story

 

Something I was thinking lately, about stories, is that the same ones are told over again.  There are You Tube channels -- true crime -- where the person recounts the timeline of a murder or a mystery or whatever and it's one you've heard before on another You Tube channel, or on Dateline or 48 Hours, and you listen anyway, even though you know how it ends, and the reasons why, etc.

The radio presenter Paul Harvey used to say, "It ain't what you say, it's the way that you say it."  So maybe we will listen to, or watch, a story that we already know, just to find out how it is told this time -- and maybe for the atmosphere.  We don't watch to find out the answer, we watch to experience the story -- and the thoughts and emotions that go with it.

Several years ago, someone recommended that maybe I should get Netflix because there are lots of movies and series on there to watch, and he knew I was kind of "studying" stories.

        After doing a little "research" (asking someone at work what it's like having Netflix) I went ahead and got it.  I credit the original recommender for giving me a good suggestion.  

I like having it -- just today I found a documentary about questions and mysteries surrounding the death of Marilyn Monroe.  It was well done, and very good.  (Although this and other "mysteries" / stories / competing accounts, involving famous and fascinating people, are possibly all made up and perpetuated for the purpose of giving us -- stories....)

And maybe it isn't even for us, perhaps the people telling the stories just need to tell them.

The flip side of finding something on Netflix that you enjoy watching, is that sometimes you click on show after show and have that frustrating feeling of there being -- "nothing to watch!"

They are putting out a lot of what we now call "content".  When I start watching a show and find that it isn't very good, I think, 'somebody, somewhere, is just throwin' stuff against the wall, in a mixture of desperation and exhaustion.'

A certain type of series will make me feel impatient -- when things keep happening and they're supposed to be shocking, or scary, interesting or suspenseful, but they don't add up to anything.  (Where is this going??)  

        I could not put my finger on it, or express it precisely, and then I heard someone with a British accent in a You Tube video say -- "the story lurches from cliffhanger to cliffhanger, plot twist to plot twist..." and my brain went, "THAT'S IT!"  

That describes the bored, frustrated feeling I get with some shows.  That the story is -- lurching.  Something new happens, or shows up, and the viewer just thinks, "Oh for heaven's sake, NOW what?..."

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