Ron Moore Created A Monster!

There's a story that Ron Moore told once (and come to think of it - may not of even been his idea) about how he was trying to write the BSG finale, and at the end of the day, he wrote something on the whiteboard of the writer's room that served as an epiphany.

It read "It's the characters, stupid!".

Now, I am not alone in thinking that, while Ron Moore knows how to tap dance with the best of them, his style of writing is lacking and quite immature. But this is not what I want to talk about.

Well, on second thought, it kind of is.

Now, I've defended Moore in the past when people who think audio commentaries are done as the writing occurs have lambasted him. I've never thought he was a genius, but I never thought he was a mental midget, either.

For a show such as Six Feet Under, this philosophy works. But for a labrynthian space epic? Would this work for Lost?

Anyhow, it bugs me because I heard this phrase uttered the other day, and the person who did the uttering was trying to pass it off as their own idea. Now I'm hearing Joss Whedon going "so that's how you do it".

I fear that the stuff the new writers are being taught, the people they look up to, are going to destroy them. J.J. Abrams, Whedon, Moore... all these names are currently going off the deep end in some way or another. Or they already have.

But Brian, you say, are you not a writer yourself? Well, yes, but I'm not yet in the industry.

"It's the characters, stupid" may sound smart, but at the end of the day, you don't need to tell an entire room of writers that like some jackass. They know. It may sound smart, but it is no more poignant nor wiser than someone telling you to stay off their lawn. It's a fun little ditty that you tell at parties.

I fear that the Deus ex Machina is going to become the new "smart" way to write, and that is bad news bears.