An Ode to the Stories I Never Finished

With the massive rise in popularity for television shows and gaming in just this year alone thanks to quarantine, it is easy to think that longform storytelling is sort of the new stage in evolution for narrative and art, but it really isn't. 

I went into this ramble thinking I was going to talk about the unique qualities games and shows have when it comes to long form story telling and list some of the games (and a couple of shows) that I never finished that I also love talking about. It was there that I realized that almost every medium involves some sort of lengthy time investment with some investments more subtle than others. 

Of course I am still going to list some games I have never finished, but it isn't a ramble without me getting sidetracked. 

An obvious example of long form storytelling in a medium outside of games and television would be the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you were around when the first Iron Man was released and stayed all the way through Endgame, you invested more than ten years into a series of movies. If you are wrestling fan during the Monday Night Wars, you were apart of a story that lasted about six years. Even in pop music, if you are a fan of a musician that is still releasing content, in a way you are investing time into a story of an artist as they shift and grow in a society you are also apart of. 

There are also long books and book series but who honestly reads anymore?

Hell, forget about commitments that can last days, months, or years. Stories that only last a couple of hours is still quite a commitment. A common term in economics is opportunity cost, and yeah sitting down and watching a movie or a play is quite the opportunity cost. I can't tell you the number of times I am watching a bad movie thinking to myself "I could be doing dishes, answering emails, or doing literally anything else." 

I think what I am leading to is that the why we stop investing into something can be just as interesting as finishing a narrative itself regardless if it was long or short. With that in mind, I will like to try my hand and listing 10 things I am dying to talk about but was always afraid to because I didn't 'finish' them. We tend to be down on people who give opinions on shows they never finish. I myself prefer if someone has finished a story before really giving their thoughts on a piece. But sometimes, that opinion could have some worth. I guess it just depends on how they give those thoughts, but I digress: 

Number 10: Death Stranding

You can say that this game was the reason I wanted to do this blog. I played this earlier this year and stopped almost immediately after the first chapter. This game had a lot going for it. It was Kojima's first original project since the Metal Gear Solid series. It had a unique core gameplay mechanic that wasn't based on combat which I am a huge proponent of. 

However, it didn't take long before I realized those two promising features would come with a giant asterisk. Because it was Kojima game, it would have cutscenes. And you would think he would learn from Metal Gear Solid 4 that overly long and poorly written cutscenes kill pacing the same way serial killers kill prostitutes. I couldn't stand the cutscenes. I was patient with Kojima in MGS4, but I couldn't bare through it again with Death Stranding which arguably gives less reason for you to sit down and watch the scenes play out. I want to experience the story of Death Stranding god damnit! Why would make me put up with this crap?

Kojima's writing is the equivalent of a high schooler who has some good ideas but can't seem to execute basic writing techniques to make his ideas have a real impact. I love some of the ideas he has done over the years. Metal Gear Solid 2 specifically stands as my favorite Metal Gear game for that reason. It's unique, daring, but it also has something to say. And I am only being vague with describing MGS2 because being specific would A.) spoil the incredible ending and B.) leave you with more questions than answers. Of course, MGS2 is far from perfect, but it is interesting.

That's why despite its dumb high school flaws, I engage with Kojima's stories, and I want to do the same with Death Stranding. It's a shame that I can't because the cutscenes are too much for me. 

Number 9: Outer Worlds

I noticed a trend with me that I have a tough time finishing sci-fi RPGs. I think the only real exception was the original Mass Effect, but that's it. I guess you can include the Dishonored and Bioshock series, but I have a tough time counting those as sci-fi RPGs for reasons I won't go into, but I digress. Every other sci-fi RPG that I have attempted ended with me stopping for some reason. There is Deus Ex Human Revolution, Fallout 3, Shadowrun and XCOM Enemy Unknown. 

