TV
Groundhog Day –
The Trope That Comes Up Again and Again and Again
When was the last time you did something truly selfless? Even if you’re sacrificing something for another person, you
could still be motivated by wanting them to like you, or for them to think that you’re a good person. What if you knew that whatever you did, nobody would remember it tomorrow? Would you still act in the interest of other people? Or purely for yourself? This is the premise of the film Groundhog Day. Phil Connors is an inconsiderate jerk, but after reliving the same day over and over again, he learns to care about others. As specific as this premise sounds, it has actually become a common trope, seen in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who, and even The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. My two favourite examples of this trope in TV are the episode ‘Mystery Spot’ from season three of Supernatural, and the show Russian Doll, both of which utilise it in entirely different ways. Supernatural has not been a good show for a very long time, but those first five seasons told a compelling story with interesting characters. As some backstory for those of you who aren’t Supernatural apologists, protagonists Dean and Sam are monster hunters. Up to this episode, the brothers have been ignoring the fact that Dean has less than a year to live after making a deal with a demon. Over the course of the time loop, instead of following in Phil’s footsteps and becoming compassionate, he needs to be taught his own limitations. As satisfying as the final time loop in Groundhog Day is, where Phil has touched the lives of everyone in town knowing that they won’t remember it tomorrow, that conclusion of his arc would be ridiculous in a single episode forty minute. One of the best parts of a TV show is watching somebody grow and progress over time. Going from a nightmare to a saint over the course of forty minutes would not be emotionally impactful. Instead, it would be painfully saccharine and the kind of unrealistic that’s intolerable, even on a show where the King of Hell complains about stains on his rug. Instead of this foundational change, a trickster god has taken it upon himself to ‘help’ Sam deal with his feelings regarding his brother’s upcoming demise - by making him watch as his brother dies again and again and again. Groundhog Day is better for the lack of an explanation, but in an on-going universe in which the unexplainable happens all the time, not explaining the loop just feels lazy. It’s a running joke now that the brother’s keep trading their lives back and forth for each other, but this episode came at a time in the show when the idea of Sam losing his brother still had impact. Though it’s funny to watch Dean die by a poisoned taco or from falling in the shower, the best Supernatural episodes combined humour with emotional weight. The final twist in the format is that once Sam makes it to a new day, his brother dies again, and he spends the next six months (and next five minutes of screentime) mourning and trying to find a way to go back in time. There are a lot of differences between Mystery Spot and Groundhog Day. One is forty minutes long and a small part of an overarching narrative, set in a world where the paranormal is everyday, and whose tone is regularly quite dark. The other is more than twice that length and comprises both the beginning and end of its’ characters’ stories, set in our own world with a mostly comedic tone. Still, by adapting the trope to fit the medium and story, it can work.
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