Plot Stale. Please Try Again.

Today I was having a discussion with a friend of mine about the entertainment industry and how, in so many of its forms we are exposed to, the same story lines and predicable plot twists emerge.

Example: This past weekend I took my girlfriend to see Dear John, the latest Nicholas Sparks book-to-movie convert, and I was quite appalled at the first 45 minutes of the film.

Not to disclose any spoilers, my fault with the film lie solely in the fact that the main characters fall head over heels in love with each other in a period of about one week. It doesn't take much for the guy protagonist to completely overwhelm the girl protagonist's mind and make her a (sole) member of his fan club.

Now lets compare recent trends of this nature:...

Actually I think some are already coming to mind even as you read this.

Now my question is not posed against these films; I am a huge lover of a good story, no matter its form. MY question is can't we as a culture be shown a different type of love story?

Just curious.

On the topic of story lines and plots, Another issue was brought up during my aforementioned conversation: Variety.

Here in America we are privy to the indulgence of the media: bleed it dry.

Our entertainment industry has a hard time letting good things just end.

I like the tv show Scrubs. I don't like it when the main character is slowly ousted in lieu of keeping the show "alive" after a clearly good stopping point.

I like the show How I met your mother. I'll be darned if the same thing happens to this show. It needs to have an end, and not 11 seasons down the road.

I like the show the office. But clearly they enjoyed taking an original concept to us Americans and pushing it to become something completely unrecognizable.

You know what media I love and wish we had here? Limited Episodic.

Television series in some other cultures tend to be 24-40 episodes and thats it. 1 to 2 season tops. That's it.

You know what this kind of mentality propagates? Variety. It's simple: when a series is allowed to end a myriad of things happen: 1) Writers can finish their projects without burning out, 2) Viewers can actually experience a finished story without asking "where did this all even start?" 3) New material can be made without actors being pigeon-holed into a certain character (I'll never see John Krasinski as anything other than "Jim") and 4) Box sets won't be a hundred plus dollars for an entire series.

Some of the best stories I can remember are the ones that ended. Period. I mean think about it: what fun is a story that never really ends, or goes on so long that it's forced to have a weak ending (see Matrix)?