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I Wish They Had Better Writers
May. 16th, 2013 09:52 amI find myself saying that a lot lately. I wish the shows I watch had better writers. While I do wish that the script writers for Game of Thrones were better, they aren't actively terrible.
Once Upon a Time's writers, however... oh my. There's just so much squandered potential on this show. It would be really interesting if there were any nuance to it. However, they don't do nuance, so you end up getting whiplash. Regina goes for mwhahahahahaha! evil with absolutely 0 ability to understand she deserves the blame for anything to suddenly going all Spike in the hellmouth, saving everyone and knowing that it's all her fault. And I have absolutely zero confidence that that whiplash change will last beyond one episode. No more so that Snow Whites turn to the dark side was actually indicative of any lasting change. She did a bad thing, then was back to bending over backwards into forgiveness, risking everything to forgive/rescue Regina for the millionth time. *sigh* Wasted potential. Any of this could have been good had there been writing to back it up, but instead it lurches from place to place with no story development behind it.
Worse, Red Riding Hood's pilot was apparently picked up so she probably won't be around next season.
I saw a review for Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. Reviewer said it looks pretty good AND the writers of Once aren't involved (yay!) so I'll probably check it out. It's premise sounds like the Buffy episode "Normal Again" though with Alice being in an institution and everyone thinking she's off her rocker regarding what she remembers of Wonderland.
Another show that I WISH had better writers is Nashville.
In a weird turn I never would have anticipated, the best part of the show is Hayden Panatierre. I loved Connie Briton on Friday Night Lights but her character is so self-righteous and passive aggressive in Nashville that I'm constantly rooting against her.
Seriously, why is it exactly that her Rayna always gets what she wants and comes out on top in the end? Yeah, she gets to whine a lot about things not going her way, but then the writing constantly backs her up. First, like seriously, you do not get to whine about your husband, Rayna. You're the one who married him while pregnant with another man's child, then remained in love with that other man for 14 years, keeping him as your best friend/closest confident the entire time, while your husband was the househusband primary caregiver to you kids while you're on the road with the other man, such that when your husband gives up on the marriage, wants a divorce, and starts dating someone else.... yeah. I"m not all that outraged. I'm going to cut the husband some slack. Dude has been unhappy for a good long while due to the fact that not only were you in love with someone else for 14 years, you hadn't slept with your husband in months/a year. After he asked for a divorce, you spent maybe a two weeks before hooking up with your 'true love.' All in all, why am I supposed to feel terrible for you again? I feel sorry for your daughter finding out that her Dad isn't her father, but I don't see how any of what's happened isn't directly related to events that Rayna set into motion... and yet all the characters behave like she's God's gift to country music. And Britton isn't a particularly good singer... which makes her constant put-downs of Hayden Panatierre's character come off as inexplicable. HP's character isn't innovative or a great artist. But she's still a better singer than "Rayna" which makes the whole thing a 'huh?'. Don't get it.
And the Gunnar plot has gone completely of the rails. When the show started he was the 'good guy' and they've now managed to manpain-angst him into a pain in the butt bad-boy in a series of whiplash plot developments.
Gunnar, you basically suck now. And you need a shower and decent haircut. And I'm far more interested in your gay cowboy best friend.
I do like the new best friend and am interested in the cowboy possibly becoming famous and having to deal with becoming a country music star while being gay. Were he in any other genre of music, this wouldn't be an issue, but since he's a 'gen-U-INE' cowboy in a very conservative genre, his plot has some interest. Gunnar can go emo-navel-gaze elsewhere. (And take the Mary Sue Scarlett with him.) I hope they keep the cute cowboy for Season 2.
(That said, I've noticed that within the show I've preferred Gunnar/Scarlett duets to everyone else's music. What groups are they ripping off, because they're clearly re-recording other groups' music. I know the song of theirs I liked was Civil Wars (I actually downloaded that one from Amazon) , but a lot of the Gunnar/Scarlett duets seem to fall into the area of music that I like, and I generally DISLIKE country music).
So whoever is selecting the music for these otherwise annoying characters -- good job.
They've done a pretty good redemption arc with Avery doing the reverse Gunnar, going from whiney bad-boy to... earnest Lucky Spencer [/GH-shout-out] Not surprising that Avery has been redeemed. Jonathan Jackson's specialty has always been earnest good-guy not tortured badboy. He may have preferred if his character had remained 'bad boy' (I have no idea of his feelings on the subject), but in soapy situations, most actors revert to type, and he does his best with vulnerable and earnest... and I actually could get behind their pairing his character with Hayden Panatierre's.
Alas, despite HP being the best thing the show, the writing does her character few favors. There's good juicy material in her character being SO bitchy and from such a very messed up background. But they really need to even out the wins and losses. Every now and then her bitchy upstart should be able to actually beat Connie Britton's Rayna every now and then. The show seems to want us to symathize with the older Rayna, but Rayna ALWAYS wins. Everything. And is universally beloved for it. Want some sympathy? Have Rayna lose occasionally and a few people who aren't Juliette think the sun doesn't rise and set on her.. Have HP's character win every now and then. And for the love of God, slow down the shitstorms piled on HP's characters head. The con-man, turned sex-tape blackmailer, turned murder/suicide victim as Juliette's mother O.D.'s was just... piling on. Egregiously.
