Someone recommended an independently made series, Burn Notice.
It is a show about a former spy, his girlfriend, his mother and a few other ancillary people - Bruce Campbell, anyone?
It's the A-Team redux.
A woman who is there for titillation only, her character is two dimensional at best. A best buddy who drinks, a mother who wants to connect emotionally with her ex-spy son.
Where is Mr. T?
The writing is so predictable that not only did Nostradamus speak about the show in his writings, but the formula is used in every single show. It never deviates.
At least M*A*S*H* played with all sorts of layouts from telling the story from a soldiers points of view to doing a show in Black and White as a TV documentary. And then it was well written.
Writing on a television show is akin to depth of lyrics in music, the difference between a pop tune and a Beatle tune.
When well written a song or show transforms the landscape around you for the time it is playing.
I would guess that some of the construction techniques transfer between the written word and the notated score.
A writer of stories uses vocabulary and a sense of the world that they can put into words. Musicians use musical vocabularies and the same sense of what makes the world go 'round to communicate their feeling to you, the listener.
Sometimes it is very specific and sometimes purposefully vague...in both worlds.
In all worlds.
Comic books and pop tunes can be great, too.
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