There is a new series on TV called Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments. It debuted in 2015 and is, or will soon be, in it’s third season. IMDB reviewers rate the show 6.3 out of 10, so it must be a good show. IMDB says this about this show:
Clary Fray is a normal teenager living in Brooklyn with her mother. One day, she discovers that she is descended from a line of Shadowhunters; humans born with angelic blood that fight to protect our world from demons. After her mother is kidnapped, Clary must team up with three Shadowhunters: Jace, Alec and Isabelle and her best friend Simon on a quest to find her mother and recover her past.
Why does this storyline sound so very familiar? Let’s compare it to another show that aired from 1997 to 2003 – a show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer. IMDB reviewers rate that show 8.2 out of 10, so it must be a very good show. (The synopsis is mine, but fans of the show can verify its accuracy.)
Buffy Summers is a normal teenager living in Sunnydale with her mother. One day, she discovers that she is the latest in a long line of Slayers: girls born with special powers to protect our world from demons. With the help of her three friends, Willow, Xander, and Cordelia, and her watcher Giles, she pursues her destiny: fighting vampires and demons, all the while struggling to live a normal teenage life of heartbreak and drama.
Wow. Is it me, or do those two plotlines sound almost identical?
I was about 15 years old when I submitted my first short story to a magazine. I received the manuscript back with a note that read, “Get some fresh ideas.”
Fresh ideas might have been important to magazine publishers back in the day, but Hollywood doesn’t run on fresh ideas. Hollywood runs on retreaded plots and rehashed characters. It runs on spinoffs and sequels and prequels. And that’s why I don’t watch a lot of TV. It’s why I “cut the cord” and hooked up an antenna. Almost every show has a whiff of “We’ve been here before.” It’s like the same dead body dressed in a different suit every week. After a while it’s going to smell, no matter how nice the suit.
I suppose being original was easier in the days when there were fewer TV networks. Hollywood writers had only a few hours of airtime to pour their writing talent into. Now there are hundreds of TV channels and thousands of shows, and creative talent is of necessity spread thin. Fewer ideas are original, and more ideas are derivative.
But maybe there’s an upside here. As TV becomes less interesting, books may see a revival. Books are, after all, the last bastion of original thought – something that some people still consider desirable.
2 comments:
I do not watch either t.v. show, however it doesn't sound like you've even given this newer show a chance. This write-up reads as your kneejerk reaction and nothing more when in fact, the newer show is based on a series of books.
But the books was written after Buffy's tv serie. So.... I think I'll pass from this one.
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