Why is it so few television writers are willing to try for subtle these days?
Once Upon a Time's writers, however... oh my. There's just so much squandered potential on this show. It would be really interesting if there were any nuance to it. However, they don't do nuance, so you end up getting whiplash. Regina goes for mwhahahahahaha! evil with absolutely 0 ability to understand she deserves the blame for anything to suddenly going all Spike in the hellmouth, saving everyone and knowing that it's all her fault. And I have absolutely zero confidence that that whiplash change will last beyond one episode. No more so that Snow Whites turn to the dark side was actually indicative of any lasting change. She did a bad thing, then was back to bending over backwards into forgiveness, risking everything to forgive/rescue Regina for the millionth time. *sigh* Wasted potential. Any of this could have been good had there been writing to back it up, but instead it lurches from place to place with no story development behind it.
Worse, Red Riding Hood's pilot was apparently picked up so she probably won't be around next season.
I saw a review for Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. Reviewer said it looks pretty good AND the writers of Once aren't involved (yay!) so I'll probably check it out. It's premise sounds like the Buffy episode "Normal Again" though with Alice being in an institution and everyone thinking she's off her rocker regarding what she remembers of Wonderland.
Another show that I WISH had better writers is Nashville.
In a weird turn I never would have anticipated, the best part of the show is Hayden Panatierre. I loved Connie Briton on Friday Night Lights but her character is so self-righteous and passive aggressive in Nashville that I'm constantly rooting against her.
Seriously, why is it exactly that her Rayna always gets what she wants and comes out on top in the end? Yeah, she gets to whine a lot about things not going her way, but then the writing constantly backs her up. First, like seriously, you do not get to whine about your husband, Rayna. You're the one who married him while pregnant with another man's child, then remained in love with that other man for 14 years, keeping him as your best friend/closest confident the entire time, while your husband was the househusband primary caregiver to you kids while you're on the road with the other man, such that when your husband gives up on the marriage, wants a divorce, and starts dating someone else.... yeah. I"m not all that outraged. I'm going to cut the husband some slack. Dude has been unhappy for a good long while due to the fact that not only were you in love with someone else for 14 years, you hadn't slept with your husband in months/a year. After he asked for a divorce, you spent maybe a two weeks before hooking up with your 'true love.' All in all, why am I supposed to feel terrible for you again? I feel sorry for your daughter finding out that her Dad isn't her father, but I don't see how any of what's happened isn't directly related to events that Rayna set into motion... and yet all the characters behave like she's God's gift to country music. And Britton isn't a particularly good singer... which makes her constant put-downs of Hayden Panatierre's character come off as inexplicable. HP's character isn't innovative or a great artist. But she's still a better singer than "Rayna" which makes the whole thing a 'huh?'. Don't get it.
And the Gunnar plot has gone completely of the rails. When the show started he was the 'good guy' and they've now managed to manpain-angst him into a pain in the butt bad-boy in a series of whiplash plot developments.
Gunnar, you basically suck now. And you need a shower and decent haircut. And I'm far more interested in your gay cowboy best friend.
I do like the new best friend and am interested in the cowboy possibly becoming famous and having to deal with becoming a country music star while being gay. Were he in any other genre of music, this wouldn't be an issue, but since he's a 'gen-U-INE' cowboy in a very conservative genre, his plot has some interest. Gunnar can go emo-navel-gaze elsewhere. (And take the Mary Sue Scarlett with him.) I hope they keep the cute cowboy for Season 2.
(That said, I've noticed that within the show I've preferred Gunnar/Scarlett duets to everyone else's music. What groups are they ripping off, because they're clearly re-recording other groups' music. I know the song of theirs I liked was Civil Wars (I actually downloaded that one from Amazon) , but a lot of the Gunnar/Scarlett duets seem to fall into the area of music that I like, and I generally DISLIKE country music).
So whoever is selecting the music for these otherwise annoying characters -- good job.
They've done a pretty good redemption arc with Avery doing the reverse Gunnar, going from whiney bad-boy to... earnest Lucky Spencer [/GH-shout-out] Not surprising that Avery has been redeemed. Jonathan Jackson's specialty has always been earnest good-guy not tortured badboy. He may have preferred if his character had remained 'bad boy' (I have no idea of his feelings on the subject), but in soapy situations, most actors revert to type, and he does his best with vulnerable and earnest... and I actually could get behind their pairing his character with Hayden Panatierre's.
Alas, despite HP being the best thing the show, the writing does her character few favors. There's good juicy material in her character being SO bitchy and from such a very messed up background. But they really need to even out the wins and losses. Every now and then her bitchy upstart should be able to actually beat Connie Britton's Rayna every now and then. The show seems to want us to symathize with the older Rayna, but Rayna ALWAYS wins. Everything. And is universally beloved for it. Want some sympathy? Have Rayna lose occasionally and a few people who aren't Juliette think the sun doesn't rise and set on her.. Have HP's character win every now and then. And for the love of God, slow down the shitstorms piled on HP's characters head. The con-man, turned sex-tape blackmailer, turned murder/suicide victim as Juliette's mother O.D.'s was just... piling on. Egregiously.
Why is it so few television writers are willing to try for subtle these days?
