Whatever Happened To The Short Story?
I recently rewatched some of the TV series Sex and the City a few days ago, and in the middle of the third episode or thereabouts, I realised something odd, out of place. I realised that episodes were only about twenty something minutes long. Nowadays TV programmes be they factual, dramatic or comedic are usually about forty-five minutes to an hour long, soap opera being an exception. I also noticed that there were less ‘extras’, and few there were on the DVD were called ‘featurettes’, which made feel rather nostalgic when compared to 2011 standards of there being numerous episode commentaries, outtakes, deleted scenes, interviews with the actors, writers, directors, producers and the producer’s pet cat. Whatever happened to just telling a good story, and that a pre-requisite for being ‘a good story’ did not include being long.
Do not mistake me, I am not against long programmes or extras, as a big fan of House M.D. and Doctor Who, dramas that deserve their forty odd minutes and do offer good extras, I enjoy them, but the presumption these days that there must be extras and that it must be so long does infuriate me. I imagine that there must be many good stories, especially in science fiction that would be great to see filmed, but just don’t need that much time to be told. If Saki or Franz Kafka or Carl Sagan were writing today, they wouldn’t have prayer.
There are still some programmes that have not fallen victim to the need for length, Peep Show being a prime example. I only hope others will follow their example before we get The Only Way Is Essex: The Movie, all three hours fifteen minutes of it.
