Challenge,  On Writing

Watched Bridgerton

Yes, I Watched a Regency…

For the second year in a row. Four episodes in the last two days. Kris had to explain a bunch of stuff to me, but some pretty good acting and the characters were likable, so I’ll watch the third season if there is one.

Interesting difference in plotting from this show to others. These episodes were mostly an hour in length and if the characters had only talked, nothing would have happened, but as it was not a lot happens. Where, say, The Rookie fifty things happen, ten viewpoints, and a ton of stuff, and it is only 15 minutes into the episode. When Magnum does their thrillers, the hour flashes past. Plotting and pacing, very, very different from a Regency to a Thriller.

But of course, Magnum and The Rookie don’t have sex scenes like Bridgerton. Yow. Seems like sex in the Regency period makes up for a lot of standing and dancing.

So you can learn pacing watching entertainment television. Just got to listen to your little voice. And you got to have a watching partner who knows the difference between a Lord, a Duke, and a Viscount and why it makes sense none of the characters simply talked. She’ll have to explain it to me again next season and remind me what happened this season and the first season. Pretty sure all of that will be gone from my mind by tomorrow. Just like a Rookie plot and a Magnum plot.

But still fun entertainment.

6 Comments

  • Emilia

    I’ve mostly read high and epic fantasy, and I’m reading a James Patterson book (I’ve bought In the Electric Mist with Confederate by Dead James Lee Burke) because you recommended him for studying.

    Wow, the pacing couldn’t be different and the language as well. Its a thick book, but I’m halfway through in a week.

    Good idea to branch out from usual reading and watching.

  • Harvey+Stanbrough

    Don’t know whether you noticed, but during one of the dances in Season 2, Episode 1, the band covered Madonna’s “Material Girl.” The writers are constantly inserting little gags like that in the series.

  • allynh

    Watch season one of Star Trek: Picard. It is a ten episode season arc, rather than ten episodes of ABA.

    When Next Generation came out, I watched the whole series multiple times, and can not remember more than a handful of episodes. When I stumble across an episode today, I do not remember it, yet that is impossible for me. If I see a story that I have watched before I remember it in detail.

    – Each time I see an episode today, and can’t remember it, that is disturbing to me and I try to understand what made that episode so forgettable. But then forget why I was watching it.

    If they had done Next Generation like Picard, there would have been memorable story arcs rather than hundreds of episodes I can’t remember.

    BTW, have not watched season two yet. I’ll wait until it is all there.

  • Alex

    Netflix has picked picked up books three (Benedict and as yet unseen heroine Sophie) and four (Colin and Penelope). No air date yet though S3 is tipped to start filming late this year.

    “Based upon the book by” and “co-executive producer” credits for author Julia Quinn. Trying to get my head around what that might be worth.

  • Sheila

    A good TV show to see how raising the stakes works is an older show, “Scorpion”. The group of geniuses gets a job, it’s got some stakes. Then something happens to raise the stakes, and then something even bigger happens for even bigger stakes. Reminds me of the old advice to put your characters in a tree, and then set the tree on fire. Add in all the character drama, and it’s a pretty good primer for writing exciting stories.