Follower of Incompetence

I only just talked about the start of the series, but I'm caught up now. And there is an aspect of it that is totally pissing me off. I think I have talked about this sort of thing before, but I'm going to do so again.

Yes, there are spoilers, but I only talk about broad general points, no specific details. If you've seen up to episode seven, that's enough.

For the good guys, we have Ryan Hardy and co. For the bad guys, we have Joe Carroll and co. I'll refer to Ryan generally as short hand for the good guys, and Joe for the bad guys.

Basically, for a television plot, we need to have the good guys over coming adversity. So the bad guys need to be somewhat competent to actually create a threat. However, this series has decided on another approach... namely, the good guys are extremely incompetent. How do the bad guys get again? Easy if the good guys are continually unable to find their own ass with an entire team helping!

This is, basically, bad writing. In one sense, we are now supposed to have flawed heroes, so Ryan has a pacemaker, a troubled past (as does the lead agent, and she really does), and the team have no idea how far things are going, and don't know if someone is a killer or not. (PRO-TIP: Every guest so far is either a victim or a killer. Usually the victim ends up dead quickly, so treat anyone standing after five minutes as a killer.)

But if they are so useless, how will the bad guys be taken down? What we have is the killers all in a house... so Joe and co are in one confined location, and everyone in there is a psychopath to some degree... um... So here's what will happen. The bad guys will fail, not because the good guys will prevail, but because they will self-destruct. How is that good writing? We are supposed to root for the good guys, but they can't do anything without being hampered by the plot of the bad guys needing to get away!

Which leads me to how I predict this series will end (and I know there is a second series). In the last episode, there's going to be a climatic battle between the teams, many of the bad guys will die, but Ryan and Joe will run away and go on a chase... and then Joe will just manage to escape (because Ryan is so flawed/incompetent/hampered by the plot) and the final revelation will be a whole new house of killers accepting Joe.

Because the plot must march on despite anything like reality (in which there is no way there will be all these killers) or plot narrative (in which minor things like the good guys winning are just minor road bumps to extending the series).

Oh, and I know the good guys are supposed to be law abiding and all that, but seriously there comes a point in their reality where enough is enough and just kill Joe when you have the chance. But no... because he's the Joker.

[END]