Movement 101

Graeme Burk argues that ER and The Bill ftout the most basic rule of storytelting:
by refusing to have a beginning, a middte and an end. That's why they're so good
Endless cycle
tr ******'*'''r*gillib*lil+#*i*r
claiming to be in labour. She is not, has to decide whether to take her
and Dr Greene gives her some comatose husband off life support'
medication to make her more lucid. We enterthe lives of these people and
0ncethewoman iscoherent, itturns experiencetheirjoysand heartache,
out that she is pregnant
- Dr Greene and come to grips with the painful
neglected to give a thorough examina- choices they often have to make' But
tion - and the medication she has just as suddenlythey are gone. We
been given may have damaged her never find out how they resolve these
We were stunned. How il:ili"'
coutd a pre-watershed iUT:'.'
crime drama thrust us n'unu'lfro
in the middte of this li;;:|ffi'J
and then not resotve it? ilif:ffii
is a far cry
unborn chitd. The woman, who was off when Grange Hira trtrnltiJ,lt fstt
her meds in order to protect the price for not saying no to drugs, or lhe
unborn child in the first place, is left to sweeney either won or lost in the fight
consider whether or not she is capable against crime. Even medical series
of ta king care of a ch ild and if she like Dr Finlals Casebook, or it could
should have an abortion. Do we See be argued, Casualty, usually gave you
this woman again? Probably not. a resolution to people's struggles' lf
A couple of episodes earlier, we we were introduced to someone
see Physician's AssistantJeannie and their problem early on,
Boulet treat a man who is experiencing
kidney failure. He's already had a
you knewtheywould be
kidney transplant and it turns out he's
now drinking away his second kidney.
Jeannie agonises over the moral
issues and then blows the whistle on
him to the donor program. What happens
to this man? Who knows?
Welcome to the world of non-closure'television:
a world where dramatic
situations transpire before the viewe/s
eye; where we never see any resolution;
where very human experiences
are witnessed briefly before moving
on. Anton Chekhov once said ifyou
see a loaded gun in Act One of a play,
the gun musttherefore be used in Act
Two. Non-closure television ignores
this rule of dramatic resolution
completely. We may see the loaded
gun, but whether or not we see it again
is another matter entirely.
ER is perhaps the leading American
series to practice this form of
entertainment. During the course of
an episode, the doctors and nurses in
cured, orwould make a
tough decision, or would
die bythe end ofthe
episode. You would never
simply not know what
they did.
British television is
becoming increasingly
fond of non-closure television.
ITV in particular
has made it a staple of
its evening programming.
Series such as Londorls
Burnin9pul us as viewers
in the midst of human
beings who face the loss
math for these people. For decades,
British crime drama has been fond of
presenting viewers with a glimpse into
life's rich - and often sordid -
pageant; but only a glimpse. This
began as far backas Z-Cars and continues
even today in what can be
called its spiritual grandchild, Ihe Bil/.
I rememberthe firsttime my
flatmate and | - both of us Canadians
- saw Ihe Bil/. The episode in question
found the stalwart PCs of Sun Hill
investigating a shooting where the
only witness, it transpired, was in fact
an illegal immigrant living in hiding
under a restaurant. The witness had
been an au pairwith a wealthyforeign
family who abused her, and she fled,
fearing her life. By the end ofthe
episode, the suspected marksman
was looking to get off, and the witness
was about to be deported.
My flatmate and I were convinced
this was the first of a two part story,
but the next day found the Sun Hill CID
tracking down anothervillain on an
unrelated matter. We were stunned.
How could a pre-watershed crime
drama thrust us in the middle of this
and then not resolve it?
Very easily, it turned oul.The Bill
is an expert in non-closure TV. One of
the best moments on television this
summer -
proving that the switch to
hour-long episodes may be the best
thing to happen to the programme -
was an extended episode which featured
a PC's investigation ofthe skeletal
remains of a woman found in an
excavated Blitz-era crash site. By the
end ofthe episode, the PC had
tracked down the woman's killer, now
in his eighties and an invalid. He was
a close friend who had accidentally
killed herwhen he pushed her into
wreckage 50 years ago and is still
close to the victim's sister. The
episode ends with the PC walking
away, as the broken, sad old man is
left to talk with the sister... leaving so
much unanswered or unresolved.
Wxene nEsolrmor GotEs
in non-closure TV is through the ongoing
characters. We may never know
what happens to the schizophrenic
woman's pregnancy, but during this
series of ER we get to see how Dr
Peter Benton tries to deal with his
infant son's deafness. Benton's
of their sunoundings,
their families and indeed
their lives. And as
painstakingly as it often
sets up these situations
- the "before the fire"
sequences are often
harrowing to watch -
we never see the aftermovement
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