Chances are if you’ve watched… well, ANYTHING in the last few decades, you found yourself stalled in a plotline or story, bored and waiting for something exciting to happen. If so, you’ve encountered:
Filler.
No, I’m not talking about collagen injections to keep the wrinkles away – I’m talking about that dreaded word that signifies that a movie or TV show is merely treading water until the next major plot point or installment. Keeping you hooked to the screen, promising more while simultaneously drip-feeding you entertainment. It’s one of the most annoying tropes in all of media and yet it is also one that never seems to die.
Why is that? What’s the reason that creators keep punishing us with dawdling tales instead of just “getting to the good stuff?” Well, strap in as we talk about why filler sucks.
What is filler?
Okay, I know it was basically covered above, but just for the sake of clarity, I think we should define exactly what it is we’re talking about here. When we talk about filler, we are essentially speaking about anything that interrupts or halts the narrative flow of a project – be that a movie, a book, or a TV show – and just exists to take up space.
We’ve all seen it: a story builds up to a huge climax… only to force us to turn away and focus on some small side story or task. Usually, this happens at a point where we all KNOW what we WANT to happen, but instead are told that we’ll need to sit idly by and wait until the writers are good and ready to let us experience it.
Now, I also want to be clear here: sometimes stories NEED to cut away from the thrust of the action to tell important or otherwise necessary information. Maybe this is done to show a side of the story we’ve yet not seen, or perhaps it’s to fill us in on previously unknown or pivotal information. Heck, sometimes it just exists to cut the tension as we ride the up-and-down rollercoaster that is the author’s intended story. That’s not only every artist’s right, sometimes it’s very much the right call. It’s all about motivation and context (something we’ll touch on a bit later). But back to the point at hand –
In television shows, filler can usually consist of singular plotlines within an episode to pack out the runtime. But it isn’t just limited to this – can even expand to not only whole episodes but (in the most egregious of examples) ENTIRE SEASONS.
You heard that right. Some TV shows (Anime is rife with this but is hardly the only offender) spend entire seasons just treading water. Forcing the audience to watch as little or nothing of interest happens in the hopes that maybe, just maybe… SOMETHING might occurs that actually moves the plot forward in a meaningful way. It’s one thing to waste a few minutes of someone’s time, and still more to waste an hour… but when you decide that your viewer is so unimportant that an entire season’s worth of viewership is pointless… well, that’s just cruel.
That said, TV shows aren’t the only area in which filler occurs – movies are just as guilty of padding out their stories (or franchises) with prattling nonsense. This can, again, be as a singular storyline in an existing film, or take the form of entirely new movies. You heard that right: whole films, created from top to bottom to do nothing more than to TAKE UP SPACE. To fill time.
But.. but… WHY? Why would anyone do such a thing to their viewer? Well…
The Purpose of Filler Part 1 – Stall Tactics
So, as you might have guessed by now, the primary use of filler is to take up time. To stall. To keep people watching while not really providing anything new of merit. Kind of like an orange traffic cone blocking the street or those annoying empty rope lines you have to go through at the bank even though there is no one else there and you just feel like some sad mouse running a maze where the only prize is running an errand. Yay.
But why, precisely, would you want this? Well, for one, you might be out of ideas.
Let’s imagine for one moment that you’re telling a story – it could be a book, a movie, or even a show. Now, let’s also postulate that you’ve written yourself into a corner and don’t know where to go next. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem – just keep plugging away and working behind the scenes until you solve it. No need to let the public suffer as the sausage is made. Unless…
You’re under a deadline. You have a contrast or a release date that says that this thing – the next season, the next episode, the script or manuscript – MUST be out by a specific time. Miss it and not only might there be egg on your (or the company’s face), but it might get awfully expensive (in either changing marketing materials or in contract penalties for missing your deadline).
So, with a looming threat and little other option, what can you do? What else – add filler. It might not be great (or even good), but at least it beats the wolves from the door – or the angry fans from social media, complaining that something they wanted to see was delayed (never mind that you’ve just kicked the can down the road as they’ll now just be bitching months or years later about all the filler).
In effect, all adding filler does in this situation is prevent the artist (or studio) from running into a brick wall and – if you’re lucky – give you time to write your way out of this creative hole before the next deadline (assuming you aren’t canceled in the interim).
The Purpose of Filler Part 2 – Stretch!
But not knowing where your story is going isn’t the only reason why someone might choose to inject their story with more filler than a real housewife. No, another common reason for doing so involves just the opposite problem: You know EXACTLY where your story is going. Only, in this case, it’s going to get there WAY too quickly.
Again, as a thought experiment, let’s imagine you’re writing a screenplay for a movie. Movies typically run anywhere between 90 minutes and 3 ½ hours (if Lord of the Rings is any indication). While there are movies that fall outside of the spectrum for various reasons (creative bloat and the cost and time of stop-motion animation to name a few obvious examples), that is the expected industry norm. As such, if you find that your tale is only running around 60 minutes, you might be looking for some way to up that number. Now, you could of course re-work the entire script to accommodate plotlines that would naturally fill the space… but that seems like a lot of work. Or, if you’re up against those annoying deadlines again, a lot of time that you just don’t have. As such – you guessed it – filler!
