Lately, for various reasons of ennui, friends and I have been watching The Mentalist on TNT Monday nights.
It's not a bad show. Really, it isn't. But for some reason I have a persistent temporary amnesia about it, so that the moment it comes on, I think, "Huh. Robin Tunney has a cop show?" and then remember that yes, this is the show with the adorable guy in the vest.
But last night's episode, in which the titular hero confronts the man who killed his family, has prodded me to admit something I've known for a long time:
I HATE "A" PLOTS! HATE THEM HATE THEM ARGH ARGH ARGH...
Sorry.
I don't hate them in theory. In theory, the idea of a unifying thread tying a bunch of stories together is an excellent one. But too often they bog down good shows and take up time that could be spent on better-written episodic TV. Nearly every A plot in Heroes ended laughably with Nathan Petrelli getting shot; on Supernatural the Winchesters alternate between failing to stop the forces of evil and summering in Hades; and even Buffy the Vampire Slayer lost me when they pitted her against a god. (I am also that person who thinks The X-Files should have ignored the damned aliens: you knew there was one of us out there!) In practice, it seems, the A-plot structure is an invitation for the show to bite off way more than its writers and characters can ever properly chew.
...All of which, given that I'm freshly hooked on Haven, will probably turn to irony in a matter of months. Are there any other A-plot haters out there?
