Ever watched a show so many times you noticed errors?
For me, “Gilmore Girls” has many errors. The church bells work, break, then work again. Rory is a mustard person, then a ketchup person. Emily skinny-dipped, then Richard says she kept her clothes on. I could go on, but admittedly I’ve seen this show way too many times.
It’s the struggle with binge-watching; when you watch multiple episodes in a row (or a season in a week), it’s much easier to catch flaws in the writing.
Even recently when I watched “Full House,” I noticed Danny doesn’t have his compulsive neatness until the later seasons.
Before Netflix, we only had reruns. And you may not even catch them sequentially. If you missed a day, you missed the episodes. That was it…at least until the next time through.
Now with the Internet, people dissect shows to oblivion. You can watch episodes over and over whenever. We’re not stuck to the TV Guide or channel listings.
So when a show comes out, it has to be flawless. A show can’t afford to have mistakes that commenters will eviscerate the moment it airs.
When “The Good Place” aired, and then expanded its universe, the amount of continuity and work it must have taken was astounding.
I’d imagine writer’s rooms must have a crime-scene-red-string set of boards mapping out storylines, characteristics…anything to help keep continuity at bay.
In order to satisfy today’s viewers, shows have to nail:
- Character traits, histories
- Conflicts prior to airing, in the same timeline
- When and where stories take place, in order
- Dealbreakers for characters
And that’s the bare minimum.
So, yes, we still need writers. AI can’t solve this.