes that have crept in - this is why editors were a thing but newspapers rarely bother anymore or the editor is too focused on political and social acceptable to notice grammar or word choice errors
Because writing doesn’t really work like that, the reason we get bland writing is because they keep adding extra chefs.
Thay get these professional writers that learned formula in school and apply it to sections of someone else’s work and wonder why the result is an ugly tapestry of formulaic rubbish.
All the things people love are written by people with passion for the project, then they get a budget increase and professional industry writers get brought in and it’s all shitty generic snappy dialog and dramatic posing that feels uncomfortable and awkward in the scene.
Yeah but taking advantage of that would require executive ghouls to be capable of appreciating art or even be willing to read drafts.
Maybe it’s studio meddling or director indecision? Lots of changes at the last minute make the writers fly by the seat of their pants?
I’m sure there’s plenty of those making a mess of things, but taking time in the writing process, getting input from relevant parties, and doing as much preparation as possible cuts out a myriad of problems.
Studio got a product placement deal? Great, let’s integrate that into the story long before filming even begins so it feels natural.
Director doesn’t know if he wants plot point A to happen or not? Good thing he heard about that while the movie was just a script instead of having him decide with dozens of people on set.
I’m sure there are uncontrollable, unforeseeable problems that will come up in any production. There is no reason to exacerbate those by being willfully unprepared. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure but it seems like film studios reliably hamper the “prevention” part to shave a few weeks off on prep time and end up losing more time or huge piles of money because of it.
“Somehow, Palpatine return.” -Poe-
The look on Oscar Isaac’s face as he delivers that line is something else.
It’s the face of a man who has been back and forth with the scriptwriter and director all day, and is resigned to the fact that this is the best they can come up with.
it makes sense for poe to say, how would he know how palpy came back?
the problem was the movie didnt really expand on that in any capacity
Even the writers didn’t seem to know. It was like they’d been handed some weird madlibs type shit and had to work Palpatine back in, even though the previous two movies hadn’t alluded to that in the slightest.
Even the groans from the rebels sound like “Jesus, three movies for this shit?”
If you look at Alan Rickman saying “By Grabthar’s Hammer, what a savings” and Oscar saying this, it’s the same pained expression, but only Rickman was acting.
Palpatine coming back wasn’t even an interesting premise though.
and that fucker got his lightening reversed on him AGAIN!
Stop using that spell you stupid fuck it always gets turned on you.
If I had a nickel for every time Palps got his lightning reversed…
I could afford to hire better writers than what we got.
3 10-cent commemorative coins would have gotten 3 fanboys who know Star Wars front to back to write a lore-loyal exciting adventure involving potentially new force powers, cool new characters, and a coherent plot.
And yet, we got the drool dribbling out of the mouths of Disney executives at the thought of all the money they made.
Poe doesn’t know or care why fascism returned, he just knows he’s going to fight against it.
The hot take internet culture rejected the movie simply because people don’t have the capability of understanding the layers and interpreting anything. It’s a shame really it’s the most interesting of all the Star Wars movies (though not the best, the editing was janky as hell). But people are more interested in consuming nitpicky memes about Star Wars than watching an actual Star Wars movie.
But it’s a movie that provided petty nitpicky assholes on the internet many hours of entertainment repeating the same false memes that only indicate that they didn’t actually watch the movie. You got what you wanted, so you should appreciate JJ Abrams for satisfying your cynical and petty nature with all the negative memes you’re still repeating over four years later.
I’ll just be over here enjoying a Star Wars movie that has layers about the relationship between our connection to our ancestors and fascist movements, the grieving process, and still isn’t so overly serious to not have a layer with the Emperor blasting lightning bolts at X-Wings.
Enjoy your memes!
Somehow Palpatine returned
Alternate ending:
A small, innocuous looking bat takes the form of DRACULA behind CHARACTER 1 and CHARACTER 2
DRACULA: Why the fuck would I need a jetpack? How did you morons forget about the bat thing? It’s been part of my image for like, a hundred years.
I feel like this is personally attacking Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter and that movie deserves nothing but accolades.
You know I’ve seen every other mainline Star Wars and several of the one-offs and TV shows but I never got around to this one and I haven’t really felt like I missed out.
Same. I read about it in memes mostly and at some point I was like ‘alright that’s enough of that’.
You’re right.
This thing again. Palpatine is in a room full of cloning tanks talking about having unnatural powers. Next scene characters mention cloning and dark powers. It’s just Poe doesn’t know how it happened (he’s not omniscient) and doesn’t much care. Fascism returned and he’s going to fight against it, that’s all he needs to know.
It’s explained but the hot take internet reactions missed it. And then memes were created to brag about being to stupid to understand something that happened in a Star Wars movie that a child could understand.
Somehow you don’t understand what things mean in a Star Wars movie. Congratulations!
Somehow all efforts from episode 4-6 were in vain and Anakin wasn’t the chosen one again because throwing Palpatine into the death star core didn’t have any impact on anything. Somehow they made everything Luke, Leia und Han achived pointless. Somehow cloning was easily achievable with some dark powers and somehow Palpatine cloned himself and chilled for a few dozen years. Somehow Palpatine was a father and somehow Rei was his granddaughter.
Yes just like my Grandfather fought in WWII in vain because fascism has returned to our world.
Except the fact that evil can return doesn’t actually mean opposing evil is in vain.
Also, you may be slightly not getting the point of Star Wars if you think that we’re supposed to believe Anakin is the chosen one and everyone is supposed to respect his greatness. Yes this is what Anakin believed of himself, but how did that go for him?