Outer Worlds is the most recent example of this which is why it's on this list. I can't say this game is bad aside from some horrible glitches, but I cannot understand the appeal of this game. The game tries too hard to be satirical and funny. The RPG mechanics are overbearing and don't give a sense that they add anything. There is no pacing nor any stakes as to why you should care about this world. It just feels bland. 

Now that explains Outer Worlds, but what about the other sci-fi RPGS? In fact, there is a lot of sci-fi that I can't get into. For example, I have a tough time getting into William Gibson books. I think Black Mirror is overrated as hell. I know that sci-fi notoriously has a high barrier of entry, but it's not like I didn't enjoyed sci-fi in the past. I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is one of my favorite point and click adventure games. Virtues Last Reward is one of my favorite games ever! I love me the occasional Star Trek TOS episode, and I think Hitchhikers Guide doesn't get enough credit for its sci-fi world. 

I suppose what that means is that certain sci-fi tropes speak better to me when its elements are more subdued. I love world building but I don't like the overbearing detail seen in William Gibson. I love the themes in sci-fi but I don't like the surface level garbage Black Mirror touts as deep. And I like sci-fi video games, but I don't like how RPG mechanics are implemented in most sci-fi games. As for why I like the original Mass Effect...I don't know. I guess I like sexxy gurls.  

  

Number 8: Spacechem

Ok, I have soften you guys up with popular games, so let's talk about a game that is obscure as shit assuming you aren't subscribed to Matthewmatosis. 

Spacechem is a puzzle game where you automate and bond chemicals, and it is stupid fun. It sounds boring, but I can assure you it has so much going for it. Frankly, I don't have much to add to the conversation. I will just end up repeating what Matthewmatosis has said on the game, so I would suggest just watching his videos on the subject. Link is here...

Screenshot of the game. Yeah I know it's a lot. Trust me it's good. 

But what I will say on Spacechem is that it is hard! The way I play Spacechem is as follows: I start a new game after going months without playing it. I feel like a mad scientist as I go through the easy puzzles. I feel even more like a mad scientist as I pass the point that I initially got stuck on. And finally, I get stuck to the point where I stop playing for a while. Rinse and repeat. 

There is nothing more satisfying than solving a Spacechem puzzle, so I suppose it is a good thing that I still got plenty left in the main campaign and that each puzzle gets progressively more difficult. I will be riding this high for a while as I savor easily one of the best puzzle games I have ever played. 

Number 7: Prince of Persia Sands of Time

I love this game. Really, I honestly can't tell you a single bad thing about this game. So why didn't I finish this game? well.... fuck if I should know. 

This is one of those games where I will play it, and then stop. Then because I have a huge affinity and respect for the game, I will start from scratch when I get back on it. Rinse and repeat. I have done this at least twice, and I don't know why I can't bring myself to finish it other than general laziness. 

Besides maybe the repetitive combat, the game is as close to perfect as you can get. The writing is some of the best AAA gaming has to offer. The platforming controls are smooth as butter. And aesthetically, it is one of the best looking games ever with its beautiful Middle Eastern environments. 

Sometimes there are no explanations as to why someone doesn't finish something, and this is one of them. Let's move on...

Number 6/5: Dexter & Game of Thrones

These next two entries make a great companion piece in this discussion. See if you can catch it. 

I don't talk about this show often even though I consider Dexter very inspiring. Dexter Morgan's monologues inspired me to start journal writing since I started mimicking Dexter's cadence in my inner monologue, and I knew I had to put some of this narration onto paper. Dexter's first season is a master class in telling a season wide arc and is a show I look at when I need help writing something needing character and structure. 

It's safe to say that the first season of Dexter is one of the best seasons of television, but I can't say the same for the later seasons. I was warned that each season gets progressively worse, and they were right. The plot started to become more over the top, and the subtly was fading more and more. I stopped after season 3 because I couldn't bare seeing such an important show for me getting any worse. Unfortunately, I had to pack it in. 

