There are many “learned” egg heads out there who will give you rules and charts for ranking that which gets shown on television. Not surprisingly, most of the really popular shows rank really low when it comes to writing. I guess that is why we can enjoy weekend “marathons” of said shows because people have an incredible ability to consume oatmeal. Don’t get me wrong, I love the NCIS stuff. I even watch some of the marathons on USA network. In truth I didn’t start watching the show until after I started watching the marathons on USA. Let’s be honest though, the show exists because of the actors and the characters, not the writing. The writers didn’t create “team Tiva” the actors and their fans did.
I have a simple rule to determine great writing on a show. Do you remember a particular scene, story, or sub-story years later? I’m not talking about a single line scene such as Dinozo’s “Turkey Vulture” comment and explanation. Rather, I’m talking about the entire thing.
For some reason this morning I remembered the line, then the entire sub story of “My shoes are too tight.” This started out looking like one of those throw away single episode stories of which Babylon 5 have so many. They exist in a long running television show so new viewers have something to enjoy while they are piecing together what it is they didn’t see.
A pair of teenage lovers, one or more somehow distant relatives of Vir Cotto show up at the station having run away from arranged marriages because they were in love with each other. Long time viewers assumed this story was there for comic relief. It ends up colliding with another story about a Mimbari poet with a great exchange. Lando Mollari goes into one of his typical tempter tantrums declaring “Bah! Love! They will learn to live without it!” only to have the Mimbari poet shoot him out of the saddle by finishing that rant with “As you did Ambassador Mollari.” Classic. Everyone liked to see Lando get slapped once in a while.
Quite unexpectedly, later in the show Lando is out in the little flower garden area they had, all sad and possibly even weeping. Vir comes to check on him and Lando responds “My shoes are too tight.” After some exchanges Lando tells Vir a story about finding his father weeping during his childhood. The only time he had seen him cry. When he asked his father about it he said “My shoes are too tight, but that is okay because I have forgotten how to dance.”
That scene near the end of a throw a way story had managed to completely explain the sad little existence which was Lando Mollari. His shoes were too tight and he had forgotten how to dance. Those not following the retelling of this should really watch the episode. What the writing so eloquently conveyed was not only the sad little tale of Lando, but a warning for all in life. You can become too caught up in what is “expected”. You can focus too much on your career and what others will think. Once you go down that path you forget how to find joy in life. Your shoes are too tight and you don’t care because you have forgotten how to dance.
