When I become aware that a comedy is trying too hard, it can interfere with my enjoyment. The first few episodes of Buffy were like that. They were very tightly written. There were long stretches in which not 15 seconds went by without some sort of humor. I got the sense that the creators really cared about my reaction and were probably trying to impress me. All of which made me wary, which of course reduced the probability that I would laugh. In contrast, Arrested gives the appearance of sloppiness and not caring very much, but my guess is that that is a careful choice made by people who do care very much about what they are doing.
I understand that—I’d rather call a show that’s too tightly written “overwritten” (which a lot of modern comedies are, e.g., Modern Family, and the occasional episode of 30 Rock). I don’t like that either.
What I’m saying is that several scenes in season four just keep going on past their natural end. When an episode had to be twenty-one minutes long, they didn’t have this problem. On the other hand, several episodes from season three would have improved from being only fifteen minutes long after cutting out the slideshows....
When I become aware that a comedy is trying too hard, it can interfere with my enjoyment. The first few episodes of Buffy were like that. They were very tightly written. There were long stretches in which not 15 seconds went by without some sort of humor. I got the sense that the creators really cared about my reaction and were probably trying to impress me. All of which made me wary, which of course reduced the probability that I would laugh. In contrast, Arrested gives the appearance of sloppiness and not caring very much, but my guess is that that is a careful choice made by people who do care very much about what they are doing.
I understand that—I’d rather call a show that’s too tightly written “overwritten” (which a lot of modern comedies are, e.g., Modern Family, and the occasional episode of 30 Rock). I don’t like that either.
What I’m saying is that several scenes in season four just keep going on past their natural end. When an episode had to be twenty-one minutes long, they didn’t have this problem. On the other hand, several episodes from season three would have improved from being only fifteen minutes long after cutting out the slideshows....