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Jan. 9th, 2010 11:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatCold day, but not as cold as I thought, so I'm either getting used to it or the news is exaggerating. Although in comparison to the cold that I put up with living in KC, this is nothing. 26 degrees feels like 19 or 30 feels like 26, not a big deal - in comparison to 30 degrees below 0. You can't go outside without covering every piece of skin and still you fear frostbite. Also, I'm sorry, at a certain point you can't really tell the difference between 19 below and 20 below. Seriously, NYC'ers are wimps when in comes to weather. They freak when it reaches 90 and they freak when it reaches 19 degrees. People - talk to me when it hits 115 or -30, okay?
Have mixed feelings about the whole Twilight reveal, part of me is half-convinced it's an April Fool's joke - after all the reveal came with the April cover. The other part is very relieved and really, really hopes it is true, because there are some cool things they could do with it and it does track quite well with the story and makes sense (I did not want it to Giles and after seeing this week's Dollhouse, I was rather certain it was - although in hindsight the other choice works with the Dollhouse reveal as well, if not actually better.). And a third part is sort of skeptical and fears this is going to be one of those story arcs that makes me wonder why I bother reading let alone paying 2.25 a month to read this shit. A fourth part is ambivalent. And a sixth hopes this isn't supposed to a romantic reunion because that would suck beans on more than one level. There's some decent meta on the reveal - my flist is actually more into meta than freakout. Haven't seen any freakout or worry, just lots of amusement about freakout elsewhere - which I'm delightfully non-privy too, and tons of lovely meta. Which while disappointing, is also quite reassurring. After all, just a comic book. If you want to read the meta - go see![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
2maggie2, aycheb, and stormwreath, if you want to see the giggling go see gabrielleabelle.
Also have mixed feelings about this week's Dollhouse. It works, I guess. And the plot twists did surprise me more or less, although I'd figured out the big reveal fifteen minutes before it happened. I felt overall it was too quickly done and has lots of plotholes and gaps in logic. They are cramming far too much into far too short a space of time - unfortunately the story is too big for the time and space alotted. Happens a lot with prematurely cancelled series, so not entirely their fault. Also, from a completely politically correct or PoC perspective...it is mildly disturbing and tends to reinforce certain views regarding Whedon's work that make it difficult to be a fan of said work.
That said, so far, none of the meta I've read on flist seems to pick up on it. Which is relieving, although I can't see these guys picking up on it anyhow. The ones who would, gave up on the show in S1 or after the first episode of S2. Overall, I liked it and there are bits that I thought were great - Topher Brink is fast becoming my favorite character arc on this series and the actor blows me away. Summer Glau is actually unattractive and creepy here. And the depiction of Caroline in flashback is far better than it was in S1, she's more interesting.
Have mixed feelings about the whole Twilight reveal, part of me is half-convinced it's an April Fool's joke - after all the reveal came with the April cover. The other part is very relieved and really, really hopes it is true, because there are some cool things they could do with it and it does track quite well with the story and makes sense (I did not want it to Giles and after seeing this week's Dollhouse, I was rather certain it was - although in hindsight the other choice works with the Dollhouse reveal as well, if not actually better.). And a third part is sort of skeptical and fears this is going to be one of those story arcs that makes me wonder why I bother reading let alone paying 2.25 a month to read this shit. A fourth part is ambivalent. And a sixth hopes this isn't supposed to a romantic reunion because that would suck beans on more than one level. There's some decent meta on the reveal - my flist is actually more into meta than freakout. Haven't seen any freakout or worry, just lots of amusement about freakout elsewhere - which I'm delightfully non-privy too, and tons of lovely meta. Which while disappointing, is also quite reassurring. After all, just a comic book. If you want to read the meta - go see
2maggie2, aycheb, and stormwreath, if you want to see the giggling go see gabrielleabelle.Also have mixed feelings about this week's Dollhouse. It works, I guess. And the plot twists did surprise me more or less, although I'd figured out the big reveal fifteen minutes before it happened. I felt overall it was too quickly done and has lots of plotholes and gaps in logic. They are cramming far too much into far too short a space of time - unfortunately the story is too big for the time and space alotted. Happens a lot with prematurely cancelled series, so not entirely their fault. Also, from a completely politically correct or PoC perspective...it is mildly disturbing and tends to reinforce certain views regarding Whedon's work that make it difficult to be a fan of said work.
