The Issues With Recent American Screenwriting
P.C. Pixabay
When it comes to more recent TV shows and movies, viewers agree that overall, there has been a general decline in the quality of writing. This comes down to two main issues: the characters and the plot, arguably some of the most important elements of storytelling.
Diversity has always been a huge problem in the screenwriting industry, and although we have improved, we still have a long way to go. When it comes to casting characters, people fall victim to whitewashing: people of color being cast with white actors or their lighter-skinned counterparts. Take the “Lilo and Stitch” live-action casting for instance. Nani, a main character and Lilo’s older sister, has dark skin, curly hair, and indigenous Hawaiian features in the original animated version of the movie. However, the actress chosen to portray her, Sydney Agudong, is light-skinned with straight, wavy hair. According to an article from the Washington Post, this casting has drawn a lot of controversy with Native Hawaiians stating that it is blatant colorism.
Alternatively when we do see more people of color casted in roles, there is also backlash as seen with the reaction to Halle Bailey as Ariel in “The Little Mermaid” (2023) and Leah Jeffries being casted as Annabeth Chase in “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” (2023). Rick Riordan, the author of the book series, “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” ended up having to release a public statement on May 10 defending Leah Jeffries and calling out online harassment and racism..
Additionally, characters of color can end up being tokenized, which refers to when diverse characters are inserted into TV shows and movies simply to claim they’re diverse. “Shadow and Bone” (2021) is an excellent example of this. When adapting the book, the producers decided to give the main character, Alina Starkov, a race change from a completely white to half-fantasy East Asian. However, as stated in a video essay by Chinese Canadian author Xiran Jay Zhao, without nuanced scenes and moments properly exploring her heritage or consistent societal worldbuilding regarding racism, the decision came off as shallow and insensitive. Actress America Ferrera says it best stating, “true diversity means writing characters that aren’t just defined by the color of their skin, and casting the right actor for the role.”
Another issue that is becoming increasingly prevalent is the lack of stakes in the plot of these movies and shows. All stories need stakes—consequences for the characters’ actions that are wonderful, light, horrific, or tragic, based on the genre—as they progress the story. It doesn’t matter how mundane the problem is, so long as the characters treat it as important. However, Disney’s recent releases don’t utilize this important story aspect, as shown in “Thor: Love and Thunder” (2022). “Thor: Love and Thunder” (2022) is about the Norse god of thunder embarking on a quest to find inner peace, but is forced out of retirement to fight Gorr the God Butcher alongside his friends, Valkyrie, the leader of New Asgard, and Jane Foster, who has taken up the hammer and cape in order to delay the spread of cancer in her body. It’s an interesting premise, but for many, the film felt like a hollow shell made out of ill-timed humor. In an article from the Los Angeles Times, film critic Justin Chang states that the movie “seeks to put Thor’s massive ego in check, give the franchise a gender-parity upgrade and renew some long-dormant romantic-comedy sparks. Unfortunately those aims are lost, or at least frustratingly under-realized, in a blur of flat-footed jokes and lazily schematic plot turns, plus the general sense of a franchise spinning its creative wheels”. Moments of vulnerability are traded for quippy one-liners, leaving fans disappointed. This movie could have been a hit filled with beloved characters, interesting worldbuilding, cute Easter Eggs, and silly humor, if only the humor was not so badly timed. Reviews from the film’s IMDb page state that it felt “enjoyable but empty.” There is a time for being goofy, and a time for being sincere. When characters are not allowed to be vulnerable, they end up coming across as two-dimensional and insensitive, they end up coming across as empty. This isn’t a one-time instance, either. A lot of Disney’s other recent productions have suffered from a lack of stakes like “The Book of Boba Fett” (2021) and “Obi-Wan Kenobi” (2022).
On the other hand, there are plenty of examples of good movies and TV shows that write the stakes of their plot really well, like the animated Barbie movies and Studio Ghibli films, “Gilmore Girls” (2000), “Three Idiots” (2009), “Andor” (2022), “RRR” (2022), “Barbie” (2023), and more. In “Three Idiots” (2009), three students at an Indian engineering college become best friends as they face the social pressures of the Indian education system. Two of the three students come from lower income families, so they are motivated to succeed by the fact that they excel in school and eventually support their families. In “Andor” (2022), the main character has to go on the run. His life and the lives of his community are put in danger by his previous actions, causing him to run away. He joins the Rebellion in robbing a military garrison as it will allow him to pay off his debts to his neighbors and move with his mother to somewhere safer. Despite “Three Idiots” (2009) being a comedy romance and “Andor” (2022) being a dystopian sci-fi action adventure, both have stakes which affect the decisions the characters make, driving the plot forward. As shown by the previous examples, actions need to have consequences appropriate for their genre that the characters feel. Otherwise why should the audience members care about the characters’ actions when they have no impact on the story?
Characters and stakes can make or break a movie or show. If at least one is well-written or designed, it can make the production very enjoyable for the audience. Ultimately, this proves why we need to encourage writers to do so in future media.
