Bad science and the grandma test

five_red wrote:
Sadly, I think too much of CW's superhero output fails the grandma test.

R5

Yes, this puts the right frame on it.

I don't need entertainment to be 100% factually correct (and this is impossible in a Superhero show, because of the suspension of disbelief to allow the show in the first place). I just need it to be correct enough that I can ignore it and focus on the story. The better the story, the more I can ignore. A classic example is in Matrix, using humans as power sources is .. blatantly idiotic. But the rest of the movie is so cool that when that plot point rolls across the screen, you ignore it, and pay attention to the kick ass. And everyone draws that line in a different place, but if grandma won't swallow your plot point, it's failing.

If trying to make something 100% factual gets in the way of a good story, ditch it and move on. But be careful that there wasn't some other way to block the story out. I think some tweaks to Supergirl and it wouldn't be so jarring, but the story would be just as fun.

TwiceOnThursdays wrote:

five_red wrote:
Sadly, I think too much of CW's superhero output fails the grandma test.

R5

.

This is generalizing but i would say there are three ways to science fiction:

1. This Science!!! and its cool, and where going to show you the steps of how something works and if yeah the plot is really more important, where going to shape the plot so it works with the science. Star Trek did this a lot, not always perfectly but you know.

2. Science Smisend- Heres the ray guns, the monsters lets go. Star Wars is the prime example of this, and like that this doesn't mean its dumb but it theres.

3 Somewhere in the middle, often with a magic trick- this is the approach of Doctor Who, where they do tell yo the science-but they make a point of having it move so fast that if the details are wrong well thats part of the trick. A Sonic Screwdriver can't do much. Reversing the polarity not much, but well you can believe it somewhere.

the CW shows try for somewhere between 2 and 3, but they get the magic wrong. All of the shows are clearly inspired by Doctor Who-like Legends of Tommorow hyper obviously, but the others its there-as is the cast which i like cause it gives people work. But if the shows move fast they don't get the magic waves wrong. It hurts that they don't have a doctor who like fast talking smartest guy in the room hero to kind of be the central magician. It most often comes to(especially in supergirl) of well "Hey we need the bad guy here!!! Doing this!!" and it doesn't always work.

i think there argument is "well Girls can't fly in real life" and thats an argument thats not without merrit. But there have been plenty of good Super stories that do push type one, where Supes has to use power-but be very precise about it, and logical. Sometimes like in the movie Superman Return the best story is when he you grab a plane thats falling down-but well it breaks apart cause there not that strong.

As i have said before-if Supergirl is Selling a punch thats usally an unintresitng thing in a super story, and she taken a lot of punches-if the show was more like TNG where the drama is how she does something or if-that could be more intresting. I would prefer it somewhere around 1.5 -but well, its what it is.