Why Limitations Are Good
So recently the new Twilight Zone aired. As of this writing, it’s not…good. But this isn’t a review of that show. However, it did get me thinking about the problems it has, and it’s many. I think a lot of The Twilight Zone’s problems can be traced back to one major issue–limitations…or the lack thereof.
Because it’s on CBS All Access, there’s not any limitations except by what CBS mandates. They’ve allowed longer episodes and they’ve allowed cursing. The longer episodes are the biggest detriment to it. Again, this isn’t a review about The Twilight Zone, as much as I want it to be. The longer episodes got me thinking not only about the show but about problems with other things in media.
The reason why a lot of things work when I was younger was because of the limitations they had. The people with the money had a hard cap on everything from movies, TV shows, video games, etc. The people with the money would say no. I always think of one of my favorite movies, Back to the Future. If they had a million more dollars, they would have filmed the final climatic scene in a bomb testing area as opposed to Hill Valley. That would have considerably weakened the movie. Spielberg wanted to feature more of the shark in Jaws, but they couldn’t get it to work properly. Could you imagine if you saw more of that terrible, looking shark? If you look at a lot of sequels from today, you’ll see that they have way too much money.
Everything from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Matrix sequels, The Avengers sequels, The Hobbit trilogy, and so on just aren’t as good. The reason is because of how much money they have in their budgets. Where it was a big gamble to make it in the first place, it’s no longer a gamble. Because they’re no longer told no, they no longer need to think of a way out.
In all the behind scenes interviews I’ve watched, a lot of the make up people, special effect artists, and directors always come up with creative ways to get out of a mess they’re stuck in. They either have to shoot late, try different angles, use certain materials, go to locations, etc., but they all get through it, and it’s a better product because of it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be watching the behind the scenes of it.
With the first few episodes, there doesn’t seem to be any limitations placed on The Twilight Zone. The reason a lot of those stories were written in the sci-fi and fantasy genre was to get around the censors. Rod Serling and all the other writers had to creatively come with up ways around that, not to mention the sexists and racist stigmas back in the 50s/60s, and a TV budget.
I write books where there’s no budget. That’s not always a good thing. Sure, my editors have challenged when I’ve been stuck or when plots or characters have been bad, but ultimately, I can do what I want. There are a lot of adaptations that I think work better than their book counterparts because they have limitations. If you just look at Game of Thrones (slight spoilers), it got rid of the other Targaryen, they paired up Sansa with Ramsey instead of random servant girl, Bronn trained Jamie instead of some random guy. Now that’s not to say that all changes worked because some characters were left without things to do like Brienne.
I hope studios start to realize that limitations can be good. Not only will things be less of a gamble but they’ll put out good products again. Movies and video games seem to make either a ton of money or are colossal failures. There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground. It actually reminds me of today’s disappearing middle class. At least for movie studios, you can write it off. In the case of video game studios, they permanently close.
You may be limited by a budget or a tool, but you’ll never be limited by your mind, imagination, and creativity.
Marc Johnson
