Once Upon A Present Shock

In Present Shock, Rushkoff describes today’s technology creating a dictatorship of the present in which everything happens now. People don’t think about what will happen in the future, but rather, they want everything to happen now. One show I used to watch was Once Upon a Time. This show tells the story of a new world, in which modern life and fairy tale legends come together. There were characters such as Snow White, Hook, Peter Pan, and, of course, Elsa. In the beginning, the fairytale world is “frozen” in time and all of the characters live in the city of Storybrooke, Maine. One of the main characters, Emma, didn’t know who her parents were, and only finds out when the son she gave up years back comes to her and tells her. The show is filled with drama and a romantic atmosphere, in which many of the events are out of order and the audience has to keep up with the show, otherwise it will get very confusing.

This show can be an example of Rushkoff’s “Narrative collapse”, in which, “…like a fantasy role-playing game, the show is not about creating satisfying resolutions, but rather about keeping the adventure alive and as many threads going as possible” (Rushkoff 34). There is no specific plot and the story keeps going, with more characters being added. The directors of Once Upon A Time have been keeping the plot going for 5 seasons now. Season 1 itself had 22 episodes. Their story line, like Rushkoff says, isn’t about creating a good ending, but it’s about keeping it going and adding in more and more episodes, to keep the audience interested. After one show, many of the audience will focus on what will come in the next episode, and to be honest, anything could show up since the point of the show is just to keep it going and not actually to keep the plot from confusing the audience.

According to Rushkoff, “There is plot – there are many plots – but there is no overarching story, no end. There are so many plots, in fact, that an ending tying everything up seems inconceivable, even beside the point” (Rushkoff 34). Now that the show has so many episodes, they couldn’t tie it together and end the show because they would be leaving the audience in the middle of the show. Each episode does not stand on its own and depends on the next one to finish it, and that one depends on the next one, and that continues. There won’t be a set ending until maybe even Season 14. Shows nowadays are so hard to end because there are so many plots that ending just doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere. The directors just have to keep it going until an ending seems convenient for the show.

Like Rushkoff describes in Present Shock, people are more focused about cramming everything into the present that they don’t think about the future. If someone misses a show, or even an entire season, they could always just binge watch it. However, they are only thinking about the present and how much fun it would be to sit there and just watch their shows. They are not thinking about the future and how much time would be wasted while they are binge watching.

There is also the “now” aspect that Rushkoff mentions and how everything is happening now. The present is more full of interruptions and there are so many things going on at once that it often leads people to cram everything into one time period. In one episode, two characters are stuck in a time portal, and have to be careful to not change anything otherwise they could alter everyone’s lives. At the end of this episode, Elsa is “created” from this blue ice that comes from the time portal, and that’s where the season ends. So, they could not have just ended the show, as a new character joined in, which means new plots for that character. More and more plots are being added, which makes it confusing, and crams in everything into the present.

 

Works Cited

Rushkoff, Douglas. Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now. New York: Penguin Group, 2013. Print.