Most TV and film works are not very realistic. Action, sci-fi, and fantasy pieces are obvious culprits – they constantly break the laws of physics! Comedies aren’t much better. In every comedy, the number of jokes per second is drastically increased over the real world; that’s why they call it comedy. Police, forensic, and law shows feature the protagonists solving problems completely impossible to their real-life counterparts. Typical ‘realistic’ dramas depend on coincidences, ‘plot twists’, unrealistically eloquent dialog, and lots of two-dimensional characters for the real characters to bounce off of. And so-called ‘reality’ shows are perhaps the most unrealistic of all.
Of course, there is a reason for all of this – real life is boring! We watch movies and TV shows to escape for reality or discover new insights about reality, not to see reality in its realistic boringness. So, common sense would say that few works will ever be really realistic, if the authors want anybody to watch it.
That said, I’ve always wanted to see something that is really realistic, that derives its insight not from plot contrivances (however subtle), not from ‘interesting’ characters, but by having a unique perspective on realistic situations. I suppose there are a few fictional ‘documentaries’, but I haven’t ever seen one that wasn’t overly bland.
So, I was excited after seeing the first two episodes of Anyone But Me. The first thing that I noticed was, that nothing really happens! Here’s the plot, spanning around fourteen minutes: There’s this girl. Her dad has a lung problem, thanks to being a firefighter during 9/11, so they have to leave New York. They move, she misses her girlfriend. She meets some new people.
The dialog is mostly rambling and information-sparse, just like real speech. A large amount of time is spent just watching her sit, or walk, thinking. That’s all there is too it!
Yet, somehow, it’s not boring. The characters are wonderful. I found myself was identifying with Vivian from the first 20 seconds; I really cared about what was happening to her. The slow pace is mostly just relaxing. After all, that’s often the pace that reality takes, especially when are going through a major life change. And the music, or rather the complete absence of music, allows the story to take place without distractions.
It’s basically the anti-soap opera. Soaps depend on crazy events, dramatic music, and insane characters to hold our attention. Anyone But Me seems to be relying on the absence of the above to tell us a story that we can really understand, really learn from.
Anyone But Me is off to a wonderful start. I hope they keep the mood they have set in these first two episodes, and resist the urge to turn it into another South of Nowhere!