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shipperxBrowsing around the net (and, yeah, TWOP) sometimes is an experience in feeling completely out of step with prevailing wisdom or everyone... or both simultaneously.
The original thought for this post came when making the mistake at looking at TWOP's 24 forum. I swear, want to be unhappy with a show, go to TWOP. They've raised it... well, not to an artform but to something.
I mean, I know how to be negative about a show. You know the last season of BtVS? I can be really negative. But sometimes I look at TWOP and... is there anything (other than Veronica Mars) that we're actually allowed to like?
Anyway, my totally out of sync with fandom feelings about a few tv shows:
24 - Personally, I think this season has fucking rocked! I know there are nitpicks to be made by the bazillion. But I look at 24 as a roller-coaster ride, and my only question has been whether I've enjoyed the ride. This season, I definitely have. Oh, I choked up and cried when they killed Edgar. And I stared in disbelief when the killed Tony. No, happiness wasn't the reaction there. But I thought Edgar's death carried the appropriate shock and horror, and made the point about the randomness of death. (Tony's death wasn't nearly as well done, which is a shame). Weller makes an awesome, scary, smart villain. I've loved the gutsy First Lady from the point where she seduced her way into the file room, to her placing herself in the limo in a desperate attempt to protect the Russian President. I want her to hook-up with Aaron the Secret Service Agent because... at first it looked like the President was an incompetent weenie, but now he just looks like an all-out self-serving bastard who somewhere crossed the line into being just plain evil. The First Lady deserves better and I hope she'll be allowed to kick her husband's sorry ass before the season is out! Chloe dependably rocks with her sour puss face. Audrey has been rehabilitated to being a loyal and relatively interesting character. And the hours just move along with lightening speed. 24 is serving up all the action, excitement, and tension that it was designed to-- so screw the details. Why sweat the small stuff? Enjoy the freaking ride. I've found this season of 24 to be fast-paced and fun.
Lost -- Similar to 24, I honestly don't get what all the grousing over on TWOP is really about. I've thought this season has been better than the first. Maybe it's my X-File history showing up, but these people who are so hot and heavy and OBSESSED with wanting the answers and wanting them now should just give up because they are doomed to disappointment. Mytharcs will never, on any show, live up to fandom speculation. No show can pull that off (and to their credit, the producers seem to realize that). Like 24 the purpose of Lost is to enjoy the ride. I've thought the elaborate Dharma Initiative has been creepy and fun. Henry Gale has been a hoot as he subtly manipulates the survivors. Some of the flashback episodes leave things to be desired because they're retreading old ground, but the stuff on the island has been, in my eyes, just plain fun. The characters are de-evolving this season (which always places the audience on edge), but it gives a wonderfully sinister tone as their nerves are worked upon and anarchy is just a few steps away. Paranoia is rampant, and why shouldn't it be? With all of these bizarre connections, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you. I don't obsess over the stuff because that only leads to disappointment. Been there, done that with XF black oil. I'm not worried about solving the mystery. Pfft! That's never going to work out well. I just want to enjoy the testosterone contests between Locke, Jack, and Sawyer. I want to worry about Jim and Sun. I want to watch Mr. Eko be a Zen-like badass. I don't even mind Kate this season, which is a huge improvement over the last one. I want to see Locke and Jack come to loggerheads. I want to see what mindfuck Henry Gale is going to pull next. I want to see Sayid's sexy hair, and Jin shirtless. I want Hurley to figure out where he knows Libby from. I want confirmation that Locke's father is the orginal "Sawyer" who destroyed wittle James Ford's life (and Our!Sawyer to realize that he, himself, is responsble for who James Ford became). These are the things I'm intersted in, and why I'm quite satisfied with the show and (more shockingly) the pacing this year. In my eyes they've been handing out answers generously enough. I don't need them to spill their entire wad now. I like them dribbling it out drop by drop. That's right -- I'm happy with Lost. Shocking, isn't it? Please, don't hate me.
And in case this all sounds Pollyanna let me proceed to where I'm so out of step with fandom that I'm actually nervous to mention it...
Sigh. I don't care for Veronica Mars.
I know! I'm supposed to. I must be missing some VM gene or something.
I've watched over eight episodes (nearly all of which were in Season 1). And last night, with nothing that I usually watch on, I watched VM again, and... I'm still not into it. I've tried. The closest I've come to actually enjoying the show was the little scene last night where Wallace watched what was basically "E! True Hollywood Story" on Logan's parents and suddenly he felt a bit of sympathy for Logan. That was a nice little scene, but, overall, I remain rather 'meh' on the show.
