Re:A “Sideways” supply response in California winegrapes
by SuoDuanDao on Wednesday January 26, 2022 @12:17PM
(#30088352)
I forget where I saw the description but I quite enjoy it, an author was breaking down stories into four general groups: In Melodrama, the hero wins. In Tragedy, the dragon wins. In Comedy, the hero and dragon overcome the root of their conflict, and in Farce they dance around each other without resolving anything.
I wasn't familiar with Sideways, but from your description it sounds like I'd call that a comedy being reinterpreted as a farce. Which can be a great story form as well, but maybe it's reached for too often in fan theories because it's the easiest thing to imagine after melodrama.
In Sideways, Giamattis character starts out in a really bad place, but through the events of the story ends up in a (slightly) more hopeful place. Having him kill himself in the end instead would not turn the story into a genuine tragedy, since nothing would really be lost. That would just be a pointless story going nowhere.
Hayden Church' character on the other hand do have something to lose, so his story could have been made a tragedy.