Spoiler Warning
I came across this the other day. Essentially, it is a more nuanced “jump the shark” analysis model for television shows. Just for fun, I decided to apply this model to the recently-concluded “Battlestar Galactica”.
First, the four periods of a television show are: primitive, classic, baroque and decadent. Briefly, the in the primitive period, the show is still establishing and explaining itself. In the classic stage, the show hits its stride. During the baroque period, shows start to depart from their original classic-period themes, adding fluff and ornamentation. Finally, during the decadent stage, the writers start creating increasingly outlandish plot lines to maintain viewership. So, here's my take on how BSG fits into this:
Primitive
The primitive stage is clearly evident in the pilot and the first several episodes. The show spends a lot of time establishing how the hardware works and what the limitations of the BSG universe are. For example, the episode “33” talks about water recycling and how the civilian ships are not as well-equipped as Galactica.
Classic
BSG transitions from “primitive” to “classic” about the time they discover Koval. Less and less time is spent on talking about what they can and can't do, and more time on space battles, running from the cylons and, um, “classic” BSG themes. The “Razor” episode represents a return for BSG to this classic stage well after it had entered its baroque period.
Baroque
About the time of Koval, BSG's baroque elements also start manifesting themselves. Gaius Baltar and Six spend in inordinate amount of time in that imaginary opera house, for example. By the time they reach New Caprica, BSG is fully into its Baroque stage.
Decadent
The series started to loose me at New Caprica, culminating at the end of season three (?) with the miraculous reappearance of Kara Thrace and the discovery of four more cylons-who-look-like-us. This was a clear marker that the show had reached its final, decadent stage.
Generally, I liked the first and second seasons best, along with “Razor”. Jump-the-shark for me came when the show spent a gazillion hours at the start of season three on Kara Thrace and Leoben. Apollo becoming a lawyer didn't help either.
5 comments:
While I have been in school I've been collecting all the episodes on DVD (thanks to my father-in-law). I have watched nothing, but today is my final day in school and then I will binge on BSG big time, and so I will be coming back to this post and reading it then. I'll post a response at that time.
Really? That surprises me, given that you were the one who got me hooked in BSG in the first place. I hope you saw my spoiler warning in time, and I look forward to your analysis.
This is fun! I really like this formulation. Perhaps it's one of those observations that feels insightful simply because it's something obvious that's been dolled up in pseudo-analytical-speak, but regardless, I instantly started dropping classic shows into the template. Northern Exposure, Star Trek TNG, Cosby, The Simpsons, X-Files -- I bet they'd fit perfectly.
I think most successful shows get out of the "primitive" phase within the first half of the first season. The writers, producers, actors have to find the rhythm of the stories and the voices of the characters within a half-dozen episodes or so before viewers bail out. The second half of Season 1 might not be running at full speed every episode, but you have to know if you're in good hands or not by then.
I think the trick for an "artistically" successful show is how long does the "classic" phase hold out before the "baroque" takes over. Those phases probably always overlap heavily, but it's a matter of stretching out the crossfade. Some shows last long enough that I think they maybe even reverse course and get a second "classic" phase -- MASH and Cheers come to mind as having had some hiccups when cast members changed but eventually re-finding their footing for a renaissance season or two. West Wing and ER might be candidates for that as well.
Ally McBeal is another weird one, in that it zipped through the stages at lightning speed, then embraced its decadence to the point of renaming the show Boston Legal and sort of resetting the bar for its "primitive" level about 27 notches past every other show's most decadent end.
I wonder if our pattern-finding brains would squeeze "prematurely" canceled favorites like My So-Called Life or Freaks and Geeks into the complete formula even in their aborted runs or if they closed out while clearly in the midst of some earlier stage.
OK, I'm devoting WAY too much thought to this!
Chris, this does seem like a really valuable way to analyze TV shows.
Chris, I read your spoiler warning and have successfully avoided this post. I just wanted to point out that I wasn't ignoring it and I plan to come back to it when I'm done catching up with BSG.
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