![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatDifficult work week has once again come to a close. Gray, drippy, and chilly tonight. I'm tired.
You don't want to hear about my work week, do you? Didn't think so.
Currently flitting between re-reading A Calculated Risk by Katherine Neville and continuing to plod through Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (yes, still, you'd think I'd have given up on it by now but nooo) - which I can tell was written by a journalist. Lacks emotion, quite dry, and matter-of-fact tone. Not that all journalists write that way, but financial journalists, business journalists, and news journalists often do. Anyhow, while it is an intriguing novel, it's not really hitting my craving. So flitting between that and a book I read ages ago, and got the sudden desire to re-read - A Calculated Risk by Katherine Neville - who creates cartoonish characters with bizarre names and puts them in twisty adventure plots. This one is about a high-ranking female bank executive who plots the ultimate corporate revenge after her boss axes her latest proposal and a lucrative job offer all in one fell blow. Her revenge? To break through automated security and hide some money in a place no one will find it, then point out to senior management how easy a theft really is. But there's a wrinkle in her plan - top financial wizard and brainiac extraordinare, Dr. Zoltan Tor (who I didn't realize until I started re-reading matches the physical description of my own brother - a bit of a damper that - very hard to be turned on by a romantic love interest that looks like one's own brother. Tall - about five to six inches above six foot (check), copper penny hair (check), as lean as he is tall (check), pale skin (check), angular roman nose (check) and soft voice. Only difference my brother isn't that bright and isn't precise in how he talks. And has the same dry sense of humor that I do - having inherited from my Dad.) Her former mentor ups the ante - why not steal a billion dollars, invest it to earn thirty million in three months - and put the original billion back before anyone notices? And to heighten the challenge, Tor and Verity will compete against each other though Tor gives Verity an edge: she can use a computer for her theft but he cannot...(See? Twisty plots and I adore twisty plots. Simple plots with lots of world building and vague characters who pun about all day tend to bore me. But twisty convoluted plots that I need to keep track of - thrill me. This has been a problem with my own writing, actually - I get bored with simple plots and have a tendency to go off on tangents, hmmm sort of like I'm doing here.)
Watched Grey's Anatomy this week - or the Grey's musical. Sigh. Serious hospital dramas that verge on the melodramatic, really should not attempt to do musicals. So much fail. Where to begin?
Although, will state, it did make me appreciate what Whedon managed to pull off in the Buffy musical Once More With Feeling. Proving once again that writing and putting on a musical for a tv show is not something you should try at home - it's not as easy as it looks, kids.
I didn't exactly go into it with high expectations - because Grey's doesn't really lend itself to well a musical format. But, I was admittedly curious to see how they would pull it off. You can do it - other tv shows have, Scrubs did it by putting everything in a patient's pov and the patient happened to only hear people sing as if in a musical - due to a brain tumor. House did it with a dream sequence, and it was only one number by Hugh Laurie who can actually sing and dance. Grey's...tries to do it through the pov of Callie, one character, but unlike Scrubs and House, doesn't maintain that pov throughout, so we lose the thread. Instead of the other characters only singing when they are around her or when we are clearly seeing things through her pov, we have them singing in situations she is not privy to and knows nothing about and isn't even present. This problem is compounded by the fact that many of the songs are overlaid with dialogue, so you can't make out the song or the dialogue. A recurring problem that I have with Grey's by the way. One episode, not this one, another one, had a voice over, dialogue, and a soundtrack all competing for audio space - I had to turn on the close-captioning. If any show was in serious need of a good sound editor/mixer it is this one.
Add to all this - unlike Once More with Feeling - much of the music isn't necessary to the plot or story. They could have accomplished the same thing with two musical numbers sung either solely by Callie or in a dream sequence - as House did or for that matter Scrubs. They didn't need five songs. Also, only two of those songs propelled the plot forward - the first song and the last one.
None of the songs were very good. Some were cringe-worthy in fact. I did like the last song quite a bit, but it also confused me a little - was Callie singing to herself to get herself to wake up, or singing to Arizona, or both? I decided it had to be to herself.
In Whedon's ground-breaking musical - the music was in of itself a major plot-point. A spell cast by a demon accidentally summoned by one of the characters - results in the inhabitants of the verse singing at inappropriate times and about their feelings or basically giving voice to their hidden thoughts in song. Sort of the malady of saying whatever you are thinking except through song.
Each song in Once More is precisely chosen for the character and the character's plot arc. The things they don't want anyone to know, their hopes, fears, desires - come out in song. The fall out is felt for five episodes. At the same time - the episode makes fun of itself, the television musical, and musicals in general, often breaking the fourth wall in the process. It is detailed, well-thought out, and works on multiple levels.
