On the Guardian newspaper’s website on Tuesday, there was an article about Doctor Who being criticised for this season’s “unnecessarily complicated” story arc — a criticism that I feel the need to dispute, not just as a fan of Doctor Who, but as a fan of good television.
Doctor Who is confusing at the moment, but it is a show about time travel, a premise that is far from simple. However, this complexity is not a problem; on the contrary, it is what makes this series so interesting. Some people obviously just need to realize that it doesn’t matter if you don’t know exactly what is going on all of the time. The best television keeps you guessing and keeps making you want to watch more. Furthermore, Doctor Who is sci-fi, a genre that deals with interesting ideas. To successfully do this, a certain number of questions must be raised. So rather than demanding all the answers right now, just wait, and enjoy.
A great thing about Doctor Who at the moment is that you can come up with your own theories and discuss them with the internet, or your friends, or your cats. Then you’ll be proven wrong, because Steven Moffat is better than you. Be patient, and his pay-offs will be worth it. I don’t know who these people are who want “fewer twists” and I’m not sure I want to, because they’re inevitably going to be very boring. Given how most television spoon-feeds audiences, it is easy to see where this impatience comes from, but that doesn’t mean good television should concede and dumb down to join their ranks. If you can’t sit through an episode of Doctor Who without writing to the BBC about how confusing it all is, then by all means turn over to watch Family Fortunes, unless that’s somehow become too great a stretch for your imagination as well.
This impatience is familiar; I’m currently (finally) working my way through Lost, and from what I’ve heard, a lot of people stopped watching that after a season or two because they were tired of never being given any answers. (There’s that brilliant bit in Community when Abed is searching for the meaning of Christmas and finds the first season of Lost on DVD: “It’s a metaphor. It represents lack of pay-off.”) Again, it seems that the unanswered questions are the whole point. I can’t stop watching Lost, precisely because I want answers. I’m aware that I’ll probably be disappointed, but again, it doesn’t matter, because it’s good television. It’s good television because it doesn’t patronise its audience, it challenges them.
Similarly, it’s annoying to hear people complain that How I Met Your Mother still hasn’t even got close to revealing who the mother is. Why would it? That would end the show. There are a lot of excellent reasons to stop watching HIMYM, but that isn’t one of them. But returning to Doctor Who, Gareth Roberts is completely right when he says “this is emotionally complex, a bit like that thing … er, what is it … oh yeah, life.” Our problems tend not to get solved in 45 minutes. Engaging television challenges us and keeps us guessing; that should not be given up for the sake of impatient people, or ratings. So I implore you, stop demanding answers and just enjoy good television.
Clacked by Dan Meier 
on Sep 21, 2011 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
I can’t speak for everyone “complaining about HIMYM,” but my problems (Which I’ve promised to backburner until the finale), is that the misdirection extends beyond the bounds of the show. The Showrunners have said each summer that this year will be the year that the story will see significant progress. They’ve said, too, that the story wouldn’t necessarily end with the mother reveal, that there was plenty of story to be told once we’ve found out who the mother is.
I LOVE complex storytelling … in fact, the non-linear storytelling has been on of the things that drew me to HIMYM in the first place. I’m not sure how the HIMYM “problem” fits into the larger problem (Which I whole-heartedly agree with).
LOST is my favorite show of all time, and I’ve become a huge Doctor Who fan (the newer series, at least), so you can probably imagine where I fall in this argument. (-: Bring on the complicated TV, man.
(Sidebar: Be aware that LOST is mainly about the characters rather than the mysteries, and you will not be disappointed.)
*POST AUTHOR*
You’re right, Lost is about the characters, which is part of what makes it so interesting
This is an interesting discussion. Obviously people who say that Doctor Who is too confusing this season aren’t paying enough attention, and aren’t patient enough to wait for the season to play out before they make their judgement.
Personally, I have had a little trouble with this season simply because it’s broken the format we’ve come to expect since 2005. This season is much more heavily serialized than any season before it, which is a bit jarring. And I think casual viewers have realized they can’t be casual viewers anymore. There is too much going on, and they have to pay attention much more than they ever had to before, so they call it confusing. But I’ve decided to roll with the punches and let it play itself out (note: LOST was one of my favorite shows of all time too, so I suppose I’m used to it).
