What do Mr Bean and the Terminator have in common?
In the great sit-com Father Ted, writer Graham Linehan was careful never to show the three main characters actually doing any part of their job as priests. They never stop being priests but we see the 9/10 of their ridiculous lives outside that professional role.
In Friends, the fact that no-one actually knows what Chandler does as a job becomes a central gag in the episode with the quiz to win an apartment. It isn't until that moment that you realise how unimportant a fact it is.
Does Mr Bean have a job? Could we imagine a character like that holding down a job? Once you do that, it instantly limits the situations he could be placed in.
Where does the time machine in the Terminator films come from? Answer: No-one cares. The pace is too high. We're following the next chase sequence.
My point here is, although logic would often suggest you need to create a world around a fictional character, if you have an empathetic protagonist or two and narrative drive is maintained, that is not always true.
In Friends, the fact that no-one actually knows what Chandler does as a job becomes a central gag in the episode with the quiz to win an apartment. It isn't until that moment that you realise how unimportant a fact it is.
Does Mr Bean have a job? Could we imagine a character like that holding down a job? Once you do that, it instantly limits the situations he could be placed in.
Where does the time machine in the Terminator films come from? Answer: No-one cares. The pace is too high. We're following the next chase sequence.
My point here is, although logic would often suggest you need to create a world around a fictional character, if you have an empathetic protagonist or two and narrative drive is maintained, that is not always true.
No comments have been added yet.