Luke was meant to kill his evil father (or rule at his side), it was his destiny. Luke refused that destiny, how did that work out for him? Pretty good until the real evil Empire (the Disney Corporation) came along.
Star Wars isn’t really about making prophecies come true. It’s about rejecting them and finding a better way.
You’re a Star Wars fan, you’re meant to reject the fascist ideals of past greatness, not conform to them! Have a balanced take on Star Wars, not leave it in darkness!
I know from your point of view JJ Abrams is evil, But only a Sith deals in absolutes.
Counterpoint: several flashy videos on the Internet told me that space samurai wisard films are bad now because there is a mean woman there and no kinky costumes.
That leaves for an interesting question: why is most writing these days so god awful? There are great writers out there. Hollywood isn’t stupid (is it?) and wants money. Why do they put shit writers on so many projects that then flop like the shit that it is?
Hollywood is stupid and they didn’t want to pay writers after the first draft is written. It may not be so much the writer is shit (they came up with some good ideas after all) it’s that they don’t have time to make additional drafts to fix plotholes, improve the dialog, etc.
Writing isn’t just banging out something on a typewriter and it’s pure genius the moment is written. It’s a process that usually involves multiple drafts.
You gotta admit a lot of things feel like a first draft, and it’s probably because it is. Hopefully these issues were sorted out with the writer’s strike.
Executives chasing profits with data they don’t understand, or the show just sticks around too long.
it’s not a simple answer but due to technology and environment, it’s just the way things are. basically less care is taken to get each minute of output simply because it’s possible. so many things. you don’t have to log heavy reels around, you don’t have to use a typewriter. each step is so much easier. before, there was a lot more care taken per step.
Ironic grammatical error
Sliders… Had two great seasons then they started chasing trends and it jumped off a cliff.
I like shows like Andor which have a mildly interesting premise but rely on phenomenal writing and execution to really shine.
Yeah I hesitantly tried out Andor as somebody who isnt the biggest Star Wars junkie, and it quickly flew to being my favourite Star Wars content by a mile. Really excellent writing imo
Why do Star Wars fans always forget the / in And/or?
Funnily enough, I have a playlist with the Andor score and some nice medley / covers which I have called “And/or”
You get my upvote, but it’s an angry Andor unwillingly one.
Foundation. Such awesome design, great acting… but such awful writing.
My conspiracy theory is that the writers had an idea for their own show, but execs made them slap on the Foundation label for notoriety. Because the parts that aren’t in the books, like the Genetic Dynasty, are great – probably the best parts. It feels like that was the actual story here, then everything else had to be put in after the fact to justify the universe they put it in.
I stopped watching after season 1 because the “special powers held by individuals” angle felt like a slap in the face to the theme of the books. Apparently season 2 is better but I’m still a lil bitter so I don’t think I can do it lol
This is brilliant, and it would explain so much! And I agree that the most interesting story arch is the one that has nothing to do with the novels (and the entire show shared very little with the novels, outside of some names).
I said that I liked few of the characters; I don’t know if that improves after the first season, but like you, I’m traumatized enough by S1 to be uninterested in watcing S2. I realized I’d spent the last 3 episodes literally shouting at the TV because of characters being so unreasonably stupid, and if there’s a literary sin I can’t forgive it’s characters doing stupid things as a plot device. “We need tension in this scene, so we’ll have this character refuse to get in the escape pod until the last minute, for some trivial reason.” It is infuriating, sloppy, weak writing, and I refuse to watch it.
I knew I wasn’t crazy. I just can’t get into that series.
Almost every Netflix movie. Disappointed almost every time.
TV show with really interesting premise that is well written, well acted, with great sets:
Streaming service cancels it after the first season and doesn’t renew it.
RIP ‘Night Sky’ with JK Simmons. What could have been.
I was just thinking about that show last night and wondering if/when season 2 was coming out, as it had good reviews, great cast, a good plot, and the dialogue was pretty good too.
Went to the Wikipedia page and found out Amazon cancelled it two months after it’s debut. Two months! They didn’t even give it a chance.
I was enjoying the heck out of The Peripheral. RIP.
RIP Carnival Row. I thought it was a pretty damn good show, with excellent actors and good character building.
It hasn’t been “officially” cancelled, but it may as well be at this point.
Preacher, the series adaption. Could have used the comic, but no, Seth Rogen had to butcher it.
Seth Rogen has proved he is the reverse Midas
Mierdas, everything touched turns to shit
Me when they say the name of the movie in the movie:
Superman: The only way for me to solve this crisis is to be Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
Peter: Oh, that’s why they called it that.
“Ah boy, I’m just so tired of all these star wars.”
Lumberjack Larry: “Darlin’, I’ve carved the grandest totem, but it’s too tall for the town square!”
Lucy, the Lumberjill: “And here I am, trying to fit this massive log through our cabin door. It’s a tight squeeze!”
Lumberjack Larry: “Looks like we’re both in a pickle with ‘My Big Stick Doesn’t Fit: The Log Jam Love Story.’”
Lucy, the Lumberjill: “Time to put our heads together and chop this problem down to size, honey!”
“And the world will always remember the Backdoor Sluts 7: Anal Apocalypse.”
[Ding] Roll Credits!
God, the first season of Revenge was so good. Quite a nosedive after season 2.
They have to have bad writing because otherwise it will be canceled 2 seasons in to a 3 season story arc
I’m still salty about League of Extraordinary Gentleman. Literary Avengers is such an awesome concept, but what we got was so fucking bad Connery walked away from acting forever.
But it did give us one of the most beautiful movie cars ever which, you know, is nice.
