In season four, they had a real problem with too much telling(people say 'show, don't tell', but the truth is you need some telling -- all show is just as tedious). Like, remember how every episode ended with a super awkward scene on the side of the road, where it was really unclear why they'd pulled over at all, and then Dean would look into the camera and just tell the audience about his feelings?
That's a great example of bad telling.
Compare that to 'Bloodlust' in season two. Even back when it was first airing and we had no idea what John had said to Dean, it was REALLY obvious that the whole ep was about Dean worrying about having to possibly kill Sam. The whole episode had that as subtext, while never directly stating it. It showed us all the characters emotional states and all the metaphors going on, without ever needing someone to look into the camera and say 'I'm sad because my dad told me I might have to kill my little brother.'
Typically, 'telling' has a very inorganic feel. It's where the audience feels like the author is just talking to them, informing them of what they need to know. Any time there's exposition dialogue, where one character is telling another character something they already know, because the audience needs to be instructed(ie, a scene where one computer tech says to another 'Well, as you know, if you connect the ____ to the ____, it'll cause blah blah blah', where you're just like "...okay, people don't talk like that. If he 'knows', why did you just tell him? That dialogue was clearly there to inform *me*, not the characters.") that's 'telling.'
Showing is more organic. It has a more natural feel to it. The audience is informed of things without ever having it spoken to them. Describing someone sobbing is 'showing.' Saying 'He was sad.' is 'telling.'
Now, telling isn't always bad. You can have a good 'telling' scene by setting one character up as an expert and another as a novice. In Star Wars, having Ben Kenobi explain the force to another Jedi would have seemed weird and unnatural -- after all, why would two Jedis explain the force to each other? But having him explain it to Luke, who has no idea what it is, informs both Luke and the audience in a way that feels normal.
So telling isn't always bad. It just needs to be used sparingly and in the right circumstances.
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Date: 2012-01-17 07:58 am (UTC)In season four, they had a real problem with too much telling(people say 'show, don't tell', but the truth is you need some telling -- all show is just as tedious). Like, remember how every episode ended with a super awkward scene on the side of the road, where it was really unclear why they'd pulled over at all, and then Dean would look into the camera and just tell the audience about his feelings?
That's a great example of bad telling.
Compare that to 'Bloodlust' in season two. Even back when it was first airing and we had no idea what John had said to Dean, it was REALLY obvious that the whole ep was about Dean worrying about having to possibly kill Sam. The whole episode had that as subtext, while never directly stating it. It showed us all the characters emotional states and all the metaphors going on, without ever needing someone to look into the camera and say 'I'm sad because my dad told me I might have to kill my little brother.'
Typically, 'telling' has a very inorganic feel. It's where the audience feels like the author is just talking to them, informing them of what they need to know. Any time there's exposition dialogue, where one character is telling another character something they already know, because the audience needs to be instructed(ie, a scene where one computer tech says to another 'Well, as you know, if you connect the ____ to the ____, it'll cause blah blah blah', where you're just like "...okay, people don't talk like that. If he 'knows', why did you just tell him? That dialogue was clearly there to inform *me*, not the characters.") that's 'telling.'
Showing is more organic. It has a more natural feel to it. The audience is informed of things without ever having it spoken to them. Describing someone sobbing is 'showing.' Saying 'He was sad.' is 'telling.'
Now, telling isn't always bad. You can have a good 'telling' scene by setting one character up as an expert and another as a novice. In Star Wars, having Ben Kenobi explain the force to another Jedi would have seemed weird and unnatural -- after all, why would two Jedis explain the force to each other? But having him explain it to Luke, who has no idea what it is, informs both Luke and the audience in a way that feels normal.
So telling isn't always bad. It just needs to be used sparingly and in the right circumstances.