The Fourth Wall

Jane Espenson (writer for many things, including Buffy) posts about breaking the fourth wall:

You know what it is, I’m sure, to break the fourth wall. That’s any reference that calls attention to the fictional nature of our enterprise. (Or the fictional nature of The Enterprise if we’re still in Star Trek land.)

Even if the show you’re specing routinely flirts with the fourth wall (as Boston Legal has done throughout this season), I would warn you against it.

I’m concurring (but as a fan, not a writer), and somewhere in me I have a long, well thought-out post about television shows, the fourth wall, and self-referential suicide, but it’s not for today.