I caught a repeat of the TV show Castle last week where Castle and his mom are taken hostage during a bank robbery. It's a great episode and it got me thinking about how many times I've seen a bank robbery storyline in all the shows I love (and I love many). Psych titled theirs "Gus Walks into a Bank" and it is hilarious. Not only did I laugh throughout, but there were fun twists and turns. Burn Notice had an "if you can't beat em, join em" take on it in "Bad Breaks." The list goes on and on, but my favorite rendition has to be "Monday" with Mulder and Scully in the X-Files. It's a deja vu spin on a TV series archetype.
Stories are constantly recycled, repackaged, retold. Very environmental. So how do we create something fresh and still remain loyal to the subject matter that draws us? I love bank robbery episodes because they're always life and death, "That's my partner in there!" type deals. Psych managed to crack me up so I love them forever. Mulder and Scully gave me a captivating puzzle. That's what we have to do, stretch our imagination and put our own stamp on it. Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress series has zombies that keep their souls. They're called ghouls and to make another ghoul you have to go through this whole song and dance. Marissa Meyer gives us a post apocalyptic cyborg take on Cinderella.
So I guess I'm a reader/viewer/writer who loves story archetypes. How about you? On a side note, I wrote a guest review on the adult blog PRUF Reads for the awesome NA Romance novel Tragic by J.A. Huss. Click HERE to check it out.
(By Brocken Inaglory (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)
I love 'em too, Robyn. As long as they can put their own mark on it - and that's actually what I love most! It's one of the things I love about your books - the familiarity of the story that's not familiar at all. Does that make sense?
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Robyn!
I think we're gonna dry out a bit today. I saw you were getting rain last night. :) How, you ask? James was watching the Seattle Seahawks play! LOL
Thanks, Brandee! It's so fun daydreaming my own version of vamps, shifters, witches, and angels. I bet Kim Harrison had a blast writing The Hollows. Jenks would be a hoot. I know Betsy never fails to entertain me even though she's just a human teen.
DeleteWe were watching the Seahawks playing too! This is me, "How come that guy ran straight into the pack?" If James ever complains that you read during the games let him know it could be worse. I saw more footage of the floods in Colorado. Amazing! We had fog, drizzle, and lightening so the weather people actually had something to talk about.
I actually remember that episode from Castle, and I'm pretty sure all of the different CSI series have had someone in the bank while it was robbed as well :) And it's kind of fun that different shows do those scenarios, but still manage to be somewhat original.
ReplyDeleteI admire all you writers! You are able to have just an idea and make it into a whole story with it's own world and characters!
Lexxie @ (un)Conventional Bookviews
Ha! I just did a search and sure enough, they had bank robbery episodes for CSI Miami and NY. Another favorite series archetype is the singing episode. I love it when a show breaks out in song. Buffy and Angel's were the best! Oh, and Xena's, that was so much fun.
DeleteAs a reader, I love it when an author takes a subject I love and gives me a whole different world, like Mercy's vamps. I do not dream of running of with Stefan. Nope. The vamps in the Kate Daniels' series is in the category of gnarly-scary.
I loved your couples stay together post!
I love Burn Notice and Castle! It's really interesting how you authors create unique twists to familiar and well-loved ideas and plots. The Bank Robbery plot is used all the time, but it can be really good.
ReplyDelete~Tilly @ Hardcore Heroines
Did you catch the series finale of Burn Notice? I'm a total TV girl, so I'm super excited that TV starts up again next week. I love it too when authors create unique twists. It's certainly my favorite part of the writing process. Thanks for stopping by, Tilly!
DeleteYou make some really great points. I have a lot of fear sometimes that nothing new will come out in zombie movies/novels, for instance. But it's irrational because there are so many creative people out there who put their own spin on things, even things that have been done a ton of times. I love seeing new twists. We're all influenced by someone and something, right? :)
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen Psych or Castle, but I love Nathan Fillion! He was in Buffy the last season, you know! :D
Oh, I know, Donnie Darko Girl. "He had to split." Wasn't that the line in the second to last episode of Buffy? Third to last maybe. I've watched tons of zombie movies and the girl on the ladder overlooking the swarm on its way to her location from your 100 (400?) word short stands out in my mind more than most of those movies. As long as the storyteller loves the subject, I think anything can happen. And you sure do love your zombies! I just told my sister that she has to watch Warm Bodies and World War Z with me. hehe
DeleteI definitely saw the Castle and Psych episodes and loved both of those bank scenes. I've seen more of those as well - you are so right, they happen so often with a bunch of different shows! I'll have to check out your guest post tomorrow when I'm not so sleepy :D Jaclyn @ JC's Book Haven.
ReplyDeleteIt didn't occur to me until catching the Castle rerun and then the fact that I enjoyed it all over again. I miss Psych, but Castle starts up next week. hehe
DeleteI hope you get tons of wonderful sleep. A comedian once said he can tell how much older he is when he watches mattress commercials and wants to immediately go out and buy a new bed. I'm like that now!