To the Point

I am not a fan of decompressed storytelling.  It's part of the reason I could never get into shows like Lost or 24.  The way these shows take a single story idea and stretch it out over a season just doesn't appeal to me.  It's not a judgment on the quality of these shows because, honestly, I didn't watch them and have no reason to suspect that they're bad.  Just not my bag.  It's the same reason I don't generally like long movies, and why I'm not much of a comic book fan anymore.

It's probably why I haven't written sequels yet and why my books tend to be short.  I might have a long story in me, but I haven't found it yet.  And the tendency of fantasy now is to write long novels with overarching plots means I don't read much of it either.  I'm more of a too-the-point kind of guy, and that can be a good or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it.

There are exceptions, one or two long stories that I've enjoyed.  Justice League Unlimited: Season One is The Greatest Thing That Has Ever Been On Television.  Ever.  And a big part of that is the fact that it has an overarching plot executed masterfully.  The execution is what matters though.  The thing I love about JLU: S1 is that you don't really know it's an overarching story until near the middle of the season.  Until then, you mostly get to enjoy a few standalone episodes with a few recurring plot threads.  Even when the arc gets going, you still can enjoy nearly all of the episodes on their own.  Seeing how they connect adds a whole new level to the season, but even on an episode by episode basis, the show really fires on all cylinders.

I'll admit that maybe this is some failing on my part.  Maybe I'm just not "mature" or "patient" enough to wait around for the payoff.  But, hey, I'm an important guy.  I have a lot of stuff to do.