(no subject)

I wonder what would have happened on various tv shows if the writers weren't interacting with fans and did not know what the fans thought? I always wondered the same thing about Buffy. Would the tv series be better - if the writers never knew what the people seeing it thought? Sort of like novelists who write their books and only one who sees it first is their editors/publishers as opposed to a fanfic writer who is posting chapters and getting comments as they go forward?

Don't know.
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Vampire Diaries and other TV Show Season Finales..

I'd meant to DVR HIMYM's finale, but forgot. And it's no big deal, that show frustrates me. Hence the forgetting. It likes to tease. That's my problem with a lot of tv show-runners/writers they like to subscribe to the Tom Anderson (Cheers Show-runner) school of thought - endlessly tease the audience about couplings because if you put two characters with sexual tension together in a romantic relationship - it will become boring and there will be no storyline. [The only thing worse than this is the "we won't solve the case or show you the killer or let the people off the island or back home until the series is completed" otherwise known as the proverbial carrot. Because if we do that there won't be any more stories to tell.] No, this is not true as various recent television writers, film scribes and novelists have proven over time. All you are doing is frustrating the heck out of your audience. And well, demonstrating that you are ahem, a tad limited as a writer. And the problem with frustrating your audience in today's world, as opposed to the 1980s and 1990s, is you audience has a lot more choices. As HIMYM may be discovering, not to mention Revenge - both shows have lost viewers.

Revenge had a frustrating season finale. To the point that I'm considering giving up on it. The series started out with a great concept. We'll do one revenge story arc a year. Then next year it will be a different character and a different arc. Then they paid attention to the audience and shippers, and decided to do something entirely different and dumped that initial concept altogether. Turns out many tv showrunners do plan out the story ahead of time, they just change it based on audience reaction. It also started out as more episodic - Emily Thorne would take out one person a week - and we'd see how she did it. There'd be a A plot line and a B plot line. The B was the revenge of the week, the A was the why and the end-game against the Grayson's, with the promise that she would get them by the end of the season, which would in turn shoot off a new Revenge storyline. That unfortunately is not the direction they went in, this thread got dropped. And instead we had a convoluted conspiracy thread that made no sense - with the evil "Initiative" (everybody uses that word in these series for some reason) and Emily's illogical mentor aiding her against it. ( spoilers )

Vampire Diaries right now is competing with The Good Wife for the best season finale. Although it's not fair to pit them against each other - two vastly different tv shows. Same with OUAT. Although I liked Good Wife and Vamp Diaries finales better. Vamp Diaries was so satisfying that I re-watched it. In part because it gave me the Spuffy speech and resolution that I wanted from Buffy but knew I'd never get. It also gave me a far more satisfying Angel/Angelus storyline in the characters of Nikklaus and Stefan.

I'll never be obsessed with Vamp Diaries. I think my days of being obsessed with tv shows are over - there's too many of them for one thing. And I've no time for it, for another. But I will give Vamp Diaries credit for giving me satisfying story arcs, that are well-plotted and move quickly. And are ultimately fun and entertaining. Also surprising. I never can quite predict what TVD will do.

( spoilers )

Once Upon a Time - did two posts on this, took both down. So..this will be brief.
Liked the episode. Had satisfying arcs. Surprised me. I did not see the finale twist coming at all. The twist on the Peter Pan legend was a stroke of genius. This series is doing interesting things with Disneyfied fairy tales - it's sort of de-disneyfying them? OR going in the opposite direction? I'd say it's taking the tale back to its roots, but I seriously doubt that this was what JM Barrie had in mind when he wrote Peter Pan.

Which is ironic, considering they are owned by Disney and financed by Disney. Disney is an evil corporation, no doubt in my mind about that, but they are like Fox in that they sort of leave their writers alone. Make us money and we don't care.

( spoilers )

See brief.

Game of Thrones - The Bear & the Maiden Fair

So this is the GRRM written episode - where the writer just can't resist referencing the other episode he wrote, last year's "The Battle of Blackwater" - where the wildfire burned many ships.

Eh, this series is gorier than I remember the books. Ahem this does not bode well for what lies ahead, does it? Don't say you weren't warned. And oh, there are spoilers for the episode below of course, hence the cut-tagging.

( I don't pay you to put evil thoughts into my head, the one's already in there don't need company )

Merlin

Taking five day weekend Memorial Day Weekend - parents offered for me to come down to Hilton Head, my father even offered to pay for it. But I declined, as my mother knew I would - too frigging stressful to travel and I want to complete things that I've been procrastinating around my apartment, see a few movies in the theaters, and get away from people. Hilton Head is sort of boring, with decrepit parents - mother is recovering from a hip replacement and padre is making due. I adore them. But they aren't as active as they used to be. But neither am I.

At the physical therapists - the scheduler refused to look into June and schedule more appointments, because she didn't want to deal with her birthday, which was in June - she was ...wait for it...turning 30, and she JUST couldn't handle it. I mentioned this to co-worker who is 62, who rolled his eyes.

Merlin - rather adore Merlin, particularly the actor portraying him. I empathisize with the character. I know what it is like to hold back or hide parts of myself from others for fear of how they will relate to me. I empathize with the other, always have, because I know what it is like to be bullied, teased, and hated for being different, not mainstream, not like the majority. Left of Center. Different. Separate. Which is why I adored the X-men, Merlin, and Buffy. Also why the majority of my friends often fall into that category - they too know what it is like to want to hide or to hide a part of themselves. Most of, if not all of my friends know from personal experience what it is like to be treated as the other. And I initially went to law school to fight for the other - for our rights, but failed in achieving that. I have not succeeded in doing any of the things I set out to do. I don't know why. I keep thinking it's a flaw deep in my character that I can't quite figure out how to fix. But enuf. I only tell this shit to the people who read my lj. On the off chance you'll get it.

Anyhow that's possibly why I have a weakness for the Merlin legend, because neither does Merlin. He doesn't quite succeed in achieving what he set out to do either and wonders if it is a flaw in his character. I've always adored the Merlin story. My hope is before the season is over, Merlin will reveal himself to Arthur and Gwen and the others. I don't hold out much hope that Arthur will survive the series. He never does. Why should this version be any different? In each version - Mordred kills him.

( spoilers )