Psychoville - Series 1 Page 42

Quote: Aaron @ August 1 2009, 1:25 PM BST

Why would they keep going ahead? Unless I missed something, for all we know they could still have been 10 miles from the hospital. There could have been a house or garage they'd passed a short distance back. Ok, so there wasn't any mention of such a place, but there's equally no explanation as to why they'd continue.

Because it's logic - they were heading somewhere specific. We were lead to believe they were going to the Hospital, but if they were actually heading to Grandma's it makes no difference. She had him in the car so why drive past the place she wanted to take him to and then let the petrol run dry? To my eyes it's not characters doing odd things, it's a programme badly put together - which is at odds with the amount of care put into other parts of it.

Quote: Aaron @ August 1 2009, 1:25 PM BST

Because she thought she'd now saved him, as a nurse knew that there was nothing she could do but wait, and didn't think that there was any danger of Nicola doing ... anything.

No way. In earlier scenes she'd punch anyone who grabbed him; her whole life revolved around him. She was loopy - not a nurse from Holby City. This was her dream and what she'd wished for - she'd really just wander off just as he is about to 'get better'?

Quote: Aaron @ August 1 2009, 1:25 PM BST

In every episode we learned something new. The locket wasn't answered, no, but even without a second series there's no reason it should be. It leaves the ending as ambiguously open as it started. To have it neatly wrapped up wouldn't have sat with the rest of the show.

The locket wasn't answered because they only dropped it in for the last showdown to get Series 2. It was certainly at odds with the rest of the show - totally incongruous and another glaring hole. Kenchington survived the fire minus the locket but everyone - including her son - thought she'd died, so she herself would have had to arrange something for the burial surely? So why would she think it was in the coffin?

Quote: Aaron @ August 1 2009, 1:25 PM BST

Where do you get that from? Yeah they may very well be in a hypothetical second series, but there is no reason at all why they would be central.

As I say, just taking it all at face value - on that basis everyone else blew up, leaving them with the locket. I suppose we can deduce that someone survived the explosion or there'll be nobody to chase them for it. But if the locket is the main driver for the second series and they are the ones that have it, it's a safe bet to assume they'll be fairly central to the future.

But it really is a bit of a let down - any plot holes can be magicked away if you invent alibis, back stories and thought processes to explain away characters' actions, but they are actually *mistakes*. The answers should be in the programme, not in your head. Every viewer will have a different idea of what they've just watched. I find it hard to believe they planned it like that given that the League was so much smoother.

What I expected from this was a series of plots drawing tighter into a finale. It never seemed to come together really, and when it did, it seemed to fall apart a bit more at the same time.

Lots of series leave things on a knife edge at the end of a series, but not with a plot device lobbed in during the last 5 minutes.

Edited by Aaron.

Quote: Sal Paradise @ August 1 2009, 6:45 PM BST

It's actually not as messy as you'd think...depending on the height. I once saw someone jump off a bridge (onto a street) and there wasn't even any blood.

Yikes.

(I wouldn't want to see it in real life, you understand. Just a realistic fake one...)

Do they bounce?
Do they liquefy?
Do they come apart or stay in one piece?

Quote: Maurice Minor @ August 1 2009, 7:05 PM BST

it's a programme badly put together - which is at odds with the amount of care put into other parts of it.

The people who made it aren't idiots, I'm sure we all agree on that. I would say anything that ended up in the final cut of the show was very much meant to be there, and had been thought about and deliberated over thoroughly.

Quote: Maurice Minor @ August 1 2009, 7:05 PM BST

it's a programme badly put together

Uhm. Right.

Quote: Maurice Minor @ August 1 2009, 7:05 PM BST

on that basis everyone else blew up

We don't know who, if anyone, ended up being blown up, they all could have survived. WE DON'T KNOW.

Quote: Maurice Minor @ August 1 2009, 7:05 PM BST

- any plot holes can be magicked away if you invent alibis, back stories and thought processes to explain away characters' actions,

The things you've mentioned aren't plot holes.

Quote: zooo @ August 1 2009, 7:10 PM BST

Yikes.

(I wouldn't want to see it in real life, you understand. Just a realistic fake one...)

Do they bounce?
Do they liquefy?
Do they come apart or stay in one piece?

The most shocking story I heard along those lines was about a stunt pilot in the 1930s. He fell out of his plane and when they found him, he was standing straight up in a field.

It wasn't until they got closer that they realised his shin bones went through the heels of his feet and kept him upright. Before you ask, he was killed instantly.

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ August 1 2009, 7:47 PM BST

It wasn't until they got closer that they realised his shin bones went through the heels of his feet and kept him upright. Before you ask, he was killed instantly.

Oh my GOD.

When I was a med student doing my neurosurgery placement, an ambulance brought in a motorcyclist who flown head-first into a lamp-post on the central reservation of the A3, whilst going about 100mph. When we took his helmet off, the top half of his skull came off in one perfect piece, containing most of his brain. Rather like slicing the top off a hard-boiled egg.

