The Marshmallow Ranch Gazette (Patreon)

Volume 4, Issue 3 - Wednesday, April 3rd, 2019

Howdy, patrons!

Here we are, past the first quarter of 2019. How's the year been for all of you? How many of you are still on track with your New Year's Resolutions?? I have to admit I've been doing not so great with them -- but then, what else is new?

Despite that, I've managed to do fairly well with writing over the past few weeks and I'm looking to keep up that momentum! I hope to have Chapter 14 of "Crushing The Competition" up and running on Thursday or Friday, with new chapters popping up every week! That's the dream, anyway. I'm fairly confident that as long as I stick to my schedule and manage to side-step potential pitfalls, I'll be all right.

We've been watching Person of Interest and King of the Hill in the evenings recently, and both of these shows are really blowing me away for different reasons. Person of Interest is doing really great things with the plot and structure of its stories, striking a near-perfect balance between its procedural elements and serialized storytelling. King of the Hill is honestly just a treasure; the characters are so incredibly well-drawn, and their interactions strike this amazing balance between interpersonal tension and sharing a community bond. I've been really impressed with the craft in both shows, and I'd love to find a way to get a bit of that shine on my writing.

If you haven't heard about it, Person of Interest was one of those CBS crime procedurals that are the network's bread and butter. A brilliant but reclusive billionaire built a Machine that can pore over all of our private and public data to determine if someone is about to commit a terrorist attack, sold it to the government for one dollar, and communicates with it through a backdoor that allows him to get "irrelevant" people who will nonetheless be involved in some kind of crime. Over time, the billionaire and his former government operator partner build a network of people to help prevent crime before it has a chance to happen. Of course, as the series goes on it becomes so much more. 

What's most impressive structurally about the series is how it pairs up its leads. In addition to the shadowy billionaire (Mr. Finch) and the ex-government agent (Mr. Reese), two NYPD detectives (Carter and Fusco) often serve as the "B-team" to provide additional intel and assistance. In season 3, another former agent (Shaw) and a scary-insane hacker (Root) join the group. While two or three characters work the 'number of the week', the others are involved in the B-plot that usually has implications for the season-long arc. Often, the procedural case will intersect with the metaplot in surprising ways. 

I don't think I've seen a show that has managed to balance its 'crime of the week' premise with its more serialized elements with quite such finesse. The two or three folks working a case will usually bond over the experience, reveal a personal detail or trauma, or synthesize recent events that pushes them forward. Meanwhile, the world around them grows increasingly complex, dangerous, and mysterious. Even though there are some *very* CBS elements in the first season or two, the writing is tight enough that you have a sense that the writers know what they're doing early on.

With King of the Hill, the stakes are a lot lower -- which makes sense for a slice-of-life cartoon focusing on a small-town Texas family and their neighbors. Each character in the Hill family is distinctive, with personalities that have benefits and drawbacks. Patriarch Hank is a Reagan Republican who can come across as the most boring man alive, but he is genuinely compassionate and cares a great deal about working hard and taking personal responsibility. His wife Peggy is the world's worst substitute Spanish teacher (who nonetheless has won the "Substitute Teacher of the Year" Award three years straight) who is driven, tenacious, and confident -- but also extremely gullible, prone to arrogance and judgemental behavior. Son Bobby is...one of the best child characters in adult animation ever. He is unabashedly weird, but moves through life with such unconcerned confidence that everyone else is practically forced to accept him as he is.

What makes King of the Hill so special is that so many characters are broken and unlikeable half the time, but the show treats them with a thoughtful respect that encourages you to love them despite (maybe because of) their flaws. Each of the side characters get episodes to shine, but their specific predicament reveals something universal about what it means to be a good member of a community and how, sometimes, ideals have to be set aside to deal with folks as they are.

It'd be nice to bring that spirit to Crushing The Competition, so I'll try to focus on building that sense of connection with the giants of Titan Northern. I'd love to bring the structural tightness of Person of Interest to a serial like Boundaries or even a revival of THE CULT OF MAXIMUS. It'll take a little bit to figure out exactly how to do this, but it's exciting to try. 

Well, I think I've rambled enough here. Stay tuned for the next chapter of the serial this week, and don't be afraid to let me know what you think! Until then, see you 'round the ranch, buckaroos!

• Jakebe