The Love Affair
The first entry for 2021 will focus on an element generally more prevalent in episodic content such as television series’ rather than feature films. Written content in the form of epic novels, fantasy/science fiction series’ and the romance genre handle the development of love interests between characters much better. Obviously, the framework across all types of content creation is not perfect; it is the propensity of content creators to assume what they think consumers desire more than listening to what their target audience really wants.
When you consider the sheer volume of consumable content available via electronic applications such as HBO NOW, Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime on AppleTV and other smart devices, one could argue greater access to quality content would be more common. Although there are a few applications aimed at bringing out of the box thinking to our attention, the delivery of said content is often mired in convolution and incomprehensive categorical systems. Anyone who has experienced Netflix’s classification system will understand precisely what I am referring to. Yet, despite continual feedback from users calling for it be changed, the company continues to ignore it. So much for listening to the consumers who throw their hard-earned money at platforms purporting to provide what our users want.
I want to acknowledge my first world bias and convey not everyone has access to electronic content due to various reasons; poverty, lack of the proper infrastructure, governmental controls, etc. In most cases I would not worry about iterating such a caveat, but we live in a world where greater awareness of our implicit bias is a primary focus. I have spoken to this facet in a prior entry and have posted a link to SimplyPsychology, an advertisement heavy article I found interesting although it may be too much detail for you get the point types. Apologies for the digression.
The element alluded to in my introduction is what I like to call, The Love Affair, which is not what it appears to be. I am referencing a predilection of content creators to thrust characters too quickly and deeply into love interests with no clear reason as to why it has transpired in the first place. Having made the distinction between literary writing and entertainment writing in past entries, I understand a need for visual content creators to appeal to the masses by providing juicier insights into what makes their characters tick, but it is often at the cost of proper character development.
A case in point raised its head when my husband and I started watching the television show, The 100 (properly referred to as The Hundred) on Netflix; a link to its Wikipedia article is below. It premiered in 2014 and ended September 2020. He and I generally wait until our series of interest is posted on one of the streaming media platforms due to the ridiculous amount of commercialization in mainstream outlets. This is not to say the same nuance has not reached us cord cutters and our beloved applications; it is simply not as ravenous, but it is approaching steadily. Even YouTube is getting to a point where you cannot watch one of your favorite cooking channels without 10 million commercials in a 15-minute video.
I would suggest either watching the series or reading the various content available on the web, which put these characters into the situations I will reference. In addition, my perspective leans more towards the ensuing aftermath of these interactions, where the reactions of the characters are often unrelatable and not a logical path of their development. I can certainly grasp what leads a character to pursue another or multiple another is based on the situation, but what often takes place afterward defies cause and effect.
In the series, two instances stuck out in my mind with the first one being less egregious, keeping in mind my husband and I are viewing season five. The first instance was an on and off again relationship between Clarke Griffin and Finn Collins with the latter in a longer-term relationship with Raven Reyes. When you view what put Clarke and Finn in the situation to consummate their connection, it makes sense and if placed in a similar circumstance many of us would do the same. Once the infidelity comes to light, Raven’s reaction is also reasonable; however, the aftermath follows a typified path of non-forgiveness no matter the level of self-awareness or enlightenment the affected characters obtain, which is usually employed to keep content consumers coming back for more; another tactic employed by out of touch content creators.
Finn slowly spirals into an obsessive, single tract mindset of protecting Clarke no matter the cost, culminating in an excessive use of force against villagers who had surrendered and were unarmed. Personally, I found his degraded behavior to be far too much of a departure from his history, although you could make the argument his mindset change was predicated through the situations in which he was placed, it does seem a tad excessive. Finns character was inherently passive, tirelessly looking towards creative, non-violent solutions in a post-apocalyptic landscape. His approach was an effective counterbalance to how the other characters automatically turned to habitually violent solutions. Taking Finn down this counter intuitive path continues to perpetuate the myth of non-violence being ineffectual regardless of the story’s dynamics.
The second instance involves the character of Jasper Jordan who I gave the benefit of the doubt in the beginning due to the fact he was impaled in the chest with a spear by hostile natives, dragged off, put on display to die, and survived. Admittedly, his behavioral changes after the incident made sense until a romantic interest in his life develops with a young woman, Maya Vie, who is part of a group called, The Mountain Men, when 48 of the 100 are taken to The Mountain Men’s location at Mount Weather, including Jasper.
While the remaining members of the 100 prepare to rescue the 48, Jasper becomes progressively more attached to Maya. When Maya is inadvertently killed by a decision Clarke makes to irradiate the remaining occupants of Mount Weather to save her people who will survive the maneuver, Jasper spirals, eventually becoming more self-absorbed and destructive in his behaviors. Jasper’s obnoxious persona becomes so over the top, I was relieved when the character was removed from the series. I did not like how the loss affected the characters who loved him but when a character provides absolutely no value to the story, the content creator in all of us needs to honestly assess if the character in question has a yet to be revealed, true purpose or do they need to ride off into the sunset.
My contention is the amount of time between when they first met to the time of Maya’s death is so short, maybe a few months at best, the level of attachment does not warrant such a ridiculously long time for Jasper’s swirling bitterness and glass half-full mentality to remain. As in Finn’s case, you could justify an observation of the situations Jasper experienced up to the point when Maya was killed, fully justified his behavior. If I am to be intellectually honest, I would agree with this observation except for a key consideration; background development.
I have often cited in situations where a character is to die, especially iconic ones, is it within said character’s, character to trod down a path leading to their demise. The same observation can be applied to the love affair syndrome. Based on Jasper’s character and what we know about him, up to the point where he goes off the rails, does he have a propensity towards such behavior, e.g., lack of a loving connection with parents/siblings, attachment disorder or prior romantic interests of an obsessive nature. If not, it is incumbent on the content creator to provide a clear reasoning as to why such an odd change in behavior is taking place.
In closing, I understand many of my own observations need to be tempered with realistic expectations based on the content I am not only consuming but creating for others to ingest. Aside from those rare occasions where entertainment writing does raise the bar in creating a story following proper mechanics while also being a joy to watch and/or read, we do have to keep our expectations based in our present reality.
This does not mean, content consumers and creators settle for the mediocre, quite the contrary and dare I say, the entire spectrum should demand better. The first steps are the choices we make when deciding what to spend our time consuming and letting go of content, which started out exceptionally good but eventually fell victim due to a lack of vision. These are two areas where we cast our vote, letting content creators and the industry know what we genuinely want.
Feel free to post your questions or comments. I will respond, if need be, when I able.
Resources:
The 100 Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100_(TV_series)
Implicit Bias: https://www.simplypsychology.org/implicit-bias.htm
