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Strictly Formula: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|'''Fry''': Married? [[Status Quo Is God|Jenny can't get married.]]<br />
'''Leela''': Why not? It's clever; it's unexpected.<br />
'''Fry''': But that's not why [[Lowest Common Denominator|people]] watch TV. [[Viewers
Stories sometimes have a rigidly adhered-to structure. All the [[Beat|beats]] fall in the same place. All the characters do the things they are expected to do. The bad guys get got. They ''get'' got by the good guys, the same good guys as last week.
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Reading a summary of the story, there is no difference between the last story and the current story, except for a few details about how the bad guys were bad and the specific techniques used by the good guys to "get" them. The [[Once an Episode]] events can often be predicted down to the minute.
[[
Why, then, is almost every one of the top-rated shows on TV like this? Why do romance novel series and detective novel series outsell works that follow a different pattern?
[[Tropes Are Not Bad|Because people who read/view them are freed up from discerning the structure and can concentrate on the language and the details]]. The writer has gotten the shape of the story out of the way of the content of the story. Many [[Monster of the Week|Something-of-the-week]] shows express this trope to some extent, which can be both a strength and a weakness of that format. And attempts to shake it up? [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]].
[[Tropes Are Not Good|The few who read/view for the shape of the story might be left behind]]. By way of consolation, they are given everything that is not [[Strictly Formula]].
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It should also be worth noting that [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny|the inventor of great ideas that are much copied can sometimes retroactively acquire a reputation for being formulaic.]]
See also [[Status Quo Is God]] and [[Same Story, Different Names]].
Just watch out. Sometimes the formula isn't there, but just perceived by the general public. A classic case is how every protagonist in [[HP Lovecraft]]'s work dies or goes insane in the end. Except that rarely happens. Then the formula becomes [[Common Knowledge]], without ever really existing.
{{examples
== Anime & Manga ==
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*** This was in the anime version, the manga and live action version was more about the senshis.
* ''[[Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei]]'': Mr. Itoshiki is all riled up about some aspect of society. He lists a bunch of examples, taking the class on an impromptu field trip to do so. He [[Catch Phrase|declares that the aspect of society has left him in despair,]] possibly attempting suicide Then, either Kafuka or Chiri shows up to show the positive side of the aspect of society or comment on the aspect of society's proper/ improperness. Then there might be some sort of punchline or something. This formula is followed all but the most [[A Day At the Bizarro|surreal]] episodes, with the exception of some of the character introductions.
* Every single episode of ''[[Futari wa Pretty Cure|Pretty Cure Max Heart]]'' sees [[
* Every ''[[Bubblegum Crisis]]'' episode ever has essentially the same plot: An old friend to one of the team is introduced, and some [[Backstory]] about how the old friend and the teammate know each other is exposited. The old friend goes away just long enough for something bad to happen to him/her. Irrespective of which teammate's friend it was, Priss gets all pissed off about the situation and decides to take matters into her own hands. As she is suiting up, however, the rest of the team shows up because they've always got her back. The team suits up, and goes off to kick the problem's ass. There's a heartfelt apology from the old friend who is ultimately never seen again, and a wry signoff/joke. THE END.
* The ''[[Saint Seiya]]'' movies (with the exception of the second one) generally follow the same format as the Posidon arc of the manga - Greek God X arrises, proclaims they will destory all of mankind; Athena confronts said god by herself and is promptly set up for a slow, tortuous death as a human sacrifice and her bronze saints (as the main characters) are given some arbetrary time limit to fight through the bad guy's minions and rescue her. Inevitiably, they are all defeated at least once until Seiya (and sometimes Ikki) manages to struggle into the main baddie's chamber, whereupon he focuses all his and his friends' energy into the single punch that he's learned and blows the baddie to space dust. Athena is rescued, roll credits, the end. You could set your watch by it.
