Learning how to watch TV is strange because its something that I expected I already knew how to do completely and fully. I watch TV all of the time, almost every night, so it seemed to me that I would have a full understanding of how to understand a show, who the characters are, and get the “meaning” behind everything. Boy, was I wrong. TV shows are more intricate than that because of one thing and one thing only, the writers. When you are watching a show, there are things a writer puts into certain places for a very specific reason. Nothing is at random when a show is written.
Finding out more about how to watch TV has really helped me to understand scripts. To read something and really be able to dissect it and see what it is actually about, which is something that I thought I had nailed down from acting. Turns out that understanding everything from a writer’s point of view is way, WAY better. It gives you the fuller, more complex understanding that goes into depths way past what you as an actor would ever have a glimpse at. So there you have it, writing for TV is helpful when you are trying to act on TV, who would have thought! More insight on this after my next class though!