Tell Me a Story

My wife and I have this little tradition. After we watch a television show, or a movie - including on the "big screen" - my wife pulls out IMDB and shares the trivia. Sometimes, depending on the movie, we share a podcast called Filmsack, which I like to describe as IMDB on steroids and laughing gas.

One time, while watching the movie "Frequency" on DVD, I turned on the trivia option. This puts little pop ups on the screen giving little details. In one early scene, there were details like the song that was playing, the type of motorcycle the character was riding, where the scene was filmed, and how many church mice were seen crossing the intersection (okay, I exaggerate). There was so much distracting details on the screen that I ended up turning the option off within five minutes of the start. Hell, I think I gave myself symptoms of A.D.D.!

The reason for the tradition is similar to watching a movie with the director's commentary playing: we like the little nuances. But there's a limit.

We are watching the series N.C.I.S. As a former member of the U.S. Navy, I love the references - both on the show, and on the IMDB trivia. Yet, for some rum-dumb reason, there are people out there that like to look for "mistakes".  In one episode, one was concerning documents that were shown for a MOMENT on screen. Apparently, the people who made the props had identical documents, with only the photos changed. The point was for the audience to see the photos. I don't think the idea was to pause the scene and read the documents.

Why am I writing a post about this? Because it really bothers me that nobody is allowed to just tell a good story anymore. They have to worry about every stupid detail.

And yes, many times I see them too. I notice the tie crooked in one scene and straight in the next, followed by another scene of the tie crooked again. But who cares!?! Does it take away from the story? NO! I've done so much proof reading in my time, that I find typos in novels. But that typo is not the focus of the book. The focus is the story.

We are also watching "Doctor Who". And by that I mean we started with the original, black and white episodes. (We LIKE watching a series in order . . . from the beginning through to the end.) And you know what? Sometimes you can see the strings. Or the shadow of a boom mic. But that doesn't take away from the story. We don't watch a show, especially from the 1960s, expecting today's special effects. We watch it for a good story.

Sometimes I really miss our old, analog TV. Before the days of plasma and Ultra HD. When you really couldn't see the strings. Because what I wanted wasn't the effects. It was a good story.

And I still do.

©Emittravel 2016