(no subject)

[shadowkat]

Hmmm...Chicago Code might actually be a good series - it's the latest by Shawn Murphy. But the
narrative style and writing are quite innovative. There's a sort of scattered narrative style, with a cheeky dialogue, that is reminiscent of Guy Ritchie films and rapid fire dialogue on Spike Lee's cop films and some others of recent years. May stick with this. Was expecting something dull like Blue Bloods - which bored me after two episodes and I gave up on. But this one is grabbing me a bit.

Also, has a female as the top cop, and main character. Rare that. I'm sorry folks but I'm getting burned out on the man-pain shows and the girly I can't find a guy shows, seen too many of them lately. Need to even out the works a bit.

Off to watch House, I think.

Work is making me crazy, as if you could not already tell. Also cranky. VERY cranky. Sorry about that.
When I get cranky - I get snarky.

Saw Glee - which I managed to convert Momster to, she's watching it now along with Aunt K, so no longer need to discuss it online, when I can on the phone. (This is also the case with The Good Wife, Brothers and Sisters, Grey's Anatomy, and Merlin.)


I'm guessing to fully appreciate Glee - you'd have to a)gone to a midwestern high school, b)enjoy satire, c)love musical numbers, d)have an absurd sense of humor. (I can't imagine folks overseas like it all that much or anyone who doesn't like satire. Satire can be wickedly cruel at times.)

Glee is pure satire (lighter than most, but still satire). And it hones in on Ryan Murphy's favorite theme - image and how obsessed we are with it in this culture, particularly American culture, - often to our detriment. This is especially true in high school. Particularly American high school - where everyone is labeled, and what you wear, look like, and do is held against you. But Murphy takes it up a level - he critiques how we perceive gender, and how adults handle image, sexuality and the kids issues - Will Shuster's own high school issues, along with Biest's and Sue Sylvestre's are equally examined. In short everything is satirized, nothing is sacred to Murphy and Falchuck. Even the songs are satirized, although they are also paid homage to. Sometimes the satire is laid on a bit thick, like last night's episode - they went a bit overboard on the Football (probably because it was directly after the Superbowl). They even made fun of the commercials. I don't think there was a moment in last night's episode that wasn't satire. But I did miss the last ten minutes due to the fact that the Superbowl ran late and cut into the DVR programming.

Comments

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

This time you ended up with a triple post, but this is the one where you edited the word 'Glee' to be bold... so I figure it is the keeper.

I'm kind of burnt out on cop shows, but Jennifer Beal looks good and Tim Minear is involved (which usually improves a show). So it might be a keeper.

Why is everything always on Mondays?

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Oh wow... I hadn't heard Tim Minear was involved with it. Hmmm... it didn't really look all that interesting, but I might give it a try for him. I tend to really like his writing...

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. Thank. Annoying. Just deleted the other two.
Stupid LJ.

I'm kind of burnt out on cop shows

Me too. But this one looks different. Although if Minear is involved, it will most likely be cancelled. All his shows get cancelled. It appears to be a thing.

Why is everything always on Mondays?

Also Thursdays and Tuesdays, for some reason.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I think my main problem with Glee is that it doesn't really try to hold its story together. The story arcs are so disconnected and halting, and the continuity is at times kind of crazy. I get that this has some to do with the Musical format, but generally, it bothers me the way it leaps to story points without much connective tissue tying them together. (Except the gay storyline which Ryan Murphy crafts better than most of the rest of the plot. I think at least part of my wariness is Nip/Tuck. Ryan Murphy pushed that one into unlikable absurdity. He has a tendency toward excess.

(The football thing amused the hell out of me because it had absolutely nothing to do with reality. Beginning with... a high school football playoff in February. But that I just wrote down as TV is timeless/timelineless. :)

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Eh...I admittedly only really care about the musical numbers. ;-)

The story arcs are so disconnected and halting, and the continuity is at times kind of crazy. I get that this has some to do with the Musical format, but generally, it bothers me the way it leaps to story points without much connective tissue tying them together.

I think it's more a side-effect of the at times over-the-top satire. They are really going over-the-top with it at times. Subtle isn't Murphy's thing.

Doesn't bother me that much, because I have really low expectations. (I gave up on Nip/Tuck after it jumped the shark three times - during the third and fourth seasons and the characters became mere cartoons.) And find it absurdly amusing and ridicolous.

The football thing amused the hell out of me because it had absolutely nothing to do with reality. Beginning with... a high school football playoff in February.

Hee. I think that had more to do with the Superbowl. This felt like an episodic satirical episode - to introduce football fans to the show.

Murphy was basically making fun of everything to do with football, from gender stereotypes, to who can play, to how it is regarded in high school, to how we regard it in our society, to how the comericals are treated and done, to when the Superbowl takes place. Even the cheerleading and halftime bit was made fun of. That was the point of the whole episode - to make fun of everything to do with football.

I think the only story arcs that were furthered - was the conflict keeping Kurt at the prep school, where he's not that happy at - because he's just another cog in the real and can't really shine, the Rachel/Finn non-romance, and Sue Sylvestrie's on-going war with Will Shuster.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Sorry for all the typos, unfortunately can't really edit it.

It should be "wheel" not "real" and "where he's not that happy" (cut the at) and ridiculous not ridicolous. Sigh.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Murphy was basically making fun of everything to do with football, from gender stereotypes, to who can play, to how it is regarded in high school, to how we regard it in our society, to how the comericals are treated and done, to when the Superbowl takes place. Even the cheerleading and halftime bit was made fun of. That was the point of the whole episode - to make fun of everything to do with football.

Not sure how particularly wise that is given it had the time slot to try to win new fans (and with it being a musical it seems just a tiny bit passive-aggressive. ;) Ambiguous in how it played out in ratings, though. It was up from a regular episode of Glee, but down from post-Superbowl episodes of network shows. "Undercover Boss" actually did better last year.

Sheepishly if not for the DVR, I wouldn't have known that Glee was on. I only saw it because the DVR picked it up without me. I kind of wondered whether Sue wasn't just being all meta for Murphy but also a bit representative of part of the audience. I seem to be drifting away from Glee this season.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Don't get me wrong, didn't say it was great. Just mildly entertaining. I liked the Thriller number. Laughed at the girl making the touchdown, loved the telephone number, and the zombies.

I watch it for the musical production numbers. Sucker for a musical, always have been.

YMMV. ;-)

[kwritten.livejournal.com]

my biggest issue is that there are moments when there really needs to be more time for *acting* ... esp the moment in the Superbowl epi when Finn encourages the fb player to join gleeclub. There should have been time for an emotional response (or five) from the characters. There wasn't. It was just two guys saying lines in a hallway.

At which point I became convinced that Corey Montieth can niether sing NOR act... so why the hell is he on this show, anyway?