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== Films ==
* As a rule, even avowed non-fans of the genre can effortlessly summarize the plot of any modern [[Romantic Comedy]] (eg. ''[[How to Lose A Guy In 10 Days]]'', ''[[Hitch]]'', et al), purely on the basis that it's... a [[Romantic Comedy]]. They'll [[Meet Cute]] after a few failed dates, then some misunderstanding will drive them apart just long enough to answer the [[Will They or Won't They?]] with a definite and invariable [[Foregone Conclusion|They Will]].
** Likewise, virtually all [[Screwball Comedy|screwball comedies]] from the 1930s are fundamentally identical and predictable.
** Virtually every other comedy to come out of America in the past decade follows the same basic premise: protagonist starts the film with no life, is offered an outlandish solution which initially doesn't work. Then it works, and all is good for a while, until everything comes crashing down. But then it all becomes good again just in time for a happy ending.
*** And because of [[Judd Apatow]]'s influence, now [[Naked People Are Funny|there will usually be a penis involved, too]].
** Slasher films follow a near-identical story structure, the only variation being in the murder scenes. In this case, though, hardly anyone cares, since [[Just Here for Godzilla|the deaths are the only reason anyone buys a ticket anyway]].
* The ''[[James Bond]]'' movies. Teaser ([[Wacky Wayside Tribe|which might not be related to the plot]]), credits with dancing sillhouettes and a song from a popular artist, mission briefing, Bond gets involved with a Bond Girl and a female henchman, Bond gambles with the villain, henchmen ordered to kill Bond, female henchman dies, Bond enters the villain's base (voluntarily or captured), the villain reveals his plans (sometimes [[No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine|in a dinner]]), Bond foils the plans and goes away -- along with the Bond Girl -- from the [[Collapsing Lair]], and sometimes is confronted by a surviving henchman. And there's always a [[Chase Scene]], many times involving a helicopter.
* An [[Up to Eleven|extreme]] in-universe example is the [[Show Within a Show]] ''[[Groin Attack|Ow, My Balls]]'' in ''[[Idiocracy]]''.
* The basic premise of ''[[The Seven Samurai]]'' and ''[[The Magnificent Seven]]'' has been copied so often and so precisely that we have [[The Magnificent Seven Samurai|a whole page]] for it.
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** [[The Queens Latin]]
** A chariot race and/or gladiator fight
** [[A Party - Also Known As an Orgy]]
** Some sort of reference to Jesus and/or Christianity
* Played with in ''[[The Cabin in The Woods (Film)|The Cabin in The Woods]]'', where there's a massive conspiracy ''[[Invoked Trope|making]]'' people follow the strict formula of horror movies {{spoiler|because that formula is actually the guidelines for a human sacrifice ritual, and all the right beats need to be hit in order to keep [[Eldritch Abomination|the Ancient Ones]] satisfied}}.
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** ''Every single interrogation'' goes the ''exact same way'': suspect is initially uncooperative, Horatio [[Glasses Pull|removes his shades]] and makes a smoothly intoned threat, cut to the suspect looking down, beat, suspect reveals everything they know. ''Every single one''.
** Every [[teaser]] ends with Horatio's [[Glasses Pull|putting on his shades]], then making a pun. '''[[Memetic Mutation|YEEEEEEE]][[The Who|EEAAAAAAAAA]][[Narm|AAAHHHHH!]]'''
* ''[[Cold Case (TV)|Cold Case]]'': '''The Beginning''': To musical accompaniment related to the era, the [[Victim of the Week]] is shown in his/her time period doing whatever he/she does for a living, then cut to the corpse. Flash to present, where Rush & co. get their first lead on the case (either through previously-buried evidence, or a relative of the deceased with new information.) Cue [[One
* ''[[Burn Notice]]'': The standard week-to-week plots are this; the overarching [[Myth Arc]] isn't. In the standard plots, someone comes to Michael who needs...extralegal assistance. Mike will usually have to go through plans A through C, with a little bit of [[Indy Ploy]], before saving the Client Of The Week, often while having to work around the client's good-intentioned "assistance". The [[Myth Arc]] tends to be a lot more chaotic, usually merging with the usual plot in the season finales.
