Characters bigger than the Story

For all avid watchers of movies, documentaries, TV series, there has never been a better time. Gone are the days when we were happy with having just one subscription to a streaming service. In today's world of instant gratification, we are all in polygamous relationship with different streaming service providers - "If you cannot satisfy my cravings for entertainment, I will find someone else". Our attention has to be earned, and the route to it are "Originals" - Netflix is estimated to spend $15 Billion in developing original content in 2020, and the competition is heating up with Apple and Disney and many more jumping onto this bandwagon.

The last I was on Netflix, I spent nearly an hour just scrolling through the mind-numbing array of choices - opening and shutting episodes, because nothing could hold my attention for long enough. But that is a topic for another post - where giving too much choice to people, is not necessarily a good thing.

In this post, I wanted to talk about what makes a story compelling to the viewer. What makes some series "binge-worthy", and why others will remain forever in my "Continue Watching for Ram" list. And the caveat I will put upfront - all the examples I will refer to are based on my individual likes and dislikes - not based on actual viewership rates or the current generation's likes and dislikes. So, while you might not agree with the choices and how I am talking about them - it does not matter. We can agree to disagree on it!! And I apologize in advance for any hurt feelings from the "fans".

On my part, I have a "fix-list" - the likes of Scarface, Goodfellas, Casino and series like Sopranos, more recently GoT and Billions. For any of these, I would open every once in a while, just randomly scroll to some part and watch from there. I know what is happening and what will happen - most times even remember the dialog before it is spoken, but I want to hear the character say it. And it got me thinking - what is the right ingredient mix to tell a compelling story? Is it the Director, is it the Actors, is it the Writer, is it the Editing? And I am sure we all have seen enough cases of the right ingredients being in place - award-winning director, award-winning actors, the best technology money can buy - and still the end result falls flat on its face - thinking of AVATAR. (remember the caveat - its just my view, but there is a good reason we have not seen AVATAR 2)

Today we have a new ingredient in the mix - technology - which contrary to aiding, actually hinders good story telling. That's because we get excited about the technology and what parallel worlds we can build with computer graphics - thinking of the recent Star Wars episodes - and enough invested behind the characters. I never truly felt the conflicting emotions Kylo Ren or the coming of age of the next Jedi in Rey.

Think back on any movie or series you liked and invested your precious time viewing - you essentially were invested emotionally in the characters. Game of Thrones was one such series, at least for the first few seasons. Every single character had a personality that shone through clear and bright, and they remained consistent to it. Same with The Sopranos - James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli and every one of the smallest cast-member truly embodied the characters they each played. And I could not get enough of them just being themselves - with their flaws and socio-pathic behavior and all.

Creating such compelling stories, begins and ends with building compelling characters, and there is a role for everyone in ensuring this happens. A Director who allows for the character stories to build, Actors who can carry it off, Editing team who can keep the story tight at the same time allowing the audience to have enough background on the characters and so on. And the challenge is to keep this compelling narrative going for many episodes spread across many seasons. Series like Breaking Bad started slow, but built to a crescendo ending in the final season. Other start strong and struggle to keep the momentum going - Game of Thrones, Westworld.

There is a parallel I want to explore in another post on story-telling by Brands, and what does compelling characters mean in the context of Branded content. For now I am hoping to hear any thoughts, feedback, criticisms - basically was this interesting enough to warrant any kind of a reaction.

Back in a Bit.