'Logan' is a good actor with a nicely understated way of deliverying snarky lines. I admire that, but I can't lust over the guy because he looks fourteen... which is in contrast to my impression of Kristin Bell who looks nothing like a teenager to my eyes. Yeah, she's petite and pretty, but she looks every inch the 20-something she actually is (if not a scant bit older than she actually is). And Veronica's dialog always seems a bit too witty, meaning most of the time I'm inordinately aware that someone wrote a clever line for her to say rather than it seeming to me that she thought it up herself. (Heck, even with my multitude of Buffy and SMG issues, I think this area of characterization was handled better on BtVS where I always felt the fiction that Buffy's words originated with Buffy instead of a script writer was adequately maintained). With Veronica there's just some sort of dichotomy that I cannot pin down where I'm always aware that there's a script involved. I buy the snark from Logan (and I totally bought it from Jeremy Piven on Thomas' earlier show "Cupid".) For some, verbal wit comes naturally to an actor (even if the actor him/herself wouldn't be witty in person, they have a natural delivery of the line). With Kristin Bell's character... I don't know. I just haven't felt it. (Which isn't to say that I didn't LOVE her as the evil little prostitute who met a very bad end on Deadwood. Just that for some reason, I'm far less enamoured of Veronica.)
And then, there's something about the art direction. Again, I can't pinpoint it, but I find myself constantly noticing the art direction on the show. It distracts me to the point that I'd wish they'd seriously tone it down. Art direction isn't supposed to drag me out of the story, but in every episode that I've seen, there have been numerous examples of overt art direction that caught my attention until it dominated my attention, more than the story on sceen. (And seriously, fewer attention grabbing camera angles would be equally welcome. I find it distracting and vaguely irritating). I just don't care for how noticeable the art direction often is. (I had a similar issue with Firefly, and even occasionally BSG but, strangely, despite it being every bit as ostentatious, not nearly as much an issue with Farscape... which only shows that I have no consistency on this issue. I'm being contradictory and even somewhat hypocritical. I admit it).
Have I just ostracized myself from fandom? I'm not saying I'm right on any of these issues, or that my opinion carries any weight (or that it should). I just seem to be totally out of step with the bulk of fandom these days, and sometimes it feels somewhat curious. (Though I've always been stubborn an opinionated :)
The original thought for this post came when making the mistake at looking at TWOP's 24 forum. I swear, want to be unhappy with a show, go to TWOP. They've raised it... well, not to an artform but to something.
I mean, I know how to be negative about a show. You know the last season of BtVS? I can be really negative. But sometimes I look at TWOP and... is there anything (other than Veronica Mars) that we're actually allowed to like?
Anyway, my totally out of sync with fandom feelings about a few tv shows:
24 - Personally, I think this season has fucking rocked! I know there are nitpicks to be made by the bazillion. But I look at 24 as a roller-coaster ride, and my only question has been whether I've enjoyed the ride. This season, I definitely have. Oh, I choked up and cried when they killed Edgar. And I stared in disbelief when the killed Tony. No, happiness wasn't the reaction there. But I thought Edgar's death carried the appropriate shock and horror, and made the point about the randomness of death. (Tony's death wasn't nearly as well done, which is a shame). Weller makes an awesome, scary, smart villain. I've loved the gutsy First Lady from the point where she seduced her way into the file room, to her placing herself in the limo in a desperate attempt to protect the Russian President. I want her to hook-up with Aaron the Secret Service Agent because... at first it looked like the President was an incompetent weenie, but now he just looks like an all-out self-serving bastard who somewhere crossed the line into being just plain evil. The First Lady deserves better and I hope she'll be allowed to kick her husband's sorry ass before the season is out! Chloe dependably rocks with her sour puss face. Audrey has been rehabilitated to being a loyal and relatively interesting character. And the hours just move along with lightening speed. 24 is serving up all the action, excitement, and tension that it was designed to-- so screw the details. Why sweat the small stuff? Enjoy the freaking ride. I've found this season of 24 to be fast-paced and fun.