I also don't talk about Game of Thrones despite liking a lot of elements of it. And while this show isn't personally important to me, it is important to a lot of people. Heck, it is important to television in general. That said, I only finished the first season. I heard the same warnings where it gets worse after a certain point, so I didn't want to bother with a show that I know will have an unfortunate fate. I've heard different answers as to the exact season, but the general consensus I've read is after the fourth season is where the show starts going downhill. 

My commitments to GoT and Dexter feel a lot like dating. In both cases, they were girls that I had amazing first dates with yet both had people telling me they were psycho. In Dexter's case, I ignored those warnings and proceeded to get into a relationship only to see the early warning signs. It's a good thing I left when I did. In GoT's case, those same people gave me the warning to avoid this bitch at all costs, and I followed their advice. Now, I am watching other people date Game of Thrones and breath a sigh of relief as I see this girl wreck other people's lives. 

Take my advice, date someone like Breaking Bad or Mystery Incorporated. They are nice girls. 

Number 4: Grand Theft Auto IV

I never got caught up in the free roaming appeal of running grandmothers over in the large cities of GTA, and I definitely never got caught up in GTA's overly long story campaigns. Even San Andreas, the only GTA campaign that I actually kind of enjoyed, I couldn't bring myself to finish it. I am highlighting four as that one holds a special place in my heart as the first game I described as overrated. So as a contrarian, GTA IV was a special moment for me.

A game about running grandmothers over took itself way too seriously leaving a game with a boring brown presentation and a lack of personality. It also has the most interruptions out of all the GTA games I have played with the incessant phone calls. SO MANY PHONE CALLS.

It wasn't until GTA V that I realized I am just not into GTA as a franchise. Somehow though, I manage to beat GTA V. I couldn't tell you why. In fact, I couldn't tell you anything about GTA V's campaign since it was so forgettable. The only thing I can say is that it is the first and only GTA game I finished. I wish I can say the same for the others.

Number 3: Silent Hills (P.T)

So we talked about the stuff I never finished, but what about the situations where the opposite happens. What happens when a creator never finishes a story they set out to make?

We all had that show canceled or that cult game without a sequel that we hold so dear. For me, it was Freaks and Geeks. However, the difference between Freaks and Geeks and number three on this list is that I have accepted the fate of Freaks and Geeks. It sucked, but after a while I accepted and move on that Freaks and Geeks won't get a second season. I can live without a second season of Freaks and Geeks, but I am still not over Silent Hills. 

P.T was evidence that Silent Hills was going to be special based on the fact that P.T already became one of the most interesting games of the last decade. A demo was more interesting than some full released titles. This is not like Firefly season 2 where the qualities of the story is left to the imaginations of the audience. P.T showed that Silent Hills could have been something great. Granted, it might have been marred by Kojima's aforementioned cutscenes, but let's imagine that it wouldn't have been as bad as Death Stranding. 

It's a tragedy Silent Hills got a fate made by what was essentially greedy and incompetent businessmen. To quote Del Toro, "it's not gonna happen, and that breaks my greasy heart." Oh yeah, did I mention bloody horror genius, Guillermo Del Toro was on the project? God, I am never going to get over this one.  

Number 2: Professional Wrestling

I mentioned wrestling already, but that is only the tip of the iceberg with this giant of long form story telling. The Monday Night Wars lasted SIX YEARS yet that is only a sliver of WWE as a whole. WWE alone is never ending content. It's safe to say the Professional Wrestling shouldn't even be consider television anymore but rather an entire medium on its own. Even if you somehow managed to watch every WWE storyline, you still got Japan pro wrestling which has its fair share of interesting narratives. 

Professional wrestling is an anomaly as a medium as it blends both qualities of entertainment and sports. And like sports, while I have stopped watching professional wrestling because it is a slog to keep up with, I do like indulging in video essays and documentaries about the subject. It's a great substitute than watching something that will clearly outlive me. 

