Shows with and without a sense of place

[alias_sqbr]

This is very fresh meta, thought up last night after greteldragon asked if Leverage was more or less fun than "Burn Notice", so I'm still figuring it out as I type.

See on the whole I like Leverage more, but something bugs me about it and I realised what it is: it's characters step very lightly on the world. You don't get the feeling that there's anything going on when the camera's aren't looking. We never see the characters outside of their work, and they do not seem to have any real outside lives(*). The ONLY character I can think of who turns up in more than one episode (counting the two-part finale as one) is the ongoing antagonist Spencer. There's no sense of place beyond their office (I can't even remember where it's set).

Burn Notice on the other hand is very much set in Miama. The three main characters have family, romantic partners, recurring business contacts, and somewhat separate lives (I don't recall them having many friends beyond each other, mind you). We see their homes and where they hang out in their spare time. Secondary characters can become more or less important in a fairly organic way as the story requires it. This all makes it feel more real to me, and the characters more engaging and 3 dimensional.

Last night I thought of another show like Leverage in this respect, but I've totally forgotten it now.

What do you guys think? Do you see the same difference I do? Does it bother you too or do you like it?

(*)I keep thinking "But what about that episode where we saw Parker's apartment?" and then I remember it was fanfic :)

Comments

[nephron.livejournal.com]

I do see what you mean about Leverage, but it sort of works for me- the characters don't have any lives outside what they do, and they're filling the void with their work.

[greteldragon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I thought that's pretty much the main motivating factor in them sticking together, they _don't_ have anything else.

[bunny-m.livejournal.com]

+1

I hadn't really noticed this until it was mentioned, but yes, there is very much a feel that they stay together because of their pretty empty lives.

Even Hardison doesn't seem to have much of a life outside of these capers.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

one thing we do know about Hardison's life for sure is that he is a big World of Warcraft player. Which doesn't really sound like he has a full busy interesting life (with all due apologies to WoW players, I am one myself).

[alias_sqbr]

Mm, to a certain extent it's not a flaw so much as a different type of character, which makes it more a problem with me than the show. But at the same time they do, literally speaking, have lives outside the job, even if they spend all their spare time sharpening their guns or staring into space over a drink or something: they must have homes and grocery shopping and landlords and people they pass on the subway. We don't see any of that, or get any sense that even if doesn't matter much to the characters, there is a world beyond their capers.

I mean Michael from Burn Notice doesn't really have any life, all he seems to think about is The Mission. Heh. I guess Burn Notice is about what happens when someone like Elliot is forced to go back home and stay there and deal with his mother and ex being pissed off that he ran off without leaving word :)

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

When what the characters do off screen is mentioned in Leverage, it really seems as if the rest of their lives is just either time off or prep, and their private lives are kind of bland -- Sophie shops, Nick mopes in bars, Hardison plays WoW, Eliot drinks, picks fights, and dates women, and Parker... I have no idea.

so yes, they live in this non-world were there is only the job.

[greteldragon.livejournal.com]

Haha, do we want to know what Parker would do with her spare time?

[alias_sqbr]

Ohhhhh yeah I forgot that bit.

Did I mention I was figuring out what I thought as I went? :)

[tevriel.livejournal.com]

I kind of like the way it's just... this is what they do, all clean and bright and nifty.

But there was some element of their lives in general in the second episode, when they get called in and we see Sophie at an audition, Eliot beating dudes up in Germany, and Parker in the process of robbing an art gallery - the thing being, they don't really have that much in the way of lives outside their work.

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah, I forgot that bit, I stand corrected :)

[tevriel.livejournal.com]

I kind of think of the Leverage characters all being kind of broken, and all being lost without their work. Their having normal lives would seem wrong to me; they're used to being criminals, we saw in the pilot that they were all prepared to just drop everything and flee the country when they thought everything had gone wrong, they *don't* tread heavily in the world.

The fact that none of them actually seemed like retiring was even an option when they found themselves crazy rich in the pilot showed, to me, that it's not something they're really capable of. They don't know what to do with themselves in that situation.

So.

[alias_sqbr]

Mmmmm.

I think I'm going to have a think about this for a while, because there's still something about it that bugs me, but I don't think I'm articulating it.

[bunny-m.livejournal.com]

(*)I keep thinking "But what about that episode where we saw Parker's apartment?" and then I remember it was fanfic :)

Oh, sure, tease us with the idea of fanfic you thought was part of canon and don't link to it, why don't you? ;)

[alias_sqbr]

It was the Odd Jobs series. Not actually indistinguishable from canon, but I did like it :)

[big-n-happy.livejournal.com]

The Wire is kinda the pinnacle of shows with a sense of place. Each season is basically introducing you to a different aspect of Baltimore, the crime plotlines are just a way of telling that story. It's pretty impressive the way it charts the place out.

I reckon that's one thing Whedon's really missing in his attempts at worldbuilding, from about Buffy S5 onwards. He's so in love with his characters, and that's fine, but he has trouble placing them in a believable social network; everything's a bit 2D. Which gets especially problematic when Firefly rolls around, where he infamously fudges his own Chinese Empire thing. Again, it's a small clique and their problems, the rest is window-dressing.

[alias_sqbr]

Mm. I think he creates more of a sense of place than Leverage but I agree there does tend to be a strict dividing line between the main characters and the briefly seen secondary ones. I think. *ponders*

[big-n-happy.livejournal.com]

The first three seasons are very comfortable with their insularity. Then he starts promoting secondary characters and attempting to show the wider world, which I find jarring because it remains very cliquey. S6 in particular is an insane hodgepodge of caricatures and fleshed out characterisations.

[alias_sqbr]

I don't remember noticing that but it's been quite a while. Although thinking about it I vaguely recall what you're talking about (the magic drug dealer wasn't exactly masterpiece of characterisation) I'm working my way through the show with friends 3 episodes a fortnight, when we get to Season 6 in 2010 I'll have to keep an eye out for it :)