When structure falls apart- That 70s Show

     I love a good twist in the story, but after reading the All Stories are the Same article by John Yorke I'm wondering if what I had previously considered a surprising turn is actually very structured and even expected in a way. Thinking about it further, I usually like when some surprise event brings characters together and reinforces my mental plan for them which makes a lot of sense as to why a twist would be added in a film. In fact, I think when they produce serial shows or novels on a certain time crunch or budget this twist can almost be a cop-out to profound character development.

    There are also situations where the unexpected can go horribly wrong and it might be because the new episodes don't follow the rules mentioned by Yorke. I was pretty late to watching That 70s Show but I put it on a couple months ago after reading the description, thinking it took place within the main character's high school. It actually took place in Eric's basement but I was pleasantly surprised with the humor and aesthetics from the start which had me hooked on the show, I was soon committed to the storyline as well. I binged the first couple of seasons and got less interested when their years of high school were coming to a close but there were many episodes left. At this point, it felt like the writers had exhausted the plot and I think that can be applied to any really long show. I still wanted to know what was left and had an attachment to the characters so I scoured the internet only to find that the last season was apparently horrible. I skipped through a couple episodes and they were right! My favorite character Jackie ended up with someone she had no interest in for any other season and the focus character Eric wasn't even in most of it. This season was "surprising" but in a bad way that completely broke the established structure.