MovieChat Forums > The Guardian (2001) Discussion > Anyone else notice severe writing issues...

Anyone else notice severe writing issues?


I've been watching this show with my mother. Over the last month, we've made it to season 2, episode 13, as I begin to type this. It's on the TV as I type.
Season One started strong, very wonderful. We adored it. A few things were a little predictable, but not bad.

One of the most immediate problems we noticed was that the "Previously...." clips featured scenes that hadn't actually been in the previous episodes, leaving us utterly confused.

Season Two began, and we started noticing things getting worse. The cliches started becoming more obvious. All we see now is relationships and working with adults. There isn't much of Nick being a guardian. And every now and then, something would happen that made us do a double take.
We were able to overlook it until, in episode twelve, the show talked about Lulu having a creepy stalker breaking into her house. They made an abrupt change in direction halfway through the show, ruling out the most obvious culprit with a ridiculous claim which went nowhere, and trying to focus all the attention on a man we hadn't seen for several episodes, which also went nowhere.
Then the episode ended with Brian coming home, and Nick standing his girlfriend up on their date....

And Episode Thirteen, Ambition, started off with "Brian's still in Mexico", and no mention of the stalker, the man they'd been focusing on, nor the girlfriend getting stood up.

There seems to be severe continuity problems in the writing.

Since we're a bit late on this, should we stop now while we're ahead? I've heard it gets worse.

reply

Yep. The stalker thing was just dropped with resolution.

There is also character inconsistency.

For instance when Shannon isn't the focus she seems to be doing just fine. Then when they decide to do an episode around her, she's suddenly a delinquent. In season three she's made out to be just a little slow as in 5th grade level when she should be 8th. This doesn't suddenly happen. Her new school would know pretty much right away (with testing) and they'd notify Burton. And a plan would be put in place to get her caught up. Burton could certainly hire a private tutor but the school would also be doing remediation. Then Shannon is doing fine, then suddenly she's rebellious, then she's fine, then something else. Drugs, stealing credit cards, pornography, stealing jewelry.

Burton's character is also inconsistent.

Then there's Jake who's straight for two seasons then suddenly gay, then straight, then gay again.

In season 1 Nick takes Jake the dog home in the last scene because he ran back to the judge's house. But that's all we know. Then later in season two Burton asks Nick what happened to the judge's dog and Nick says he got him a good home and Burton says he should have kept the dog. That's it. That's how we finally found out what happened to the dog. They should have kept the dog in the show. He was a pretty consistent actor.

We've spent two seasons thinking that Nick has been clean and we haven't seen him high, just drunk. Then suddenly in Blue Mystic he admits he's been using all along. WTF?

I understand why this show was finally canceled. It's a downer. It's painful to watch. There is nothing joyful or uplifting in any of it. It's an hour of being uncomfortable. There is no entertainment here. And after three seasons (I'm up to S3 e17) I just don't care any more.

A lot can be forgiven if the characters are developed and consistent and there is buy in from the audience but this show just never had it. And yes, that is a problem of the writers.

reply