Writing Lessons From... Starstruck aka When a Character Changes the Story
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Let’s start this article at the end.
I’ve just discovered (Thursday 18th April, the day before this is due to be published) that there is a third series of Starstruck.
If I had known, I would have watched all of it before writing this.
But here we are.
This article turned out to be a long ‘un as I tried to sort it out in my head, so we’re going with it.
Back to the beginning.
A few weeks ago, I was stressed and in desperate need of lying on the sofa watching Netflix. I had Starstruck recommended to me ages ago, and I adore Rose Matafeo (who co-created and stars in it) so thought this would be the perfect thing to stick on.
And here we are…
Not quite the restful lie down I was hoping for.
Starstuck is easy to binge, or watch at a reasonable pace. You might want to watch it before reading on.
From here, there be spoilers for series one and two…
(Series one to three of Starstruck are on BBC iPlayer, and series one and two are available on Netflix.)
Starstruck follows Jessie (Rose Matafeo), a New Zealander millennial living in London who does not have her life together and enjoys casual sex. She’s wonderful.
She lives with bestie Kate, who is lovely, and at a New Year’s Eve party, meets famous actor Tom (Nikesh Patel), not that she knows he’s a famous actor.
They don’t exactly hit it off immediately, but their opposites attract vibe leads them to falling into bed together to see in the New Year. The first series then follows them throughout the course of a year as they dip in and out of one another’s lives, unable to get each other out of their heads.
I loved series one. Jessie is a mess and I love her. She gets fired from her nanny job, because she’s awful at it; she loses a wad of cash, failing to buy back her donated clothes from a posh charity shop; she drops her phone on her head while lying in bed (been there, done that!); and finally getting together with Tom at a film premiere only to be kept in the hotel bathroom by him because his current squeeze interrupts them. Something that would have been a deal breaker for me, but not for Jessie.
A favourite moment from series one, Jessie dancing her way home after casual sex with a man living on a boat.
The first series had a coherent structure, taking us season by season through the year, with great character development and, by the end, they’re silently together. Series two picks up immediately after series one ends with the big question of ‘what now?’
I’m going to say this quickly, like ripping off a wax strip: Series two was not as good.
Every romance needs a why
The main problem, in my mind, was that Jessie and Tom felt flat, despite their brilliance in series one. Series one shows them being drawn to one another, series two should have shown us why.
Instead, we see them get together, break up, get together, break up, mainly because they refuse to talk properly. This is a common complaint among romance fans and feels a little lazy in terms of writing.
One good thing about series two is that Tom gets more character development. We start to see him in more awkward situations, with his parents, his arrogant brother, the awful director. Yet it doesn’t translate into his relationship with Jessie, and I’m not sure why.
And who the hell is Ben?
My main issue with series two was Ben.
Jessie’s ex-boyfriend – labelled The Dickhead – reappears in her life, invites her to his nan’s funeral and offers her a job in an attempt to get back with her. She fails to tell Tom that her new job is with her ex-boyfriend, resulting in a huge argument when Kate accidentally lets it slip.
Which is fine. But who the hell is Ben? I watched both series one and two very closely together over the course of four days and I didn’t have a clue. It wasn’t until I Googled it to see what others were saying before writing this that I discovered Ben is the man Jessie moved to the UK for who then broke her heart.
This should have been mentioned more than once in series two. Jessie should have been more torn about being around him, considering how much he hurt her, more should have been made of their history.
Instead, Jessie and Ben fall back into easy conversation – easier than Jessie and Tom to a certain extent. There’s no real mention of pain or anguish.
We skip forward in time, but without the cute season labels from series one, and suddenly we’re at a hen/stag do that Jessie, Ben and Tom have all been invited to. Jessie tells Ben she doesn’t want to be with him, although they have been sleeping together (which we haven’t seen anything of, because of the time skip), Jessie and Tom kiss, Jessie has a quick epiphany of how she sabotages herself and declares her love for Tom.
Why does she love him?
Tom seems to like that Jessie is ‘kooky’, but it’s never explained why Jessie loves Tom. Other than him being gorgeous and rich.
And the writing lessons are…
Are Jessie and Tom even compatible? I’m not sure. I want them to be, but the relationship feels a little…forced at times.
We should at least understand why they love each other. Do they even know?
This feels like the TV equivalent of a ‘show don’t tell’ lesson. It feels like the writers are telling us that Jessie and Tom love each other and so we have to accept that. Ben is the ex-boyfriend and they’ve been sleeping together, and we have to accept that, despite not knowing how Jessie feels after sex with the man who hurt her.
The character development was done so well in series one, I have trouble believing this is the issue. Series two just feels…rushed. If they had kept the same structure as series one and shown us more of what Jessie and Tom were both feeling about everything going on, it could have been better.
The lesson I took from series two was one of exploration. I was longing for more concepts to be explored: what grief does Ben bring up in Jessie? Why does she allow men to keep treating her badly?
