Since 2008, I have been a little obsessed with the topic of sequential narrative, the notion of telling big stories over a long period of time (e.g., see here, here and here).
Any TV show that continues for some time needs to tell stories (and it’s nice when those stories add up to something). But lots of shows, especially hour dramas, don’t do this simple thing. Instead they spin their wheels, episode after episode.
(If you watch enough TV, you know what I mean. Characters make the same mistakes over and over; they repeat the same arguments; they have adventures that seem just like previous ones.)
On a recent edition of the TV on the Internet podcast, the A.V. Club‘s Carrie Raisler praised The Vampire Diaries this way:
It has the most momentum of any show I’ve seen in the past… I can’t even remember how long. It just moves. Every episode has cliffhangers. Every episode has three or four major “Oh My God” moments. The plots are so well developed.
I was intrigued by the way she phrased this. I like this idea of momentum in storytelling. So, I put the question to her: “Why does TDV’s efforts work for you and how rare is this kind of narrative momentum?”
Here is Raisler’s response:
I’ve been thinking quite a bit about how they manage to tell such cohesive long-term stories, and I think it’s because they aren’t trying to tell several different unrelated stories throughout a season or the series.
Since the show began, they’ve been telling one long, twisted, story that intertwines all of the characters and their respective backstories. Almost everything that happens feeds the main story arc in some way (aside from a few romantic arcs that work within the framework and add color, but are ultimately unnecessary), and they’ve managed to use this big-picture view to construct a really compelling tale.
They’re also very aware of how to construct an individual episode within the story to include several suspenseful moments and jaw-dropping reveals each week.
Also, within the series each season has had a singular driving force. In season one, they mention Katherine in the first episode, and she shows up in the finale; In season two, the sun and the moon curse is introduced in the second or third episode and paid off in the penultimate episode. They don’t drop plot threads or do “filler” episodes, and this is a sort of unspoken promise to the audience that their effort in watching will be paid off. It’s pretty masterful.
I definitely think this particular brand of narrative momentum is definitely rare in today’s television landscape: the only show I can compare it to right now is Breaking Bad. This is a bit of a stretch to wrap your mind around, I know. Obviously, the quality levels are a bit different and both shows are attempting to accomplish different things, but Breaking Bad structures their season arcs in a similar fashion in that everything builds momentum each week until the end, and every story feeds the main story.
The Vampire Diaries was created and is produced by Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson. Here is an interview with them.