* ''[[Fringe]]''. There's a cold open with some gruesome event happening to a random character, Walter makes some discovery while examining the body, the FBI takes the bad guy into custody, and the bad guy is then killed by other bad guys or the mole. Insert Walter and Peter arguing and references to John Scott as needed.
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** The new series formula: The Doctor turns up to identify the location, the TARDIS may go wrong, companion complains, baddie appears, someone dies, companion gets kidnapped or something, Doctor does something badass and hammy, and delivers the baddie an ultimatum, baddie doesn't listen and the Doctor saves the day. Cue hugs and celebration if the deaths are not multiple.
** The old series formula: Doctor, Barbera, Susan and Ian leave TARDIS. TARDIS access gets blocked off somehow. Susan hurts herself, probably while yelling "Grandfather, Grandfather!". Barbera stays behind to take care of her while Ian does something manly and the Doctor does something clever. Baddie appears. Dramatic cliffhanger.
* [[Disney Channel]] and [[Nickelodeon]] kid-coms tend to love [[Zany Scheme|zany schemes]], [[Paper
* Disney Channel is probably an even worse offender than Nickelodeon. Since the huge success of ''[[Lizzie Mcguire]]'' and ''[[That's So Raven]]'',almost all of their shows have had some teenager(s) living a normal life with a TWIST, with their one same sex friend and one friend of the opposite sex (possibly a future love interest). There's almost always a [[The Ditz|ditz]] and person who's an absolute jerk, usually because they're a popular kid at school.
** Also, the star will be (either in-universe or in real life (as so much as Disney tries to insist they are)) a singer who sings the theme song of the show and/or gets shoehorned into singer as much as possible in the show.
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* The show ''7th Heaven'' always seemed to feature the same plot: kid makes mistake, kid must pay for mistake, kid's mistake affects overly righteous parents, righteous parents forces kid to learn from mistake. And to make matters worse, the kids always seemed to suffer from [[Aesop Amnesia]] as they would commit that very same mistake in the next episode.
* The TLC [[Reality Show]] ''Four Weddings'' is formulaic by design (four brides attend each other's weddings, rate them in various categories, top bride wins dream honeymoon), but even who they have is formulaic. They will usually have someone who has a traditional wedding, someone who has a traditional wedding WITH A TWIST (she's wearing sneakers, they're all going to dance), a [[Sassy Black Woman]] who has something unusual (i.e. praise dancers, a rapper), a destination wedding, and a foreign wedding. Something will go wrong in one of the weddings, and there will be one that the other brides hate.
* Every single brazilian [[Soap Opera]] (which usually have a 6-8 months run), specially the ones aired by TV Globo, can specially [[Egregious]] at this. 90% of the main plots are about a [[Forbidden Love]] between a lovable underdog and a lovable rich, and the antagonist in these cases is always a [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money|Rich Bastard]] who is "in love" for the aforementioned rich part of the [[Official Couple]], and spends the whole run of the show [[Gambit Index|using one gambit after another]] to try and break them apart. There's a Foreign Background for a couple of episodes (usually Europe, Middle East or Asia) and a set of [[Plucky Comic Relief]] characters. In the last episode, the main couple get married and the villain is killed or goes to jail. ALWAYS.
* Tabloid talk show ''[[Maury]]'' has a pretty limited set of episodes, e.g. people with congenital defects (or "heroes" as the show often refers to them), paternity tests ("That baby looks ''nothing'' like me!"), disrespectful teenagers who are cured of being brats by boot camp ("You don't know me!") and "Jack Hanna brings animals that pee all over the stage". Not only are the topics limited to about a dozen options or so, each topic itself is played strictly to formula: if you've seen one "Who's the daddy?" episode you've seen just about all of them.
* ''[[Castle]]'': Victim of the week gets killed, Castle talks with Martha and/or Alexis about their problem of the week, Beckett calls, [[UST]] begins, Lanie and/or Perlmutter give us the gory details, questioning, more [[UST]], lots of looking at the white board ,plot twist, Martha and/or Alexis chime in on the case while working on their problem of the week, more questioning, more [[UST]], Castle epiphany, they get the bad guy (chasing optional), Castle goes home and sees how Martha and/or Alexis solved their problem of the week. And did I mention the [[UST]]?
