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We all know the simple structure of a good story, a plot and a subplot. All the best stories ever told rest on that skeleton. The A stories are the myths and legends, the ones that supersede culture. The B stories are what entertain us while we learn. But as we saw with EC Comics, with Jim Thompson novels, with Poverty Row cinema, sometimes these B-stories of our time's media are artifacts of beauty. When's the first time you ever remember hearing of Pottery Barn? If you're like a huge swathe of America and surrounding markets, you'll say it was an episode of Friends. If you're not at all like most, you can possibly even name the episode (Season 6, Episode 11, aired January 6 2000) and that the title is properly "The One With the Apothecary Table" and not "The One With Pottery Barn." Every one of them, though, can give you a brief synopsis of the plot: Rachel buys a table from Pottery Barn, lies to Phoebe that it's a real antique, Phoebe loves it until she finds out it's Pottery Barn. That's what everyone remembers about that episode, and that's a shame because the B-story was at least as good, or better. The character of Janine came along late in the series when it had already become airless. She was played by bonafide supermodel Elle McPherson as the ultimate in unobtainable fantasy, the soft Poictesme of Joey's prayers, the melting Oz of his oblations. In this episode, she finally agrees to a date with Joey; a double-date with Monica and Chandler. As a setup, it's straight out of Moliere. The jokes fly thick and fast, but each one has a sting in the tail. If you read the bare script, the words before the sugaring of studio laughter, they are pure and brutal commedia dell'arte, with an occasional side trip to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. quote:Monica: Joey! Why is Janine not coming over for dinner?! quote:Joey: So uh, what are you guys doing? It's all naked unpleasantness and aggression, a fascinating contrast to the A-story, which resolves peacefully when Phoebe covets a Pottery Barn lamp in a Manhattan store window. And that's what it's remembered for. So, what are your favorite forgotten B-stories? *Some interesting trivia: that episode is considered a masterpiece of product placement that is still driving sales. According to the CEO of Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn's parent company, "phones light up with catalog requests every time it airs" in syndication. bonestructure fucked around with this message at 00:15 on Oct 20, 2014 |
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Oct 19, 2014 23:06
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 19:00 |
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I always liked How I Met Your Mother's running gag of "What the gently caress does Barney actually do for a living" and then finally explaining it in a late episode. Really, all of HIMYM is an exercise in B-plots and minor characters being way more interesting than Ted.
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Oct 20, 2014 14:00
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Happy Endings was another one like that. I never cared much about the Alex and Dave will they/won't they stuff and a show as self-aware as Happy Endings eventually blew that off effectively, but I always liked every other character and their shenanigans way better than Alex and Dave.
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Oct 20, 2014 17:13
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I think sitcoms that have boring leads tend to do much better with their B-Plots. There's a bunch of Marshall/Lilly (Before they got to be insufferable) stuff from early HIMYM that's a lot better than whatever Ted is doing. Same goes for New Girl, and Happy Endings. I think it's because the A Plots tend to get the emotional lesson at the end, usually with a speech of some sort. B-Plots are usually just comedy focussed and just have to worry about being funny. To that end, are there any subplots in dramas that are generally better than whatever the main plot is?
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Oct 20, 2014 19:40
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The sitcom structure led to some really weird inversions of that principle, like Hogan's Heroes. There the A plot is just a loose assemblage of gags around whatever's the theme of the episode, while the B plot, consistently, is about escaping from a loving Nazi POW camp.
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Oct 21, 2014 02:02
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I feel like MTV Dramas for Teens that I enjoy, almost across the board, are really good at B plots. The one that springs to mind is Sadie's life in Awkward. Jenna's stuff is good enough, but Sadie is really complex for Bully Character.
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Oct 22, 2014 05:24
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