Episodic Story-Telling: House & Murder By Death

There are a number of ways to tell a story, and a number of mediums to do it in. I've rambled on and on about this type of stuff before. But it occurs to me there is one format I have yet to dabble in: episodic stories.

Why haven't I written any of these, or even written about any of these? Because they scare me, in a way. And I hate them, simply on principle. And yet I enjoy them, because, well, they're fucking addictive.

A television series is provides the best example of episodic story-telling, if not the most commercially successful. Simple put, you are presented a cast of characters, a setting, and a problem (some of the basic necessary elements for a plot); however, rather than creating a single instance in which the problem builds to rising action and then hits a dramatic climax that leaves the characters and setting permanently changed and the problem resolved, the characters and setting remain intact and the problem remains unsolved at the conclusion of the story. Another story can then be told using the same characters, setting, and primary problem, and a series of secondary problems are presented that put stress on the primary problem, but ultimately leave the original elements intact. This can theoretically repeat forever and ever and ever.

Case and point: House. A misanthropic, vicodin-addicted doctor solves medical mysteries no other doctor can solve, while he is surrounded and aided by colleagues who try to provide him with a moral compass but always fail. Every episode, every story, is purposefully the same, structurally speaking. And this can go on forever, given that the personal lives of the actors, writers, directors, and producers don't get in the way, and the audience always responds.

But House recently did something pretty daring: it went off course. WAY of course. Over the last season they began focusing much more on a story arch of their steady cast, rather than of the importance of each episode's story. It ended with the title character, House, admitting himself to a psychiatric hospital. The new season then opened with a 90-minute episode that details his experience in the nut house. This is the first episode ever that has completely discarded the setting, and except for House, the rest of the cast. There is no medical mystery. There is only the healer trying to heal himself. WHOA.

Of course, it wasn't bad. Like I mentioned, it is daring. And it was well acted, directed, and written. In isolation. It was a good story. But it is completely off course from the rest of the series' episodes, the rest of the scheme of things. And, frankly, everything seemed out of character, and unbelievable. The thematic nature was off, the character was off. I was disappointed, and I am not looking forward to where they're going from here. And if they swing everything back to normal, that will look just plain stupid.

Now, you're probably wondering, Did he start writing an intellectual discussion of episodic story-telling just to give a poor review of an episode of House????

Yes. Yes I did.

Oh and I saw Murder By Death tonight. They fucking rock and are awesome story-tellers! (see, I tied it all together after all!)