Picard Season 3 Final Rant/Thoughts

Recent prestige TV shows seem to follow two different theories of writing. One I’d describe as character driven: the writers construct characters and figure out how they’d react under certain circumstances. Examples of this kind of writing are Andor, The House of the Dragon, and The Last of Us. The other I’d describe as theme or message driven: the writers determine what theme(s) or social message(s) they want to present and construct characters and situations to deliver them. Examples of this kind are The Rings of Power and much of New Star Trek and pieces of Boba Fett and Obi Wan Kenobi.

It’s probably clear that I prefer the former style of writing. At the end of the day, I don’t know what storytelling is about if it’s not about the human experience. Messages only matter because they are part of the human experience. I’ve never really understood the point of placing message ahead of character. In my opinion, that ultimately just blunts the message. (This is approximately what I argued in my long-ago essay on why Buffy Season 7 didn’t work for me.)

I’m not saying having messages is bad or trying to make a backdoor argument about messages being “too woke.” Andor has the message “fight fascism,” and that’s a good one. Buffy S7 has the message “spread the female empowerment,” and that’s good too. It’s about how whether the messages will end up feeling like an insightful illustration of human experience or a simplistic bludgeon. Spoilers follow for Picard, potentially all seasons and warning for disorganized, Covid-induced rambling( Read more… )

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