Had somewhat the same reaction to the lead actress in Gone Girl -- and yet she was the best thing in it, well outside of the cop. And that's just sad. Not David Fincher's best work. I was so bored.
So the book is slightly better, I take it?
My problem with Amy is that she wasn't interesting. Very flat and ineffectual character, so I assumed that it was how she was written? I don't mind unlikable characters as long as they are interesting. This character...just felt one-dimensional and somewhat flat.
And, yeah, Outlander went way too explicit with rape. Just ugh. I hated GoTs use of rape, and even that paled in comparison to Outlanders repeated use of it.
I've had the last four episodes of Outlander taking up space on my DVR for months now. I read the book -- I knew what was coming. It was pretty graphic in the book, but hey it's a book - you can skim. Ron Moore unfortunately likes to do graphic rape and torture scenes (see BSG, DS Nine and Caprica). So...I've been procrastinating watching those last four episodes. I may just refrain entirely. Already warned a friend of mine to do so.
Unfortunately --the writer, Diana G, likes to use rape to forward characters and plot threads. [According to one Amazon reviewer - DG has every single major character and some of the supporting ones raped at least once in the books, to the point that the reviewer found it to be unrealistic and overkill. I mean come on - every major protagonist? That was enough to make me give up on books right there. So don't need that in pleasure reading, thank you very much. Not sure I'm going to be able to stick with the television series for the same reason.] It's lazy writing in my opinion and a common plot device in romance novels - because let's face it, sex doesn't tend to move the action forward unless it's dramatic or a fight scene. It slows it down. So a lot of romance novelists think --" oh, I know, I'll do a rape scene -- that not only pushes forward the action, it sets up huge obstacles between the couple, causes all sorts of romantic tension, and plus character development. I mean, if one of the character's is raped they won't be able to have sex with the other character for a bit...and so I can build up the sexual tension until they finally heal each other through it."
It's been so overused by the genre, it's become a cliche. I keep wanting to tell them -- find another way to push the action forward. This is lazy.
Felt the same way about various soap operas and *cough*Whedon*cough*.
If you can't figure out how to move the action forward with a sex scene, don't write sex scenes. But don't decide to use rape to do it.
That said, I'm apparently in the minority on this point -- since the Outlander series is a huge Best-Seller, and has millions of fans. The one's who are bothered by the continuous use of rape as a plot point --- obviously aren't that bothered by it.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2015-06-23 01:55 am (UTC)So the book is slightly better, I take it?
My problem with Amy is that she wasn't interesting. Very flat and ineffectual character, so I assumed that it was how she was written? I don't mind unlikable characters as long as they are interesting. This character...just felt one-dimensional and somewhat flat.
And, yeah, Outlander went way too explicit with rape. Just ugh. I hated GoTs use of rape, and even that paled in comparison to Outlanders repeated use of it.
I've had the last four episodes of Outlander taking up space on my DVR for months now. I read the book -- I knew what was coming. It was pretty graphic in the book, but hey it's a book - you can skim. Ron Moore unfortunately likes to do graphic rape and torture scenes (see BSG, DS Nine and Caprica). So...I've been procrastinating watching those last four episodes. I may just refrain entirely. Already warned a friend of mine to do so.
Unfortunately --the writer, Diana G, likes to use rape to forward characters and plot threads. [According to one Amazon reviewer - DG has every single major character and some of the supporting ones raped at least once in the books, to the point that the reviewer found it to be unrealistic and overkill. I mean come on - every major protagonist? That was enough to make me give up on books right there. So don't need that in pleasure reading, thank you very much. Not sure I'm going to be able to stick with the television series for the same reason.] It's lazy writing in my opinion and a common plot device in romance novels - because let's face it, sex doesn't tend to move the action forward unless it's dramatic or a fight scene. It slows it down. So a lot of romance novelists think --" oh, I know, I'll do a rape scene -- that not only pushes forward the action, it sets up huge obstacles between the couple, causes all sorts of romantic tension, and plus character development. I mean, if one of the character's is raped they won't be able to have sex with the other character for a bit...and so I can build up the sexual tension until they finally heal each other through it."
It's been so overused by the genre, it's become a cliche. I keep wanting to tell them -- find another way to push the action forward. This is lazy.
Felt the same way about various soap operas and *cough*Whedon*cough*.
If you can't figure out how to move the action forward with a sex scene, don't write sex scenes. But don't decide to use rape to do it.
That said, I'm apparently in the minority on this point -- since the Outlander series is a huge Best-Seller, and has millions of fans. The one's who are bothered by the continuous use of rape as a plot point --- obviously aren't that bothered by it.
People bewilder me.