September is here, and it signals the start of a new television season.
Besides cable, satellite, DVRs, DVDs and now Hulu, there's a different way to watch TV: Take your favorite show and "reverse engineer" it into constituent parts.
TV Tropes is a Wiki that shows how a program is built together out of "atoms" of character, dialogue and plot devices -- some plausible, others mostly serviceable for the sake of getting on with the show.
On the main page, it says "tropes are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations."
For instance, take any episode from the "Law & Order" franchise. Every week, buddy cops go on a reverse whodunit to find the freak of the week based on a true crime story. In the hour, the squad must connect the deaths while being hampered by the suspect's amoral attorney and jurisdiction friction. The shows then end with variants on courtroom antics.
Click on each link to go to TV Tropes and find out what they mean and where and when they are used. Warning: Some entries contain obscenities.
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