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== Toys ==
* [[LEGO]] ''[[Bionicle]]'' in its early years ('01-'03). Whenever [[Fan Dumb]] starts an [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|it went downhill in '04]] topic on an online forum, someone always points out that all of those years followed the same formula: the six heroes are a given - the [[Big Bad]] unleashes something bad - the village elders somehow know all about said bad things - heroes collect stuff - they go underground to defeat the current boss. Thankfully later years did away with this concept, and gave justification for the elders' secret knowledge. This argument is also frequently brought up when someone berates ''Bionicle'''s "replacement" line, ''[[Hero Factory]]'' for being too darn formulaic and predictable, though in the latter's case, that was pretty much the point, since LEGO wanted to avoid another overly-complex and difficult to follow storyline.
** One of the ''Bionicle'' comics from 2003 even lampshaded the stories becoming a little formulaic:
{{quote| '''Lewa:''' Has anyone else noticed that every time we go underground, something really bad happens?<br />
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** Exceptions: Shattered Skies, as Erusea just simply acts out of dickery with no outside influence; Skies of Deception, as the war itself was just a ploy for loads of money by their leader (and no squadron acts as Gryphus 1's counterpart, save for the almost throwaway Alect squadron).
* The cutscenes in [[Mutant Rampage Body Slam]] save for the intro and ending have the same basic dialogue structure, almost as if it was written in a madlib program. The [[Stock Footage|recycled animation]] doesn't help much.
* ''[[Pokémon]]'': Kid gets his or her starter and Pokédex from the local professor, battles his or her rival whose start has [[Elemental Rock
** By the time ''[[Pokémon Black and White (Video Game)|Pokémon Black and White]]'' came around, the developers caught on. The games are a [[Deconstruction]] of the classic Pokémon formula, and needless to say, therefore also follow the pattern (with a few key differences).
* So far with [[Ace Attorney|the Ace Attorney series]], you have:
## A case where either the lawyer the player controls being new, [[Laser
## Two cases that are almost always unrelated to said plotpoints from the first case the player has to solve, one of which involves defending/prosecuting someone famous or is otherwise very high profile.
## Another case that either related to the regulars or the player, will almost always throw back to the plot point in the aforementioned first case and usually has something to do with some kind of dilemma the regular in question has, solving it by the end.
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** Subsequent movies and revival series departed from this formula by featuring ''actual'' monsters.
* ''[[Dora the Explorer]]'', ''[[Blues Clues]]'', and many other shows targeted at that age group.
* ''[[Code Lyoko]]'', the first season. [[Wake Up, Go to School, Save The World|Life at school]] → [[Big Bad|XANA]]'s attack threatens real world → into Lyoko to stop XANA → [[Reset Button|Return to the past]] → back at school with knowledge of what will happen that day. This was done away with from Season 2 on: writing-wise, [[Character Development]] moved over the series like a storm; storyline-wise, constantly banging on the reset button [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|made XANA grow exponentially stronger with each use. Oops.]]
** Also the whole "Jeremie thinks it's XANA" "Odd think's it's not" "Aelita or a Tower Scan shows it is" and so now "One of the Lyoko Warriors must stay behind to be in danger and make the Return to The Past [[Rule of Drama|more dramatic]]"
* ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'' goes by this formula: Something in Timmy's life sucks, he makes a wish to change it, it works out great at first, then somebody says, "What could possibly go wrong?" At this point, crap hits the fan, and Timmy has to overcome the wish to bring everything back to normal. In the end, Timmy learns some sort of life lesson. [[Aesop Amnesia|And then forgets it.]]
** And then there's the movie specials. Every movie would involve Cosmo and Wanda (and in more recent specials, Poof) being separated from Timmy, but they get back together in the end.
* ''Jimmy Neutron'' [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|does the same thing]] just instead, he invents something, then later uses a different invention to reverse the effects.
