Static Zombie

I have to admit, I'm not surprised by that article. The show throws too many out of the blue curveballs to expect it to be all planned out. Fortunately though, it does seem like the writers are competent enough to keep their new stuff in line with what's happened in the past (something The X-Files writers simply couldn’t do).

I’d argue that the show hasn’t lost anything knowing that they’re making it up as they go. I mean, it’s all made up anyway, who cares WHEN they make it up?

Worked pretty well for Douglas Adams & Hitchhiker's.

Well, no, it didn't. The first two books-- which was really one book broken into two volumes-- were terrific. The remaining books, written afterward, were increasingly less funny.

I'm more willing to go on a journey when the guide actually knows where he's going.

Someone once did a study on the fans of Twin Peaks and found that believing that is was a clever, carefully thought-out puzzle was important. Once fans started seeing the random elements and discarded loose ends that a make-it-up-as-you-go-along style necessarily results in, they lost interest. Apparently they found it much more satisfying to see all the things come together (and hints dropped earlier stand out in memory for what they were) that comes when things are planned out and there is a specific puzzle to solve. This is one reason why fans stick with shows and movies with strong arcs and lament the network cancellations that deprive them of the payoff. The type of vague writing (akin to astrological columns) the writers brag they have gotten good at in the article is far less likely to pull it all together in such a satisfying way.

I remember my interest in The X-Files dropped dramatically when I learned that they had no Plan. But of course, I'd already begun losing interest. When the writers of 24 made a similar admission last year (they have scripts at most four weeks out), I recognized that I had already noticed this in the show. I don't watch 24 anymore.

But Alias? As good in the last few episodes as it has ever been (though this season started off very slowly). I cross my fingers and hope.

I hate the style of fiction (particularly prevalant in fantasy writing) where the writer clearly has a plan/message/outcome in mind from the beginning, and all of the elements of the story are carefully constructed to advance toward the chosen goal. I'm not "satisfied" when everything turns out to have been constructed to lead to a particular closed ending; I'm frustrated, because that's not the way life really is.

The most important thing to me, when I get to the end of a novel (or a TV series season, probably, although I watch almost no TV in recent years), is to feel that other outcomes and other explanations were possible; that the "truth" developed and unfolded over the arc of the story, just as it does in real life. While I haven't thought about it from the point of view of the writer before, I think that writing when even the author doesn't actually know what's going to happen, is a good tool to work toward this end. Of course, it can be overdone, but I don't think it should be dismissed.