The Chris Carter Effect: Difference between revisions

** The show can be divided into three sections: the first season, which was mostly a case of The Chris Carter Effect; the second and third seasons, where the writers had the outline of a series-long [[Myth Arc]] but also had to do a lot of padding at the request of ABC, who didn't want their ratings darling to go away; and the fourth, fifth and sixth seasons, which came after the writers were given a specific number of episodes in which to wrap up the show and subsequently became a much tighter, more ''[[Babylon 5]]''-esque in its long-term storytelling.

*** .... which unfortunately didn't resolve or even mention a number of once-excruciatingly-intriguing mysteries from the first couple seasons, making the Chris Carter effect more evident than ever.

** The season six DVD has an epilogue on it which explains some of the left-over mysteries like the [[Non Sequitur Scene|Hurley Bird]]. Ben even lampshades the issue of unexplained questions by telling the Dharma employees that even though they may have a lot of questions, they'll only get two questions answered between them. And don't get started on the fact that this short was a [[Revenue Enhancing Devices|DVD-only exclusive]]...

* In general, the works of [[J.J. Abrams]] often have this problem. Robert Brockway of ''[[Cracked.com]]'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20140902080916/http://www.cracked.com/article/18353_the-top-5-everything-decade-for-better-worse_p3/ put it best]: "A creative visionary and genius... for approximately two seasons, after which point he cracks, panics and starts [[A Wizard Did It|rambling on about magic]] instead of writing a coherent plotline." To a certain degree, even ''[[Felicity]]'' fell prey to this, as did ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]''. It'll be interesting to see if the same happens to ''[[Fringe]]'', or if he's finally got things under control. It's been doing fine so far (or at least seems that way), and it might help that a fair number of the episodes are already borderline ramblings about magic.

* ''[[The Event]]''. Good God. It's like a drinking game of both characters informing each other of things we already know and ineffectively teasing us. "You know what happened last time!" Um, ''we'' don't... So how about you tell us?

** As mentioned in a few other places, ''The Event'' was so bad about building itself up that some felt it hit tropes like this one '''before it ever premiered.''' Seriously, for months, viewers were subjected to the upcoming "event," often several times per commercial break. By the time it aired, many were so annoyed with the campaign they either lost interest, thinking it couldn't possibly live up to the hype it created for itself, or just didn't watch out of spite for taking up so much of their time.

* Semi-enforced on ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'': Although the creators intricately plotted out certain subplots during each season in advance, they were never guaranteed more than one season at a time, so they were forced to keep their options open enough to be capable of making shit up for how Ted met his kids' mother in case they got cancelled. When they were guaranteed two more seasons near the end of season six, the show visibly hiked up the foreshadowing (mainly in the form of flashforwards and/or Future!Ted casually Jossing possibilities or stating facts about the future) of a far denser and more detailed plot in the later episodes of season six and the earlier ones of season seven. And of course, with the conclusion of the show at the end of its ninth season, enough threads were tied up that no one felt ''too'' cheated.

* ''[[Supernatural]]'' is arguably heading this way. Since the showrunner changed at the end of season 5, fans in general have become increasingly less happy with the course the show is taking, feeling that the current showrunner has abolished most of the important plot threads {{spoiler|and as of season 7 secondary characters}} that were popular with the fandom and arguably a large part of the show's success in previous seasons, and is now relying purely on a series of one-shot guest stars to mantain viewers. In addition to the showrunner's apparent insistence on writing out well-loved characters in favour of [[Replacement Scrappy|poorly recieved]] [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|suspiciously similar substitutes]], this approach has not worked as intended.

** Tom appears to be wrapping things up a bit and answering some of the mysteries (Jeanne's background, Jack's {{spoiler|possession}}) while introducing the new ones. Resolution is happening, just hand in hand with new conflict.

** Given some of the comments he's made and the way he's structuring the story, it suggests that he has planned the story out to be (probably) seven (in-universe) years long, each year being published as a book, following the British [[Boarding School]] model like so many, including [[Harry Potter]] (the most famous example), have.

* According to [http://blog.immelmann.net/2010/10/08/the-end-of-concession/ Word Of God]{{Dead link}}, this is why ''[[Concession]]'' is ending.

* For ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', [[Schedule Slip]] trouble + Dan Shive's love for [[Chekhov's Gun]] + his own tendency to occasionally forget stuff he did/didn't do = we should probably give up on expecting getting answers to all of the questions. He has recently been trying to get things sorted out by establishing things alluded to and having situations progress, as well as having several [[Fourth Wall Mail Slot]] bits between stories and a renewed effort to keep the strip updating 5 times a week (his recent average is probably 4.5 a week, which is pretty good, all things considered), so we'll have to see how he does.

 

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[[Category:Laws and Formulas]]

[[Category:Audience Reactions]]

[[Category:Consistency]]

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