Wallpaper and television writing. The best wallpaper–think William Morris–takes a familiar pattern, varies it artistically; elaborates it, makes it fresher. That’s the best we can hope for from most television writing. I anticipate most of the plot and dialogue. Even the best is elaborated wallpaper.
When I worked in television I noticed that plots used were like tinker toy parts, familiar, segments put together in new (but necessarily limited) ways.
The same goes, indeed, for most movies, and most novels, especially most genre novels.