Lost -- Similar to 24, I honestly don't get what all the grousing over on TWOP is really about. I've thought this season has been better than the first. Maybe it's my X-File history showing up, but these people who are so hot and heavy and OBSESSED with wanting the answers and wanting them now should just give up because they are doomed to disappointment. Mytharcs will never, on any show, live up to fandom speculation. No show can pull that off (and to their credit, the producers seem to realize that). Like 24 the purpose of Lost is to enjoy the ride. I've thought the elaborate Dharma Initiative has been creepy and fun. Henry Gale has been a hoot as he subtly manipulates the survivors. Some of the flashback episodes leave things to be desired because they're retreading old ground, but the stuff on the island has been, in my eyes, just plain fun. The characters are de-evolving this season (which always places the audience on edge), but it gives a wonderfully sinister tone as their nerves are worked upon and anarchy is just a few steps away. Paranoia is rampant, and why shouldn't it be? With all of these bizarre connections, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you. I don't obsess over the stuff because that only leads to disappointment. Been there, done that with XF black oil. I'm not worried about solving the mystery. Pfft! That's never going to work out well. I just want to enjoy the testosterone contests between Locke, Jack, and Sawyer. I want to worry about Jim and Sun. I want to watch Mr. Eko be a Zen-like badass. I don't even mind Kate this season, which is a huge improvement over the last one. I want to see Locke and Jack come to loggerheads. I want to see what mindfuck Henry Gale is going to pull next. I want to see Sayid's sexy hair, and Jin shirtless. I want Hurley to figure out where he knows Libby from. I want confirmation that Locke's father is the orginal "Sawyer" who destroyed wittle James Ford's life (and Our!Sawyer to realize that he, himself, is responsble for who James Ford became). These are the things I'm intersted in, and why I'm quite satisfied with the show and (more shockingly) the pacing this year. In my eyes they've been handing out answers generously enough. I don't need them to spill their entire wad now. I like them dribbling it out drop by drop. That's right -- I'm happy with Lost. Shocking, isn't it? Please, don't hate me.
And in case this all sounds Pollyanna let me proceed to where I'm so out of step with fandom that I'm actually nervous to mention it...
Sigh. I don't care for Veronica Mars.
I know! I'm supposed to. I must be missing some VM gene or something.
I've watched over eight episodes (nearly all of which were in Season 1). And last night, with nothing that I usually watch on, I watched VM again, and... I'm still not into it. I've tried. The closest I've come to actually enjoying the show was the little scene last night where Wallace watched what was basically "E! True Hollywood Story" on Logan's parents and suddenly he felt a bit of sympathy for Logan. That was a nice little scene, but, overall, I remain rather 'meh' on the show.
'Logan' is a good actor with a nicely understated way of deliverying snarky lines. I admire that, but I can't lust over the guy because he looks fourteen... which is in contrast to my impression of Kristin Bell who looks nothing like a teenager to my eyes. Yeah, she's petite and pretty, but she looks every inch the 20-something she actually is (if not a scant bit older than she actually is). And Veronica's dialog always seems a bit too witty, meaning most of the time I'm inordinately aware that someone wrote a clever line for her to say rather than it seeming to me that she thought it up herself. (Heck, even with my multitude of Buffy and SMG issues, I think this area of characterization was handled better on BtVS where I always felt the fiction that Buffy's words originated with Buffy instead of a script writer was adequately maintained). With Veronica there's just some sort of dichotomy that I cannot pin down where I'm always aware that there's a script involved. I buy the snark from Logan (and I totally bought it from Jeremy Piven on Thomas' earlier show "Cupid".) For some, verbal wit comes naturally to an actor (even if the actor him/herself wouldn't be witty in person, they have a natural delivery of the line). With Kristin Bell's character... I don't know. I just haven't felt it. (Which isn't to say that I didn't LOVE her as the evil little prostitute who met a very bad end on Deadwood. Just that for some reason, I'm far less enamoured of Veronica.)
And then, there's something about the art direction. Again, I can't pinpoint it, but I find myself constantly noticing the art direction on the show. It distracts me to the point that I'd wish they'd seriously tone it down. Art direction isn't supposed to drag me out of the story, but in every episode that I've seen, there have been numerous examples of overt art direction that caught my attention until it dominated my attention, more than the story on sceen. (And seriously, fewer attention grabbing camera angles would be equally welcome. I find it distracting and vaguely irritating). I just don't care for how noticeable the art direction often is. (I had a similar issue with Firefly, and even occasionally BSG but, strangely, despite it being every bit as ostentatious, not nearly as much an issue with Farscape... which only shows that I have no consistency on this issue. I'm being contradictory and even somewhat hypocritical. I admit it).
Have I just ostracized myself from fandom? I'm not saying I'm right on any of these issues, or that my opinion carries any weight (or that it should). I just seem to be totally out of step with the bulk of fandom these days, and sometimes it feels somewhat curious. (Though I've always been stubborn an opinionated :)
