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[Found a rather interesting essay on Dollhouse here:
http://tigerbeatdown.blogspot.com/2009/04/dollhouse-joss-whedon-and-strange-and.html
It's different than most of the stuff - I've read recently and in some respects a breath of fresh air. (It's an essay from a feminist who loves Dollhouse and is not fond of Buffy.)
Also, as an aside, does anyone know where I can see a repeat of tonight's House - not online, but on tv? I know it will be repeated, but forget when and where.
Another bit - I know I've said this before, but bears repeating, I think people forget that Joss Whedon is a 'horror' writer, specifically psychological horror. True horror, not the comfy Stephen King variety, but true classic psychological horror makes you cringe and squirm and keeps you awake giving you nightmares. It's not nice. It's not meant to be. It's meant to be skeevy and squicky. Whedon not only writes horror, he studied it in school, analyzed it, and is a critic of it.
ETA: the below essay has been edited to incorporate moscow-watcher's comment below.]
The following essay came out of a somewhat heated discussion with a poster several posts below...and has been skirting about in my brain most of the day.
Not sure how many people reading this journal are fiction writers? If you are, regardless of the fiction, you probably at one point or another fell in love with a specific theme or plot idea and ended up writing yourself into a corner that you could not get out of because of it. Sure it was a brilliant idea at the time. But now, dang it, you are stuck. And your options are limited. You can either give up on the fic entirely. Continue with it and see if you can write your way out of it. Go with the flow so to speak. Or take an easy way out and either retcon or do some sort of reset button.
In 1997, Joss Whedon created a show entitled Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He had etched out about thirteen episodes - that would tie up all the plot threads for the first season, because he did not believe it would get renewed. The series was a mid-season replacement and had gotten derisive industry buzz because of the movie that preceeded it and bombed, financially. Originally, Angel was supposed to die the first season, but Whedon changed his mind and realized that it would be too complicated to pull off. When the series got renewed for a second season, surprise, surprise - Whedon and Greenwalt came up with a twenty-two episode plot arc - culminating in Angel's death by Buffy, the heroine's hands.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was his first television series and a chance to redo the movie that had bombed, right. The story was to take place in high school - and to be marketed mainly at teen girls. The central metaphor was high school is hell - he envisioned it as a hip horror series featuring a young girl as the heroine. And the demons were metaphors for the horrors of highschool and teen life - the horrors teens fear, and must slay to reach adulthood.
( spoilers for Angel and Buffy )
http://tigerbeatdown.blogspot.com/2009/04/dollhouse-joss-whedon-and-strange-and.html
It's different than most of the stuff - I've read recently and in some respects a breath of fresh air. (It's an essay from a feminist who loves Dollhouse and is not fond of Buffy.)
Also, as an aside, does anyone know where I can see a repeat of tonight's House - not online, but on tv? I know it will be repeated, but forget when and where.
Another bit - I know I've said this before, but bears repeating, I think people forget that Joss Whedon is a 'horror' writer, specifically psychological horror. True horror, not the comfy Stephen King variety, but true classic psychological horror makes you cringe and squirm and keeps you awake giving you nightmares. It's not nice. It's not meant to be. It's meant to be skeevy and squicky. Whedon not only writes horror, he studied it in school, analyzed it, and is a critic of it.
ETA: the below essay has been edited to incorporate moscow-watcher's comment below.]
The following essay came out of a somewhat heated discussion with a poster several posts below...and has been skirting about in my brain most of the day.
Not sure how many people reading this journal are fiction writers? If you are, regardless of the fiction, you probably at one point or another fell in love with a specific theme or plot idea and ended up writing yourself into a corner that you could not get out of because of it. Sure it was a brilliant idea at the time. But now, dang it, you are stuck. And your options are limited. You can either give up on the fic entirely. Continue with it and see if you can write your way out of it. Go with the flow so to speak. Or take an easy way out and either retcon or do some sort of reset button.
In 1997, Joss Whedon created a show entitled Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He had etched out about thirteen episodes - that would tie up all the plot threads for the first season, because he did not believe it would get renewed. The series was a mid-season replacement and had gotten derisive industry buzz because of the movie that preceeded it and bombed, financially. Originally, Angel was supposed to die the first season, but Whedon changed his mind and realized that it would be too complicated to pull off. When the series got renewed for a second season, surprise, surprise - Whedon and Greenwalt came up with a twenty-two episode plot arc - culminating in Angel's death by Buffy, the heroine's hands.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was his first television series and a chance to redo the movie that had bombed, right. The story was to take place in high school - and to be marketed mainly at teen girls. The central metaphor was high school is hell - he envisioned it as a hip horror series featuring a young girl as the heroine. And the demons were metaphors for the horrors of highschool and teen life - the horrors teens fear, and must slay to reach adulthood.
( spoilers for Angel and Buffy )