Number 1: Love 

If I had a Top 5 for TV shows, I imagine it would be as follows: The Last Airbender, Breaking Bad, Atlanta Mystery Incorporated, and Love. What makes Love different? Well, it is the only show out of these five that I still haven't finished. It's not like it is as long as professional wrestling. It's only 34 episodes over the course of three seasons. Nor is the show bad. I mean obviously not if it is one of my favorite shows. Granted, I can't speak for seasons two and three. 

This show is very much like Prince of Persia. It is a great story that I simply never got around to finishing. However, unlike Prince of Persia, I have a reason why I am hesitant on continuing Love.

Love is a tough watch especially if you have social anxiety. It's about as realistic as a love story can get. It's awkward, slow, vulnerable, and it's tender because of that. This is not a comfort show like School Rumble. It is a show that is demanding as you wallow in the in the lives of what feels like real people. 

I haven't looked up the reviews for the later seasons because I hope to one day continue this show. However, I am also afraid to continue because I don't want to be disappointed. I guess I have commitment issues. I don't want these characters that I love to have a bad ending. 

Investment in a story is weird. We like to think we are above the parasocial relationships or visceral emotions that come from something that is mostly fictional, but a little investment can add value to something that in the end doesn't mean anything in the grand schemes of the universe, and that's fine. 

Art is simultaneously the most and least important things in our society. It is an anomaly that always keeps me up at night. But harkening back to my blog where I talk about why we choose what things are our favorite things, it is important to note that the things we love are valid simply because we choose them to be. That also applies similarly to what we invest time in.. To quote an Internet adage, "it means nothing but we assigned value to it anyway" in regard to humanity doing anything that doesn't tangibly improve our society, our social circles, or even our personal lives. 

In a year where it is important to appreciate the little things, I learned a valuable lesson in learning to smell the roses. I learned to love my favorite things without overthinking as to why they are my favorite things. I learned to respect the things I never finished without judging myself for never finishing them. Yeah there is a little bit of tragedy to the things that are unfinished. But to look at it optimistically, those unfinished things can also serve to highlight the finished. And hey, I'm blessed to be currently living a young life. I have plenty of time to finished the unfinished. It's just a matter of making the dive. 

Ozark First Impressions

Lubbock, TX. A city smart enough to grow past the small towns that surround it but not exactly smart enough to excel to the level of Dallas or Austin-at least not yet. 

It is also considered one of the most conservative cities in the United States.

Now, I have a lot to say about the conservatives in Lubbock, but one thing I would like to point out is the Facebook comment section of our local news station, KCBD. If you want to see a bigger collection of swamp people saying some of the most ignorant things on the planet, you owe it to yourself to experience the KCBD comment section. And then, you realize that they are just as eligible to vote as you are before crying yourself to sleep. 

I have a frustrated disdain towards these people. I literally can't fathom this level of idiocy. How much mental gymnastics does one person have to go through in order to create a delusional world where Trump is somehow doing everything right and all the criticisms are just conspiracies and whining from the left? The only good out of these people is that one day they will be looked at from our history books in the same way we look at slave masters, segregationists, and klansmen. 

And yes, this is a first impressions blog of the Ozark. I'm getting to that. 

Otherwise, there is little catharsis from these people. There is only so much schadenfreude COVID deniers getting COVID and Karens getting tased can bring to my little heart. Schadenfreude is an addicting vice, and you always want a bigger dose once you get used to it. The biggest dose on my mind is Trump losing this year's election, but that will be short lived as the mouth breathers that support him aren't just going to evaporate once Trump is dethroned. 

They will just keep infecting the KCDB comment sections with their delusions, conspiracies, and their entitled whining. 

I think that leads to why my favorite scene from the Ozark so far works so well. Keep in mind, I am only two episodes in, but already I have a lot to say on the show. 

But before I get to that scene, I want to generally talk about Ozark and its place in what some people like to call the 'white anti-hero' genre.

