As someone with improv training, seeing people shut down any critique of CCOD with "it's improv" or "it's comedy" as though they're interchangeable (they're not) drives me a bit nuts. (Please excuse all the italics, I'm using it for specific improv terms not emphasis.)
D20 is a comedic longform semi-improv show. Semi because the characters and setting are pre-planned and in many ways so is the plot.
Now, most of you know the basics of Yes, And.
What a lot of you don't seem to know is that rejecting part of the shared reality (for example ignoring an entire battle where your character's friends' lives are at risk) is called blocking/negation/denial and is generally frowned upon in improv, specifically because it halts the scene or, in worse cases, breaks the shared reality (the world, characters, and story built up in the scene - or full performance - so far).
Now, sometimes a performer will chose to deliberately engage in blocking for comic effect, this is called gagging when it's for comedy, but this must be done rarely. Unless, of course, one is doing a short form improv theatresport such as New Choice, where one player acting as umpire to constantly gag the players in the scene is the joke.
More often a shared reality will be redirected with a No, But which rejects an optional offer but still moves the scene along. (A good example of this done correctly for non-comic effect would be Ally as HJ responding to an offer from Lou as LaVonte of "don't try to stop me doing big things in the business world" with "I've never done that and you know I will always support you in that even if I don't do that anymore", because 99% of the time Ally Beardsley is one of the best improvisors on the show.)
Straight up full negation (for example ignoring that an evil AI of a dead billionaire has taken residence in your phone - that's all six players, btw - and proceeding to do a long bit about sending AI apology videos) almost never happens in professional improv and when it does it's usually because the offer (what the previous improvisor brought to the scene) was inappropriate or distressing. When it's not done because the previous offer was inappropriate, it's usually a sign that one improvisor is refusing to play cooperatively because they want to focus on their idea over the shared reality. And the problem with that, of course, is that it forces the other players to either Yes, And even if the offer was inappropriate or it breaks the shared reality. Generally speaking, when an improvisor does this, it is because they want to be the centre of attention in that moment or are acting out. And that usually happens because they feel like the other improvisors are not giving them enough offers or are blocking them (for example, Ally says in the Adventuring Party that dead clown sex came from panic at thinking their turn had been skipped and then not having anything to offer when they were put on the spot: they felt blocked, so they went and did their own thing ...which was not acceptable behaviour in improv, but which was understandable). To be very clear, this is almost always a sign that the whole group needs to do readjustment because the shared reality has become lopsided instead of cooperative.
Now, to be extremely clear, there is more gagging and blocking in the average Dimension 20 season than is normally acceptable in improv. Part of that is that it's a comedy show and part of that is the fact that the dice have the power to do a full negation whenever they happen to be rolled unfortunately. But this means it's actually crucial that the players don't engage in unnecessary denial of the shared reality.
What we see in the second half of the finale of CCOD - and frankly, for the last couple of episodes increasingly - is Brennan acknowledging that no one else in the show is accepting his offers from their shared reality anymore and accepting that he needs to jettison most of it or he becomes the one blocking.
But it never should have gotten to that stage.
There was a failure by Ally Beardsley to limit the amount of gagging and blocking they did.
There was a failure on part of ALL SIX Intrepid Heroes to remain in the shared reality and accept the offers of stakes and plot threads instead of responding with full negation.
And there was a failure on the part of Brennan, as the person primarily responsible for the non-improvised parts of the story, to manage the situation appropriately. It should not have fallen to Murph to give a full negation when Ally broke the shared reality. Brennan should have interjected with No, But and moved the scene along before that. Brennan should have responded to his players' obvious disinterest in his offers of Davis Otherman is a continuing and big threat by tying it off or making it a sequel problem instead of trying to force it in.
This is why I don't jive with people saying I should be disappointed in CCOD or critique it - or that it's unfair to specifically call out Ally Beardsley for the gagging and full negations because the other players Yes, Anded them.
Improv isn't a free for all. Improv is not uncontrollable. Improv has rules. Improv is a skill that requires immense control, cooperation, and knowledge.
And it's annoying that so many people are insisting that critique is not acceptable because "it's improv" when Brennan and Ally both said in Adventuring Party that things got out of hand.
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