My favorite episodes from this season have been the single-episode stories like ‘The Doctor’s Wife,’ ‘The Girl Who Waited,’ and ‘The God Complex.’ There has been some really great writing this season, but I think some of the stories that are focused on the over-arching story aren’t as tight as most of the one-off stories (just an observation). I think when you limit yourself to telling a story in one (or two episodes) you necessarily have to be economical with your themes/twists/character development. But when you start spreading stories out over a season things can get a bit loose.
Personally, I’ll stick by the Doctor till the end. But also I hope that Moffat can reign in some of his grander story lines next season and refocus on making a more character-driven Doctor Who, which is what we’ve all come to know and love.
Doctor Who is a delight, being one of the only shows that pays off on these complicated stories the large majority of the time. Sure, there’s a storyline here or there that doesn’t quite hold up to the mystery, but the complexity is so rich and wonderful. I just love it.
I think it’s important to note that I only started watching and caught to with the Doctor this summer, so over the last few months I’ve seen a few very complex storylines develop and gracefully conclude in the show. I’ve become used to the pattern of complex mystery and conclusion, so I’m trusting the writers, at least for now.
Isn’t it ironic that we hear complaints about overly complicated television in an age when the most simple-minded, moronic programming fills the schedule? You can’t turn on the TV these days without being inundated with reality pablum that often is embarrassingly low-brow. While I’ve been very vocal about the reality trend, I know how to change the channel or turn off the television and *gasp* read.
. . . . .
Tom <——- continues to amuse / enliven / make me appreciate his take on things I (sometimes) would otherwise gloss over
The dude truly was joined at my hip at birth …
Thanks Michael. I hesitated to post because I’m doing the same thing as the people the article is written about, only in reverse…sort of. The decision to post became easy when I realized the universal truth that I’m right and they’re wrong; wrong in every sense of the word. Mom always said it was okay to be a hypocrite if you’re right.
Let the hairy ape-men beat on the monolith in anger and confusion.
. . . . .
Dan:
I don’t watch Dr. Who. (Someone out there is going to yell at me for this … and that’s all right.)
But you caught my attention with the mention of Lost. I realize I just might be on board the same train you are when it comes to items such as “the unanswered questions are the whole point” because it kept me tuning in week after week. (Side Note: I think I was one of the few on the team who actually enjoyed the finale.)
Nice thought-provoking piece.
Again proof that we’re on the same wavelength. I loved every second of LOST right through the closing credits of the finale.
I think it might have been in the comments of an article here, but I’ve likened LOST fans who crap all over the show because they didn’t like the ending to dinner guests who consider their meal ruined simply because they didn’t like the dessert. Amazing appetizer, superb salad, magnificent main course, disappointing dessert. Yeah, this meal sucked.
(Additional last-minute irony is the advent of HDTV in parallel with the advent of the reality crap-fest buffet. Now we can see Darwinian mistakes in ridiculous detail, which is just what the human race needed. Go Earth!)
. . . . .
“Go Earth!”
Michael <——– dyin’ over here!
I agree with this to a point. The one thing that makes me disagree is Persons Unknown. That was complicated, but it never gave the answers it promised by the end of the season…in fact, the show only became more convoluted. In a case like that, I understand and encourage complaining. But most of the time, I wish we’d make more complicated television, instead of trying to simplify things for a lower common denominator.
I disagree completely. I loved Persons Unknown. Thought it was very good at being twisty.
The fact that the showrunners failed to write a arc that found itself completed in the first season is completely unrelated to how complicated or uncomplicated the show was. I think that speaks to a larger issue that we probably agree on, but don’t think it has anything to do with what Dan brought up here.
(Minus the HIMYM stuff, which I ALSO think is unrelated to Dan’s premise).
I chime in on this example, so thank you for bringing it up. I felt like Persons Unknown was a Shoot the Shaggy Dog Story because of its ending. It really didn’t deliver and in retrospect I sort of hate the show.
But, I’m glad they tried, and it was interesting enough to keep me watching. If every show was ambitiously twisty like this, it would be a problem, but if none of them were, it would be a tragedy.
I can chime in on this example, so thank you for bringing it up. I felt like Persons Unknown was a Shoot the Shaggy Dog Story because of its ending. It really didn’t deliver and in retrospect I sort of hate the show.
But, I’m glad they tried, and it was interesting enough to keep me watching. If every show was ambitiously twisty like this, it would be a problem, but if none of them were, it would be a tragedy.
*POST AUTHOR*
I’m not defending all complicated shows, just ones that work. Doctor Who does, ‘The Event’, for instance, does not
I didn’t say that you were, Dan. What I said was that I agreed with your post with the occasional exception.