* It does have a continuity/MythArc, but the general formula of ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' is followed in a strict pattern: Danny and co. have some [[An Aesop|personal problem]], a ghost appears and somehow meddles in their personal problem, Danny goes ghost and beats the crap out of it, sends it to the [[Phantom Zone]], and solves the personal problem, usually inspired by the battle.
** Or, [[Lampshade Hanging|to put it in Danny's own words]]:
{{quote| '''Danny:''' There's a rhythm to these things. Ghosts attack, we exchange witty banter, I kick ghost butt, and we all go home having learned a valuable lesson about honesty, or some such nonsense.}}
* ''[[Kim Possible]]''. [[Wake Up, Go to School, Save The World]].
* ''[[Looney Tunes]]''. Most of the major characters exist primarily in [[Strictly Formula]] cartoons. For example:
** Pepe LePew chasing the accidentally white-striped black cat, who runs in terror from his stench.
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## Large baddie threatens the little friend, Casper appears, demanding, "You leave my friend alone!"; the baddie runs off in fear. All ends well.
* Parodied in the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode ''When Aliens Attack'' (see page quote).
* Most ''[[Total Drama Island]]''/''[[Total Drama Action]]'' episodes start with some sort of conflict between two or more campers, a challenge which plays off that conflict (which takes up most of the episode), and an elimination ceremony that will resolve it unless the conflict is over several episodes (except for when they didn't do an elimination). It makes it extremely difficult to vary the amount of screentime, leading to [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] and [[
** But this time, they're playing strictly formula because ''that's exactly how it works on reality tv'', which they're parodying.
* ''[[Special Agent Oso]]'': Oso does a training assignment [[Idiot Hero|and fails]]. He is then called away to help a child by Mr. Dos and Paw Pilot assigns Oso [[Ear Worm|"three special steps"]] to complete the task. Paw Pilot then starts singing about the mission as [[Disney Acid Sequence|a strange music video]] is shown. When he arrives, Oso follows the steps carefully when helping the child, needing the audience's help for very simple tasks. As the final step is completed [[Just in Time|in the nick of time]], Oso returns to complete his training exercise, using the knowledge he got from his mission to earn his training award. Oso then receives a special assignment digi-medal for helping the child. The episode finishes off with a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|corny one-liner.]]
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* The general story for each episode of ''[[The Dreamstone]]''; Urpgor invents a device for Zordrak to help capture the stone, Sgt Blob and his men are sent to the Land Of Dreams with device in hand, the Urpneys steal the stone but screw things up (either due to their incompetance, the heroes' intervening or some other horrible twist of luck) and the Noops retrieve the stone from them just in time to prevent Zordrak sending nightmares to the Land Of Dreams. Oh and Frizz moans something for the final line. A handful of exceptions exist (usually when Zordrak finds a method of sending nightmares different from stealing the stone) but they are outweighed by the usual formula.
* [[Redakai]] boasts an oddly rigid structure where a fight must happen at act one, and then another fight as the climax for each episode [[Boring Invincible Hero|which the good guys win]]. Sadly, they are often poorly done and prevent the episodes from setting up any atmosphere, partly thanks to the power-up scenes that go into each one. It is particularly obvious in some episodes that the battles are just shoehorned in and destroy otherwise salvageable plots.
* In the first season of [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]], characters learn [[An Aesop|a valuable lesson about friendship]] pretty much every episode (usually after one of the characters causes a problem or conflict by acting ignorant or confrontational), and then Twilight Sparkle [[And Knowing Is Half the Battle|writes a letter]] to her mentor [[Princesses Rule|Princess]] [[The Dumbledore|Celestia]] summing the lesson up in a few sentences. As of ''Lesson Zero'' other characters can write letters to Celestia as well, and a few episodes involve no closing letter at all, but [[An Aesop]] about friendship is still always present.
** A side formula is always present in episodes involving the Cutie Mark Crusaders, with the three fillies trying to take up some new activity or talent in order to earn their cutie marks ([[Failure Is the Only Option|with inevitable failure]]). Usually this causes some problem or embarrassment that merges into the Friendship Aesop formula above.
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