Game Changers

There are really five critical junctures during a television season. First is the season premier, which gets the season kicked off and sets the path. Next come the sweeps periods. These are periods where the ratings are measured and the worth of a network's programming is determined by audience size. The networks respond to these times by pulling out all the stops.

Each year in November, February and May, characters undergo trials. This is the time of year when pregnancies, deaths, personal crisis and other trials come to all our favorite characters. But all of that pales in comparison to the final mile marker for the season — the season finale.

The season finale has to accomplish a lot, so writer's are under a tremendous amount of pressure. The finale has to be memorable, it has to tie up all the storylines from throughout the season, and it has to build the excitement for the show to a fever pitch until it returns in the fall. That's why so many writers proudly explain the finale will be a "game changer." That is probably my least favorite term and least favorite concept.

I have long wondered why shows feel the need to blow up what's working. I've always subscribed to the "if it ain't broke, why fix it" mentality. That doesn't really fly in series television.

The past two weeks, as shows have wrapped up for the year, many beloved characters have been put in harrowing positions. On ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," that involved two hours of having characters stalked, tortured, shot, and in some cases killed by a mad gunman. Other shows embraced the miracle of life or created conflict and division among the principle characters.

Of course, that's not always well received by fans. As I mentioned, there's a lot of pressure for finales, and sometimes the "game changers" that shows come up with end up doing the exact opposite of what they were intended. Sometimes it leads to fan outrage, which is allowed to fester for months. That's why it's no surprise that the LOST producers said they were going "radio silent" following the series finale. After all, who wants to be roasted alive by fans who you've never met for something you fictitious you wrote on a page that was filmed and broadcast to their homes.

I think a lot of times the reason fans get upset is they don't like change either. Like me, they like to be in a comfortable groove. But that's not always what's best for us.

In narrative, "game changers" are called inciting incidents. They are moments, events, and decisions that force characters out of their comfort zone and into action. They are much easier to create in a fictional world than in our every day lives, but they are much more important in our every day lives. Except we don't often embrace that kind of productive change.

In his book "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years," Donald Miller wrote about inciting incidents. He wrote, "Perhaps one of the reasons I've avoided having a clear ambition is that second you stand up and point toward a horizon, you realize how much there is to lose."

That is the tension that gets to us with "game changing" moments on the screen. They are situations from which there is no going back. Our beloved characters will never be the same, but sometimes that's a good thing. Sometimes they realize all they have to lose and it makes them fight that much harder to achieve what they were always meant to achieve.

It's the same way in our lives. There's always a risk on the path to reward, but the blessing of being a Christ follower is knowing that when we step out in faith, we're not alone.