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ August 1 2009, 7:47 PM BST

The most shocking story I heard along those lines was about a stunt pilot in the 1930s. He fell out of his plane and when they found him, he was standing straight up in a field.

It wasn't until they got closer that they realised his shin bones went through the heels of his feet and kept him upright. Before you ask, he was killed instantly.

I vividly remember hearing that story, many years ago. I think he was doing a stunt where he was supposed to climb onto the wing, but he hit something on his way up breaking his ribs, which meant he couldn't pull himself up, and he either had to let go or be crushed by the plane as it came into land.

The mental image of a corpse standing in the field has stayed with me ever since.

Quote: Maurice Minor @ August 1 2009, 7:05 PM BST

Because it's logic

Weird bonkers land logic.

Quote: Maurice Minor @ August 1 2009, 7:05 PM BST

She had him in the car so why drive past the place she wanted to take him to and then let the petrol run dry?

I don't recall the excuse and reasoning she got him into the car in the first place and where she said they were going, but he could have objected had she purposely pulled up outside this funny-looking dark little cottage.

Quote: Maurice Minor @ August 1 2009, 7:05 PM BST

No way. In earlier scenes she'd punch anyone who grabbed him; her whole life revolved around him. She was loopy - not a nurse from Holby City. This was her dream and what she'd wished for - she'd really just wander off just as he is about to 'get better'?

Yes, she would.

Quote: Maurice Minor @ August 1 2009, 7:05 PM BST

The locket wasn't answered because they only dropped it in for the last showdown to get Series 2. It was certainly at odds with the rest of the show - totally incongruous and another glaring hole.

Make up your mind! It's a hole OR it was purposely dropped in and left unanswered. Can't be both.

Quote: Maurice Minor @ August 1 2009, 7:05 PM BST

As I say, just taking it all at face value - on that basis everyone else blew up

The only way you could accept that everyone in there was killed by the explosion is if that's the only scene you'd watched in the whole series. In every section of every episode previously, things haven't been as they seemed. Why are you suddenly expecting it to be so now?

Quote: Maurice Minor @ August 1 2009, 7:05 PM BST

But if the locket is the main driver for the second series and they are the ones that have it, it's a safe bet to assume they'll be fairly central to the future.

Fair point there. Although again that's assuming that the locket does turn out to be central!

Quote: Maurice Minor @ August 1 2009, 7:05 PM BST

But it really is a bit of a let down - any plot holes can be magicked away if you invent alibis, back stories and thought processes to explain away characters' actions, but they are actually *mistakes*.

Or if you just watch the previous 6 freaking episodes and see the behaviour of the characters and the twisted existences they inhabit.

Quote: Maurice Minor @ August 1 2009, 7:05 PM BST

The answers should be in the programme, not in your head.

In a programme of this nature no sane person can possibly expect every single last niggly point, line of speech and visual trigger to be fully answered.

Yep. It's a comedy show not a science experiment or a math problem. Just watch it and get over it. Everything collapses under close enough scrutiny. Do you go to art galleries and stand with your nose against the painting and say "Hey, this is just a bunch of splotches, it doesn't make sense"

Quote: Aaron @ August 1 2009, 1:07 PM BST

You evidently really, really don't.

I do. I've watched TLOG and I get that, and I get this perfectly. And I think it was missing some stuff plot-wise.

Quote: Aaron @ August 1 2009, 1:07 PM BST

Yeahh... Errr

What? That's perfectly reasonable! Joy is deranged, George goes to hospital, finds Nicola missing, asks if anyone's seen her, they say they saw an ambulance heading towards "that old abandoned place", George heads for Ravenhill. Simple.

Quote: Aaron @ August 1 2009, 10:39 PM BST

Or if you just watch the previous 6 freaking episodes and see the behaviour of the characters and the twisted existences they inhabit.

I did thanks. And each episode left more gaps instead of filling them; there were so many odd moments I wondered how they could all be relevant to the plot and if they'd answer them all in the final episode. Well they didn't bother. As you may gather, I found this utterly frustrating. It doesn't make sense, there was little logic to many bits and characters behave 'out of character'. The League of Gents was a labour of love and honed over many years - and it showed. This was missing two good writers and was an attempt to be clever, but for me was ultimately unfulfilling. Maybe some people watch shows and don't notice glaring omissions - I do notice them. You may enjoy a show where you have to use your own imagination to suppose what a character did for 5 minutes and imagine why they did it but I find it irritating and lazy. Too many questions arose that can only be speculated about - I want to know what happens in a programme, not what other viewers thought had probably happened but not been shown.

Some people will enjoy it and think it's fun and mysterious. Some will think it's just poorly planned or badly edited, or just overstretched.

Tomato / Tomayto...