Timing and making it flow

There are certain things that, to me, make a TV show unwatchable.

It's most noticeable if you watch a sitcom--what my dad calls "them damned thirty minute shows." There seems to be only the most basic relationship between the scenes. It's like you can imagine at the end of one scene that a director, cinematographer, set dressers, everyone, going in, getting everything ready, getting the actors situated, makup perfect, before shouting, "Action!" The flow from one scene to another is herky-jerky. You don't get the feeling that you're following the characters around watching their story reveal itself. Instead of a coherent story you get a series of disconnected scenes.

Maybe this is a problem only for me. Maybe other people don't notice this. But it drives me nuts. I always have problems explaining this.

The chief cause, I think, is the timing is different for each scene, but not in a way that complements the other scenes. By timing I mean the same thing one would say about music--the tempo, the beat. Watch a really good TV show--like House, for example--and count the beat. You can actually do it. And it'll be consistent from one scene to the next. You don't even realize it unless you pay attention to it, but it makes all the difference in the world to how much you enjoy the show. It's like a symphony--each scene contributes but has it's own individual characteristics, like movements in a musical piece. But they all hang together, they all complement each other to form a stronger whole. And there are certain things that are the same throughought, like a thread sewn throughout the entire piece.

This is why I reread my scripts aloud, tapping my foot just like I do when I record a track for a song. Maybe it makes no difference to anyone else, but to me it makes all the difference in the world.