That said, so far, none of the meta I've read on flist seems to pick up on it. Which is relieving, although I can't see these guys picking up on it anyhow. The ones who would, gave up on the show in S1 or after the first episode of S2. Overall, I liked it and there are bits that I thought were great - Topher Brink is fast becoming my favorite character arc on this series and the actor blows me away. Summer Glau is actually unattractive and creepy here. And the depiction of Caroline in flashback is far better than it was in S1, she's more interesting.
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Date: 2010-01-10 10:57 am (UTC)I quite liked the episode, though I found the reveals came a bit fast, some things could have done with stretching over a few episodes, but regarding S1 of Dollhouse and S8 that's maybe not what would have happened anyway, instead there would have been fillers and then the same fast finishing episodes.
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Date: 2010-01-11 02:01 am (UTC)True. Except...I should explain, because not everyone is privey to this. Boyd is the only African-American character in the show or main one. The other non-white character is Sierra. Boyd is depicted as the villian.
Sierra - a rape victim who had to murder her rapist.
The good, heroic characters are Ballard (white) and
Echo (white). This unfortunately fits a pattern that is emerging in Whedon's work that has turned a lot of fans off. I don't necessarily buy this argument, because I've watched a lot of American and British TV - and hate to say it, it's true of 85-90% of the tv shows. It is also a critique of movies - who have a similar problem. The problem is that Persons of Color (PoC) much like women aren't the controlling voice and don't have the financial backing and power to convey a competing perspective. Although that is changing.
I don't really blame Whedon for it, and JJ Abrahms is much much worse, but - it does nag a bit, particularly now that the internet fortunately or unfortunately has made me incredibly aware of it. Again, I can shrug it off. But I wish they had more PoC's in lead roles.
(shrugs)
but regarding S1 of Dollhouse and S8...that's maybe not what would have happened anyway, instead there would have been fillers and then the same fast finishing episodes
Agreed. I think Whedon needs to partner himself with a better plotter. He did a better job on the Buffy tv series. In both the comics and Dollhouse - the plot feels strung together. He's drawn it out too long in the comics - the Retreat arc bored me. And as a result, I'm a bit skeptical of what is coming. Get to the point, already - I keep wanting to tell him. Three years is too frigging long to draw out one story arc, you will lose a good portion of your audience to boredom. On Dollhouse - he did the opposite, crunched for time, he threw the twists at us too quickly, and as a result they lacked emotional resonance. I should have been more upset by Bennett's death - did not care. And I should have been upset regarding the Boyd/Saunders relationship. It's a cool twist, but it lacks the emotional resonance of the twists in the Buffy tv series. He didn't build up to it well.
Also Caroline's arc doesn't make a lot of sense. We're told in S1 that she got into the Dollhouse because of her boyfriend being killed and she was wracked with guilt...and we see her agreeing to become a Doll because of it - to lose the guilt (which also made no sense to me at the time, but whatever). Here, we get a completely different background story - she's trying to destroy Rossum, gets close, things go wrong - Bennett is seriously injured, she leaves Bennett - gets caught by Adelle and is taken to see the head of Rossum who Adelle hasn't even seen. It was jarring, because it felt like a retcon of Echo's background - although I guess that is the Dollhouse - rewriting people's memories and histories, which while cool, could have been presented better.
I liked the episode and I find Dollhouse fascinating, but there are a lot of things that bother me about it and frustrate me.