Now, by adding some useless scenes whose only purpose is to exist or plotlines that go nowhere (or have no impact on the plot), you’ve magically upped your runtime to meet minimum spec. Is it pretty? No. Will the audience hate you for it? Probably. But who cares – it’s DONE! (Cue the obvious sarcasm)
[Note: As an important aside, I should also take this moment to clarify something – not all scenes NEED to thrust the plot forward to be valuable. Sometimes the quiet moments give of a chance to reflect. Or to let a character shine through. That’s perfectly valid and equally valuable to the audience’s enjoyment. But also keep in mind, that’s because in this situation this is an INTENDED part of the narrative. It’s not there as a stop-gap but is instead a destination in its own right. Now that THAT’S settled…]
But this practice isn’t just limited to movies – TV shows have the exact same problem. Maybe they know where the season starts and they know where it ends. Maybe they also know that to properly convey that story in the most entertaining and natural way possible, it’ll only take eight episodes. But wait… our season lasts twelve. Or eighteen. Or twenty-two.
Well, shit.
Filler again to the rescue. Now, instead of wasting just a few minutes of our audience’s time as we would with a movie, we’re now multiplying that annoyance by quite a bit! Still, there are quotas and deadlines to hit and we can’t be bothered by simple things like “entertainment value” or “story” (one reason that, thankfully, you see more and more shows adopting the “British model” of shorter seasons, adapted to best fit the length of the story being told.
And in terms of entire movie FRANCHISES – it’s literally the exact same thing, only replace the word “episode” with “film.” (Think Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom just trying to get us to having dinosaurs roaming the globe, unfettered in Jurassic World: Dominion… never mind if it actually paid off or not.)
The Purpose of Filler Part 3 – Prolonging the Inevitable
The final cause for filler that I’ll cover here involves something similar to the above, but done for entirely different reasons. In this final case, we yet again know what our story is – it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Maybe it’s even the right length. And we’ve hit our quota of movies or episodes. So what’s the problem?
It’s too successful. Perhaps the fans or the creator or the studio don’t want it to end. After all, for the latter, there’s too much money to be made and for the former, there’s a desire to not see something we love end. So, in order to address these concerns, shows are extended for YET ANOTHER season, movies that should have been a single film are made into trilogies, and the last installments in franchisees are split into “epic” two-parters that only manage to squeeze just one more ticket sale out of an already hooked fanbase.
But where’s the harm? After all, adding filler to (in effect) make “something everyone wants to last longer” do just that benefits both sides, right?
In theory, yes. But in practice… not really.
Why? Well, while on the surface everyone DOES seem to get what they want, the dark truth under the surface is that it’s actually often a poison fruit. After all, how many TV shows lived well past their prime, ultimately tainted their legacies with years of excessive and unnecessary stories? How many movies felt more like an excuse for companies to gouge the fans than worthwhile trips to the cinema? And – most importantly – how did the experiences forever harm the legacy and reception of otherwise beloved media?
To quote The Dark Knight: “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
But at least you made a bit more money, right?
Right?
Why Filler Sucks
Now, I could sit here and waste precious time re-iterating everything I just said above, padding the argument and making it seem more grandiose than it is… but that would just be filler. It would be ME doing exactly what I’m currently denouncing others for doing. So, to put it simply:
Filler sucks BECAUSE it’s filler.
By its very definition (not counting that in cooking where it can very much be fantastic), it’s a WASTE OF TIME. It’s like asking why is water wet – because that’s an intrinsic aspect of what it is. It really is that simple.
But, to expound just a bit further, the REASON that wasting time is a bad thing is because – at its heart – it shows a profound disregard and disrespect for the audience. The very people giving you their time and/or money. It’s not only rude, but it’s also insulting.
We only have a very limited time in the world and to have some of it willingly and callously wasted by others is one of the most selfish and frustrating things you can experience – both in general life and particularly in media.
Adding filler shows that you have little regard for those who’ve entrusted you with their attention – and that you might not be worthy of it, to begin with. After all, while an artist (or company) has every right to make whatever they’d like, they are NOT entitled to an audience to view it. Such attention must be EARNED – either through quality or history or work.
To feel that you are OWED attention and that the viewer should just “be happy” with whatever you give them shows a level of hubris and ego that only serves to turn me even further away from your next release – be that a book, an episode, or a movie. It shows that you don’t inherently value your audience or their time and, as such, don’t deserve it.
Conclusion
In the end, the case against filler is an easy one to make. After all, it’s not exactly one that has much opposition – save for those who profit from it. No one like to have their time wasted. Few enjoy letting the narrative momentum they were riding crawl to a halt as they await its resumption. In essence:
Everyone hates filler.
Any yet it persists. And it likely always will. The pressures that create it are hardly unique and unlikely to ever go away. As such, we will likely never see a time when we aren’t occasionally faced with staring down the barrel of a pointless side-quest (like in video games but, you know, not fun) that no one wants to take.
Despite this, like many things in life, a little bit of a bad thing won’t kill you. Or the media in question. It’s the result of the society and system of artistic expression we live in. An unavoidable side-effect of the very nature of telling stories for profit.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t be aware of it – keeping a vigilant eye to ensure that you don’t fall victim to its traps, on either side of the equation (both as an artist and as a viewer). Put simply, “Never allow time in a story to be wasted – yours or that of your audience.”
After all, if you’re not careful:
Like the siren’s song, filler can wreck a good thing.