Dream sequence

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A dream sequence is a technique used in storytelling, particularly in television and film, to set apart a brief interlude from the main story. The interlude may consist of a flashback, a fantasy, a vision, a dream, or some other element. It is normally apart in time or space from the main story, or contrary to the continuity of the main story. Many writers and critics look down on dream sequences as a cheap way to explain a character's motives without actually integrating them into the plot.^{[citation needed]} Specifically when it is used as an ending, where the main character wakes up and realises that everything that had happened before was all just a dream. This is considered anticlimatic and a pathetic way to wrap up a story or to explain previous improbable situations.

Audio or visual elements, such as distinctive music or coloration, are frequently used to signify the beginning and end of a dream sequence.

[edit] Examples

• That's So Raven episode "Don't Have a Cow" is, except for a few brief moments, Raven's vision.
• Ed, Edd n Eddy episode "Rock-a-Bye-Ed" is Johnny's nightmare.
• The 8th season of Dallas is written off entirely as a dream.
• Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett deals a lot about dreams, including one instance when the main character Tiffany Aching remarks on how the cliché ending of "she woke up and it was all a dream" is the worst ending for any story.
• The video Dare turns out to be Murdoc's crazy dream.
• On the sixth season of Married... with Children, an episode entitled Al Bundy, Shoe Dick mirrored Dallas' elimination of storylines via a dream. In real life, Katey Sagal (Peg Bundy) had gotten pregnant and it was written into the series. Ms. Sagal later had a miscarriage, and to write all of the baby events out of the show, that entire season up to that point was made a dream by Al Bundy.