Cinerant

Formulas

While there’s something always comforting about a formula, and knowing how it works, there’s also something energizing and invigorating about abandoning that formula. Much of television drama follows a very close formula. These shows, often called “procedurals” follow the same basic format every episode. (i.e., patient comes in, Dr. House doesn’t want to look at him, flunkies try and guess what’s going on, get it wrong, get it wrong again, House starts to get interested, still can’t figure out what it is, and at the moment of last hope, the brilliant doctor figures out what it is, thus saving the day.)

Most procedurals find their signature and never abandon it. Think of the “dunk-dunk” with Law & Order, the music montage of Cold Case, or the slow fade-away of Without a Trace.

However, abandoning that familiar structure sometimes gives an episode energy it might not otherwise find. Of the current procedurals on television, CBS’s Without a Trace is the most eager to break the mold. And in doing so, it always continues to rise to ranks of excellence when it does.

Three times this season, the show blatantly broke the mold and in doing so, it demonstrated why this is the best of producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s television programs. Last fall, the series did an entire episode from the perspective of an abducted teenager’s parents. The episode was compelling, gripping, and incredibly well-acted.

Then, for May sweeps, the show again broke the mold twice. Once was for an episode that dealt with the disappearance of two teenagers—one black, one white. While the FBI team did go through the process of trying to track down the whereabouts of the teens, the focus of the episode was really about the latent racism currently found in the media regarding what stories are promoted, and which aren’t.

Finally, for the season finale, the show abandoned the most basic signature—the slow fade-away. It used a bookend to frame the show, which though not changing the very nature of the show did help to provide more suspense than a typical episode. The audience couldn’t help but watch in anticipation, waiting for the other shoe to drop from what we saw at the beginning. It was a top-notch hour.

Sometimes, there’s something to be said for breaking the rules.

posted by cinegod @ 11:43 PM