The complexities of Jessie, and Tom, needed further exploration, and that is the fun of character development: exploring every facet of your characters and laying them bare in your words.
I have a theory about Jessie and Tom, from a writing point of view, but I need to watch series three to confirm this.
Right, I’ve watched series three of Starstruck.
Let’s start with my theory.
During series two, I started to wonder if the creators and writers had this brilliant idea of a chaotic, ‘normal’ woman (Jessie) meeting a rich, famous actor (Tom) and they fall in love. But no matter how much they pushed these two characters, who obviously had sexual chemistry, together, they just aren’t meant to be a couple.
In series two they pushed and pushed, which is why series two didn’t work. That’s why I was so intrigued by what they would do in series three.
I don’t know how much that theory stands up now I’ve watched series three. I don’t think anyone can know unless you’re one of the writers involved.
The truth is that perhaps the writers had something else entirely in mind. Because series three isn’t really about Jessie and Tom’s on-off relationship, it’s about Jessie growing up.
They were never meant to be
Remember in Starstruck series one when Tom shut Jessie in a hotel bathroom for hours so the actress he was sleeping with didn’t know about her?
If a man did that to me, it would be the last time I saw him.
Not so for Jessie.
In series three, Tom goes behind his fiancée’s back and kisses Jessie.
Another reason to have nothing to do with the man.
Unless you’re Jessie.
Back in the joy of series one, Jessie is emotionally immature. She can’t hold down a job, she can’t have a relationship or be open about her feelings, it’s what leads to her chaos.
When she meets Tom, she meets a kindred spirit. He doesn’t quite have her humour or sparkling personality, but he matches her in emotional maturity.
Two good, kind people trying to do the right thing and consistently messing up.
Series one made us think that this was a romance story. Maybe I’m right and the writers thought that too. But two emotionally immature people with little in common just won’t work out, no matter how many times they’re drawn to each other or you push them together.
Series three opens with Jessie’s friends moving on in life, getting married and having babies, while she appears stuck. She meets the gorgeous, lovely Liam at Kate’s wedding, the same wedding where Tom kisses her before telling her he’s engaged to someone else.
The joy of series three is that it then swerves the on-off Jessie and Tom relationship and moves the spotlight on to Jessie. Her friendships, her life reverting back to the woman who has casual sex, the way she feels about herself when Tom kisses her and when she has to lie to his fiancée’s face. This is done in such a subtle way that you might not notice it happening until the final episode, but Jessie is growing.
Which is what all well-developed characters should do in a story!
By that final episode, Jessie has grown up. She quietly conducts herself with dignity around Tom, and puts beautifully into words what I think a lot of us had already figured out long ago: they’re not meant to be.
She ends up getting in Liam’s van and heading off into the London night with a man who was there for her without being in her face about it, who shares her humour, who is warm and kind, and who is drawn to her as she is drawn to him, not just for sex but when they genuinely need support.
The major writing lessons
Let’s start with the big one here: I don’t think series two needed to exist. At all.
You could have ended series one with Jessie and Tom getting together on the bus and gone straight into series three, which begins with a montage of their relationship slowly breaking down.
Middles are incredibly tough to write, and I think Starstruck is an excellent example of why we should be holding off publishing that trilogy or selling that first TV script until we have the entire thing mapped out. You need to know what your story is about, from beginning to end, even if it’s split up.
Did the writers of Starstruck know what would happen in series three when they started on series two? Who knows (well, they know!).
The problem with a saggy middle is that it will turn away fans, readers and viewers. I know people who won’t watch series three of Starstruck because they disliked series two so much, and that’s a great shame. Series three is good, if you enjoyed series one, you should give it a go.
The other big lesson here is accepting when two characters just don’t work together. Series two felt like writers pushing together two people who weren’t compatible. Series three felt like the writers allowed the characters to take control and show who they really are, and that’s where the great story comes out.
It’s so hard when you want two characters to be together but they refuse.
Been there, done that. I spent ages trying to push two characters together in my first novel, she wasn’t having it (he was all for it!). When I sat back and asked her why, explored who she really was, she told me she was gay and in love. Everything fell into place after that and the story works so much better than I had planned.
Well-developed characters will eventually go and do their own thing. LET THEM.
Follow them, listen to them, let them take you on a better story than the one you had planned.
And suddenly you have a character growing up, leaving the other one behind and letting him down gently in a beautiful scene inside a hospital chapel.
Starstruck was probably supposed to be a love story about a chaotic woman and a famous actor falling in love, but it turned out to be the story of a chaotic woman growing up, figuring out what she needed, and maybe falling in love with being able to just be herself.
There are tons of stories out there about people falling in love with celebrities. They tend to be shallow and boring. There aren’t enough clever stories of people settling into who they are.
Sometimes the story isn’t what you think it will be. Sometimes it will be something better.
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