I was very disappointed yesterday to read several tweets from writers slagging off Outcasts after it was moved from a Monday night slot to a Sunday. Come on writers, whatever your feelings towards the program, slagging it off, laughing or making jokes at its falling ratings is just plain rude.
What if it was your series that everyone was slagging off? How would you feel then? You can be sure Outcasts' creator Ben Richards is feeling bad enough without you heaping more misery on him by doing this. Constructive criticism is a good thing and should be encouraged, but there is no place in our industry for slagging off, or just being plain rude about another writer's work. There are too many others out there who have it in for us writers to begin with. Have a bit of respect, a bit of compassion for a fellow writer who dared to try something different.
The series may have its faults (I will blog about this issue in greater detail next week), but it is bold, ambitious and daring, something good TV should be. Please don't forget that without writers like Ben trying new things we would be stuck with the same endless, repetitive, boring stuff forever. Without challenging ourselves, or our writing, there really would be nothing out there for us. As writers you should know that sometimes things work and at other times things don't. You should also know that TV is a collaborative process and many factors bring changes to original scripts.
As writers you should know better.
1 comment:
In this situation it's always the writer that gets the blame. It may not entirely be his fault. Producers and directors can, and often do, tweek storylines or characters which has a snowball-like knock-on effect for the whole story or series.
If a series goes well it's often the producer(s) and/or director who get the plaudits. When it goes badly it's often the writer that gets the blame with cries of 'the actors/director did their best with such dreadful material'.
I saw the first episode and wasn't thrilled, and with the shift in time-slot it looks as if I wasn't alone in that, but I agree that the blame or 100% of the criticism shouldn't be heaped at the writer's door. Especially not if it's just sniping, cutting comments.
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