It doesn't take long for Ozark to establish itself as a derivative of that genre. And for a while, you don't really know what it is trying to do to separate itself from the likes of Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Mad Men. It's just another morally gray white guy who is involved in some illegal activity for arguably righteous reasons. 

The first episode starts off slow because of that. You are not given a reason to care because the situation isn't unique enough to warrant your attention. This is a basic adage in screen writing and journalism: why are they reading this? For the first episode, I never really got that answer. The closest thing to an answer was something along the lines of "hey Breaking Bad was great, well how about we do that with a boring color grade and less interesting cinematography." God, this is the second blog in a row where I talk about Breaking Bad. Let's just move on. 

It was thankfully the second episode where the question of why I am watching this started to make sense, and it has nothing to do with the main characters, the writing, or the acting which is usually the go to praise when talking about the white anti-hero genre. Really, the best thing about Ozark are the tiki-torch white people that populate the town. 

These white people remind me a lot of Lubbock. I guess lake people and plainsmen share the same ancestors. Reading the reviews of Ozark's portrayal of the Missouri town was also rather amusing because I imagine the citizens of Lubbock saying the exact same thing in a alternate realty where Netflix has a new original show called "The Lubbock."

It is the same useless drivel I have heard when people attempt to give tempered praise to Lubbock. One article from Vox Magazine said Ozark neglected to portray the family friendly spots of Ozark's tourism. One resident in a Lake Expo article called the Ozark a "horrible representation of the Ozarks" referring to the vast depiction of crime and corruption. 

Ahhhh, I could hear "The Lubbock" alternate reality now: "Lubbock is more friendly than that. We aren't just hillbilly rednecks. There is more than just crime in Lubbock!" Yeah, I feel the people who criticize the accuracy of Ozark aren't quite getting the point. Though in fairness, there are some criticisms that are very understandable. For example. Ozark filming in Georgia instead of Missouri itself has been a point of contention. However, it should be worth noting that the obvious reason they are filming in Georgia is because of Georgia's huge tax incentives for filmmakers. It makes you wonder if Missouri did something similar they wouldn't have this problem in the first place. 

It's that backwoods logic that I was referring to. They could easily solve this complaint, boost tourism, and strengthen the local film community with a more competitive tax incentive but they rather complain that a television show is portraying their little town incorrectly. It again leads to why my favorite scene in the Ozark is my favorite scene, so let's get into it. Spoilers if you haven't watched up to the end of the second episode. 

To give a quick set up, a girl of a trashier variety breaks into The Byrde's hotel room and steals a bag of money owned by the cartel. Reasonably, Martin (Jason Bateman) is very concerned about this situation. If he doesn't get this money back, he is dead. 

He quickly tracks the girl and her family and is immediately put at gun point by one of the family members. The way the family members see this situation is that they just came across a large pile of free money, but they don't know the whole story.

Byrde, calmly, fills them in. In order to use this money, they have to kill him or else face the wrath of an extremely dangerous drug lord. And even if they do that, they could only use this money for groceries and fuel or else deal with the wrath of the IRS and the feds. And even if they do that, there is still the possibility that one of the family members will spend irresponsibly leading to chaos, possibly death & violence, in the family. The only sensible path is to give the money back to Martin as if nothing ever happened. 

And you know what, THEY STILL CONSIDER KILLING MARTIN! Even after the game theory logic is explained that there is no way they will benefit from this situation, there is still tension within a few members that maybe killing Byrde is a good idea. 

I remember watching that scene with the same anger as if I was reading a KCBD comment section. Byrde thankfully makes it out alive, but reality has shown different outcomes of that situation. It has shown voters still believing COVID as a hoax even after more than 200,000 dead Americans and a president that is unwillingly to budge despite getting COVID himself. It has shown that voters will still support a man even after that man has essentially said he will hold the stimulus hostage until after the election. People can and have took that cartel money without even a shred of care to how it will effectively ruin their entire lives. 

That's what separates the Ozark from the rest of the crowd, and something tells me that uniqueness is only going to get more tragic from there.