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TV is to Build a System of Myth and Mystery
What makes a TV series special ? Phil Kloer tries to explain the Golden Age of Huh? TV and why we love shows like "Buffy" & "Lost". |
Phil Kloer
Cox News Service
Jan. 11, 2005 04:40 PM
ATLANTA - Who else is "Lost"?
 It's the Golden Age of Huh? TV were the audience is every bit as lost, trapped in a fiendish little puzzle by the show's writers, who tease them week after week like some mean kid dangling a pork chop just out of a hungry dog's reach.
Fans of "Lost" (7 p.m. Wednesday on ABC) are joined by loyal watchers of "Alias," "Carnivale," "Desperate Housewives" and, to a certain extent, "24," all shows that have built elaborate mysteries or mythologies or just plain convoluted story lines.
If you want closure, find an exit. These shows spin long and sometimes frustrating narratives that never seem to wrap up. You're never sure if some tidbit is a throwaway or the clue that will unlock the whole thing and occasionally you're not even sure exactly what you've seen.
"Viewers like to be part of the process," says Carlton Cuse, one of several executive producers of "Lost." "Having your mind work over the mystery adds another level to the viewing experience."
Few shows attempt this genre of serialized mystery-drama that has no name. Rhonda V. Wilcox, who teaches English at Gordon College in Barnesville, Ga. and studies television as pop culture, calls it "new television."
"The audience is aware you're playing with them," says Wilcox, author of the upcoming book "Why Buffy Matters: The Art of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer.' " "It's sort of like dating," she adds. "Sometimes teasing can be pleasurable for both of you; sometimes it's manipulation, and you feel used. It's the same with these shows."
Although every time they come along they feel new, these game-playing, viewer-teasing shows go back at least to the late '60s and "The Prisoner," the BBC cult hit starring Patrick McGoohan as a former spy trapped in a Kafka-esque village.
The idea of Huh? TV is to build a system of myth and mystery and then make it pay off. Some are ultimately judged failures ("Twin Peaks"), some successes ("Buffy"), some a little bit of both ("The X-Files").
"We feel like we should reward viewers by answering some of their questions, but ultimately the viewer doesn't want the biggest questions answered right away," he says. "They enjoy the process of speculation."
 Many Huh? TV shows have two levels of fandom: the obsessives, who often can be found on Internet message boards; and the great masses, who tune in for fun and don't get their foreheads in a knot. "Some of our writers are really involved in the (Internet) boards," says "Lost" producer Cuse; it's well-known that some shows, including "Alias," follow some of the Internet fan forums such as www.televisionwithoutpity.com.
"The people on the boards are the most devoted, but there are 20 million-some watching the show, and only a fraction are on the boards," Cuse adds. "The vast majority are more interested in the characters and their stories than in the mythology. My fear is the show getting too convoluted, so that it's inaccessible to the casual viewer."
Still, in the end, "Lost" will probably be judged on whether its ultimate payoff is worthy of all the guessing games now being played.
Cuse says that it's "ultimately hard to make the big-picture questions satisfying, because the audience's expectations get so high. Even though we think (the explanation) is cool, you kind of wonder if anything is going to be satisfying when you get to the end of the journey."
But there is an ultimate answer, he promises; no matter when it ends, "Lost" will not leave fans lost. "We do have a plan," says Cuse, and there will one day be an explanation about what the island is and why these people are there. "But you can't do that till the very end. Once you do that, it's game over."
And nobody will say "Huh?" anymore.
This version of the article is just a short summary. To read it in full lenght, click the source link.
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