Realism and Viewer Expectations

[holdouttrout]

You know that lesson you've heard, sometime, about good poll questions? Yeah, that first one on yesterday's poll does not qualify. What happened is I had another one that was slightly better, but lj ate it. Anyway, what I was trying to get at was actually a few different questions, which of course I didn't realize while writing the poll. Well, and it was supposed to be fun, not a lot of meta work. ;-)

Anyway, here are some of the questions that I jumbled into that first question. I also have to say that I am primarily thinking about established media--television, movies, published books. Fanfiction carries a whole different set of expectations.

1. Do you enjoy fiction with unrealistic premises? (Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror)
   
2. Do you enjoy fiction where the outcome is certain?
   
3. Do you enjoy fiction where main characters can die?
   
4. Do you enjoy fiction where it is expected that the "rules" are the same as our reality? (i.e. no one comes back from the dead)
   
5. Do you enjoy fiction where a satisfactory resolution takes precedence over realism? (i.e. some crime dramas)
   
6. Do you enjoy fiction that doesn't necessarily make realistic sense, but has a greater artistic or emotional mood/resonance?
   
7. Do you enjoy fiction that bends/breaks the fourth wall (is self-aware and comments on itself)?
   

1. Personally, I love unrealistic premises. A Stargate? Fantastic! A guy who is a genius and can learn how to do something by reading about it? Completely awesome. Sudden onset of superpowers? Bring it on!

2. I sometimes love and sometimes hate fiction where the outcome is certain. Sometimes I find it boring, overdone, and ridiculous. But good writers can make me reevaluate that reaction--even though I know the ending, they can bring me along to an emotional place that feels amazing and fresh.

3. Fiction where main characters can die is one of my absolute favorites, as long as it's not just gratuitous death. I like knowing that the rules extend even to the main cast--like knowing that Jack might not recover from the gunshot wound OMG or that the black smoke might get Kate. (Of course, the intial promise of Lost has not paid out quite the way I would have expected.)

4. I generally assume that the rules are the same as in our world unless otherwise stated--for example, in BSG where Cylons can be resurrected in a new body. I expect that humans cannot come back from the dead, although I'm willing to suspend my lack of belief if I think there's a good reason for it coming down the line.

5. Sometimes, I just want the good guys to get the bad guys, time and process be damned. I don't care if Test A takes a month to do, or if Character B, who is a forensics expert, would never actually do the interview. I want to be told an entertaining story that doesn't push too many "unrealistic" buttons, but still ends with the good guys solving the crime.

6. I hadn't really though about an artistic lack of realism in television until the season finale of House and my friend's very unique perspective on it. I always just assumed that the writers and producers screwed up when my expectations for a show were not met. I'm still not sure she's right about House being structured much more like an epic poem, but it's definitely an interesting viewpoint. And I know I've liked movies--or at least not hated movies--that are more about the mood and pretty scenery and music than they are about the plot or even the characters.

7. Fourth-wall breaking! I am probably one of the most enthusiastic fans of internal commentary. Self-referential humor done well is so much fun! Of course, it can also be really, really bad, but I tend to love it anyway.



So...feel free to answer one, some, all, or none of these questions.

Also, I have to say that some of the fill-in answers are hilarious. likethesun2, I agree that it's probably a good thing most television/movies don't deal with literary criticism. Hah! pcrackenhead, I knew you'd tick (check) that box. *grins*

Comments

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

I want to be surprised by the bumps along the road.

There's nothing I love better than plot twists that manage to surprise me. I've been steeped in stories my whole life, so seeing things coming is an occupational hazard.

Someone once said that the main difference between most sci-fi and fantasy could be explained by how the characters move through a wall. In sci-fi, someone waves a technological device that rearranges the molecules of either the wall or the character so they can pass through each other, while in fantasy, someone waves a magic wand to accomplish the same thing. *g* It's a little simplistic, perhaps, but it generally works for the kinds of sci-fi and fantasy I like. I like fantasy that reads a lot more like sci-fi in that it still has rules--it's just set in a world with different rules.

[6beforelunch.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. Sometimes I know what a character is going to say before they say it, even when it's a show I'm not very familiar with. I'm just so used to the way TV shows are written, I can guess at the dialog. It's always great when the writers can actually surprise me.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Dialogue, especially one-liners. Or plans. Or...subtle clues. I'm really good at picking those out, to the point where they have to be really subtle to get me, sometimes.