Noodling about Ngozi’s story structure and pacing in Check Please
[Crossposted from Dreamwidth]
I love this comic; it’s warm and funny and doggedly optimistic, and just what I needed this year. This post is critical, though, and contains whining about missed opportunities. Monkey see, monkey overanalyze.
I’ve been frustrated with Year Three’s paucity of story, the story-to-panel ratio, and how frequently Ngozi misses chances to use her supporting cast to help tell Bitty’s story. It’s not that I need B-plots about the underclassmen for their own sake per se, even though I love them and would read novels about them. It’s that well-executed B-plots exist for a vital reason: to help tell A-plots, and give them depth and consequence via thematic parallels and contrasts.
So, Joss Whedon is a schmuck (disclaim, disclaim), but there’s one ancient interview quote of his that I still think about all the time. He said the most common note he gave to his writing staff on Buffy was, “Great Xander B-plot! Now go rewrite it so it’s relevant to Buffy’s story.” Everything that happens must tell us something about the protagonist. Everything in OMGCP must reveal something about Bitty…which is a much less restrictive order than it might seem at first, because it can reveal roads not taken, or foreshadow future problems, without even directly involving Bitty at all.
But because OMGCP barely has B-plots, Ngozi cannot use them for fun and profit! And, ironically, this makes her A-plot drag, because she just doesn’t have enough to talk about. Take 3x21, the eight-page farewell to the graduating seniors. It’s sweet and touching and, in concept, absolutely necessary to give these beloved characters a proper send-off. But in execution, it’s boring.
Stuff she absolutely had room for:
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