Consistency and Conflict

Last night at karaoke I finally conquered "Black Velvet" after months of stalling for fear of screwing it up. But I got lots of applause and high fives from an audience that had been pretty bored, so I would just like to share that with you because what good is a musical victory if you can't brag about it on your blog?

Anyway...

This week's Friday night television was weak tea.

Psych, usually one of my favorite shows, was all over the map. Usually the show expects me to believe that professional detectives make lots of mistakes while the fake psychic solves them by actually detecting. That's normally fine because the show is a quirky comedy with lots of absurdity. But last night they tried to get serious with a couple of subplots that could have been comedic then sandwich them between scenes that seemed really unrealistic and contained some stereotypical unfunny jokes. The result was a giant Fail.

Then there was Stargate Atlantis. Every so often that show has an awesome episode filled with subtext and nifty conflict and hot hot Ronon, but the status quo on that show is to take the easy route.

SPOILERS

On last night's episode McKay, Carter and Keller got trapped in a crumbling mine shaft and spent the whole episode trying to get out. I was so very bored the whole time. There was no subtext. The characters argued a little bit and discussed which celebrities they'd rather bang and talked about McKay's recent love troubles and that was it. There was no personal conflict between them.

Once on one of those previous fantastic episodes McKay was trapped in a sinking Jumper and to survive he fantasized Carter was in there with him, seducing him. So here he is, actually trapped with her underground but also trapped with the station doctor who knows intimate things about both of them. So much potential for personal conflict. Here he is, his fantasy coming true, but there's someone else getting in the way.

All of that was wasted in favor of time filling conversations. There's a whole subplot with some kids spotting them but refusing to run for help and it was pretty clear the story was only there because the writers couldn't figure out how else to fill up 40 minutes.

And then after all that, for no reason whatsoever and with no development in that direction during the long time of being stuck underground, Keller asks McKay out. Seriously?

It's almost like the writers discussed all the possibilities for conflict and decided to do the opposite.

Conflict, for crying out loud. If you're trying to shove a bunch of characters in a room together, make sure they're the characters who have the most conflict. Then make use of it.