Jumping the Snark

The other night, my family and I were watching a movie on DVD. It was a comedy about a high school girl telling a lie and getting ostracized by her peer group and yada yada yada. Pretty funny, if a little more adult than the PG-13 rating.

About two-thirds of the way through the movie, though, it took a sharp turn south (IMHO). We learn that one of the characters, a high school counselor, is having an affair with one of the students. And she transmitted an STD to him. Funny, huh?

Of course, stuff like that does happen in real life, too often. But it sure seemed out of place in this little comedy. My wife and I exchanged glances, a non-verbal wtf. For the rest of the movie, we (anxiously) waited to see what other things might pop out of left field (thankfully, there were no space aliens).

My point? Besides high school counselors shouldn't have affairs with students?

Actually, I have three points:

1) Writers need to know their audience.

2) Writers should adhere to the conventions set forth in their genres (generally), or risk alienating readers/viewers.

3) Writers need to be consistent within the world they've created.

Thoughts?