A Gripe

Following up on my Gilmore Girls posting yesterday, I have a general gripe about TV writing – yes, even on the finest shows!  Last night I watched this week’s episode of The Shield, and was sorely disappointed because a main character, Claudette, was so severely injured the previous week that it seemed she must be dead – and yet, this week there was  no more than one casual mention of her, revealing that she is “recovering.”  The writers had been building up her illness throughout the season, and then after a climactic showdown with a suspect, she became dizzy and fell down the stairs.  It was unbelieavably dramatic and shocking.  But this week – oh yeah, Claudette’s in the hospital.  Mentioned ONCE.

As I pointed out, Gilmore Girls is a big culprit when it comes to this kind of thing.  No follow-up on things like Lorelai’s wedding being announced in the paper (and I don’t think it was just the Stars Hollow Gazette, either) but Lorelai apparently not confronting her mother or informing her that, in fact, the wedding is not taking place in June.  And I realized, after reading some recaps on Television Without Pity, that we never saw Emily’s reaction to the news that Luke has a child he didn’t know about.  Lorelai casually mentioned it to Richard during their Friday night dinner fight, and that was it.  The next week, Richard and Emily discuss it with Luke and Lorelai like it was old news and not at all shocking.  I find this so completely out of character for Emily that I can hardly believe it.

And even on my beloved Lost, these things happen.  More and more, it seems.  For example, Jack’s famous proposal to Ana Lucia that they raise an army.  So exciting and provocative!  But - that was weeks ago for the viewers, and certainly seems to have been several days ago or more on the island.  Are they organizing?  Are they training?  Are they trying to pool their information about the Others?  No.

So – that’s my gripe.  These shows are amazingly well written, and I love them – but I feel that this is a problem.  Perhaps there are too many writers involved, or too much activity on the canvas to be able to follow the threads and include everything.  But – figure it out, people!