But I have to ask if that ability shouldn't be the very LEAST of one's talents as a writer. Especially a writer in this genre. If you can't do THAT, what on earth are your qualifications for the job?
I couldn't agree with you more. (This is getting very dangerous today!
) But...
I always come back to my lasting suspicion that there was very little respect for the audience involved here, and "good enough" was the prevailing standard.
...Sad to say, a lot of the dumbing down within the storylines came directly from DC. If one reads the accounts of the inner workings of the show (at least the ones that don't come out of PomPress - but don't get me started there) one learns about all sorts of, shall we say, "heated discussions" the producers/writers had with DC over storyline direction. Sometimes they won (as was the case with making Barn sympathetic with the whole reluctant vampire/Sarah angle), but more often DC won out.
FYI, according to Sam Hall, there were huge rows over the directions of Leviathans. Guess who won most of those?
In fact, Hall went so far as to say that DC would say something to the effect that this is the way I want the story to go, and if you don't want to write it, there are plenty of other writers in NYC who will...