It is generally believed that a story should eliminate anything which is unnecessary to the overall progression of the story, so in a film or a TV show you should not be surprised if everything a character does furthers the story in some way.
For example in an episode of the TV show Fringe, one of the main characters suggests to the other characters that they go and eat pie from a local cafe. The fact that this character suggests they try the cafe's pie is presented as a comic moment in the TV show, but when they get to the cafe and experience strange goings on you realise that the characters needed to be in that cafe in order for the story to progress. It is very rare that a mainstream TV show or film would include a scene with characters going to a cafe for pie, unless it was important to the story, but let's imagine for a second that it hadn't progressed the story; would that be so bad?
Watching the episode in question, I remember feeling slightly let down by the fact that the only reason the characters had went to this particular cafe was so that the story line could progress and not simply so that they could eat pie. This may sound odd, but I actually liked the idea of the characters just going to a cafe and eating pie for no reason. This, and other instances like this, have made me realise something about myself; I like it when things that happen in films happen for no reason.
Luckily for me, there are many directors who have the same opinion as me on this and many independent films (and some mainstream ones as well) do feature moments which happen for the sake of it and not to progress the story.
For example:
- In the Werner Herzog film Fitzcarraldo, there is a part at the beginning when they are watching an opera and, although the fact that they are attending the opera is of importance to the story, showing as much of it as is shown is not.
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- There are also certain pieces of dialogue in the Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction that have become so famous for this, that to talk about them here would be pointless. Royale with cheese, anyone?
