Giving some credit to the writers

I watched a lot of TV this weekend, and I feel now is a good time to give credit where credit is do.
I was watching one show for the second time when I started to think about the quality of the writing.
Sometimes I do that. I guess it’s because I’m a writer.
I’ve been watching a lot of “Castle” lately. The premise revolves around a homicide detective and, ironically, a writer who come together to solve crimes in New York.
It’s a good show, but that’s not the point.
Part of what makes it a good show is chemistry between the actors, and part of it is good writing.
I enjoy the writers’ work, but I don’t envy them. Just their paychecks.
I couldn’t imagine sitting in a writers’ room mapping out an episode of “Castle,” or any other show for that matter, much less a whole season.
I have a hard time coming up with ideas for blog posts and a column to run in a weekly newspaper.
It must take a lot of imagination to come up with a story viewers will like and not be able to figure out after the first few scenes.
It looks like it takes a lot to weave a single mystery into a single episode. It must be a Herculean task to develop characters and plot the overall story of the season as well.
Yet they do it.
The wordsmiths craft dialogue and stories week after week, and somehow they manage to wrap it all up by the end of the season. In addition to all of that, they almost always leave the viewers anticipating another year.
This brings up another point.
I’ve been watching TV for a long time.
When I start a show, especially from the beginning, I tend to form a bond with it and I expect a lot from it.
An example of this is “Smallville,” which my friends and I watched for the duration of its 10-year run.
Needless to say, I put a lot of stock in season premieres and finales.
Somehow the writers managed to pen top-notch efforts for both ends of most of the seasons.
There wasn’t much I didn’t like about “Smallville.”
I didn’t understand one season arc, and I remember complaining about the sheer amount of time it took young Clark Kent to become Superman, but I still bought the box set.
“Castle” is shaping up to be in that category to me, and that’s saying something.
Much of the credit goes to the actors and actresses, who are the faces of the show, but a lot has to go to the writers and their powerful pens.