Explain Yourself.

I was recently watching an episode of Skins, a show about which I have very mixed feelings. It has likable characters, and oftentimes engaging stories and funny moments. Sometimes, however, it indulges in some very sloppy writing.

The episode I was watching was a particularly bad offender for this sort of thing. If you don't know it, the basic story was this: Michelle (the unlikable one) was visiting Jal (the dull one) who had fallen pregnant to Chris (the funny one). When Michelle knocked, Cassie (the mental one) answered the door. Michelle proceeded to ask Cassie if Chris knew that Jal was blah blah blah.

The problem was this: Up until that point in the episode, the pregnancy was a big secret. Michelle had no way of knowing that Cassie knew about it, and it's not a reasonable assumption for her to make, since she apparently knew that it was enough of a secret that the father didn't even know.

This same episode also left me very confused when Cassie and Chris were popping in and out of the same house without explanation; it hadn't been established that they were living together.

What I'm saying is... explain yourself, writers. It's not enough for YOU to know that Jal told Michelle that Cassie knew, or that Cassie had moved in with Chris, or whatever. You have to let the audience know, BEFORE a scene like the one described above happens. Otherwise, the audience is so distracted trying to put together all the puzzle pieces you've thrown everywhere that it takes them out of the story.

Another place I've seen this recently is in the film Little Miss Sunshine (another work about which I have mixed feelings). If you know the film, you'll recall a scene in which Greg Kinnear's character can't get his van started. He begins to approach a group of guys with scooters... then it cuts to him riding one of the scooters.

A cute moment, but I was left yelling at the TV "How?! What the fuck just happened? Did he buy one? Borrow one? Trade the van for it? Did he blow one of those guys for it?!"

This has made me a lot more aware of where such issues might occur in my own works. From now on, I'm going to do another read of everything I write, trying to put myself (as much as I can) in the position of a viewer, and trying to ask myself as many of the same questions as a viewer would ask. I never want to leave the kind of story or logic gap that would be so distracting as to take a viewer out of the scene.

Damn you, Skins.