Contrast this to Grey's Anatomy (where the writer was clearly inspired by Whedon's inventiveness, but doesn't quite have the right genre to do it in or the ability to pull it off.). The songs here are barely heard. Many feel inappropriate to what is happening on screen. There's a song about "Wait too long, and he's gone" - which makes little sense to Callie's situation. Also instead of examining the characters, or adding something to the episode, the songs weigh it down, make it slide over the line into absurd melodrama. Instead of opera, it becomes soapy and the audience's suspension of disbelief is sorely tested.
The set-up? On the road to a B&B with her lover Arizona, Callie takes off her seatbelt to retrieve a cell phone that she threw in the back seat to call her best friend and baby-dady Mark. Arizona proposes and out of nowhere they get hit by a truck - resulting in Callie being thrown through the windsheild. Callie's brain shuts down and this is the excuse for song or music. (A fairly cliche one that has been done to death, unfortunately. Also tends towards sappy melodrama if done badly. So they are taking a huge risk here.) The actress playing Callie is a broadway trained singer and performer - I know, I saw her in Spam-a-lot. And she has a tremendous voice. As do Chandra Wilson who plays Bailey and Kevin McKidd who plays Owen. If the show had stayed in Callie's pov throughout and all the actors sang whenever they were interacting with her zoned out character - or near her, but only when they were near her or interacting with her - this may have worked. But that's not what they did. Instead we have a lengthy song with Lexie - called Just Breath - that only peripherially involves Callie, also the song is overlaid with dialogue, so it is hard to hear or make out the words. Another song is by Owen telling the other arguing doctors to shut up and listen to his plan - it is also overlaid with dialogue and difficult to hear. Instead of providing us insight into Callie or clarifying how she views the world and the people in it - or how she's handling this pain, the songs confuse things. The confusion could work - depicting Callie's own confused state of mind, but the songs don't fit that image either - they are largely romantic ballads. Also, to date, Callie's character has not really been associated with music or singing, so the songs come out of nowhere. In short - it feels as if the show jumped the shark again. (Although Grey's has jumped the shark and back again so many times, one loses track. They could very well come up with some amazing stuff towards the end of the season, who knows. They did last year.)
The sub-plots also make little sense. While Whedon's Once More With Feeling pushed all the characters arcs forward, this one...does weird things with them. I still do not understand what happened with Kim Raver's heart surgeon and Yang, why she told Yang at the end that she can't teach her if she doesn't listen. (Which to be honest, she's done one too many times before now. Look, hon, Yang's a bit of a daredevil - that's why you like her. She isn't going to change.) My reaction was pretty much, huh? And this may in part be due to the fact that I couldn't hear the interaction in the operating room due to the song that was overlaying the dialogue. Looping for this show must be a bitch to do. I feel sorry for the actors. Also, not sure what is going on with Lexie Grey - who seems to have the hots for Mark one moment and Avery the next.
Overall rating? D- (While not quite unwatchable, there are some good scenes in there believe it or not - and two decent musical numbers - both sung by Torres, it's awfully close.)
You don't want to hear about my work week, do you? Didn't think so.
Currently flitting between re-reading A Calculated Risk by Katherine Neville and continuing to plod through Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (yes, still, you'd think I'd have given up on it by now but nooo) - which I can tell was written by a journalist. Lacks emotion, quite dry, and matter-of-fact tone. Not that all journalists write that way, but financial journalists, business journalists, and news journalists often do. Anyhow, while it is an intriguing novel, it's not really hitting my craving. So flitting between that and a book I read ages ago, and got the sudden desire to re-read - A Calculated Risk by Katherine Neville - who creates cartoonish characters with bizarre names and puts them in twisty adventure plots. This one is about a high-ranking female bank executive who plots the ultimate corporate revenge after her boss axes her latest proposal and a lucrative job offer all in one fell blow. Her revenge? To break through automated security and hide some money in a place no one will find it, then point out to senior management how easy a theft really is. But there's a wrinkle in her plan - top financial wizard and brainiac extraordinare, Dr. Zoltan Tor (who I didn't realize until I started re-reading matches the physical description of my own brother - a bit of a damper that - very hard to be turned on by a romantic love interest that looks like one's own brother. Tall - about five to six inches above six foot (check), copper penny hair (check), as lean as he is tall (check), pale skin (check), angular roman nose (check) and soft voice. Only difference my brother isn't that bright and isn't precise in how he talks. And has the same dry sense of humor that I do - having inherited from my Dad.) Her former mentor ups the ante - why not steal a billion dollars, invest it to earn thirty million in three months - and put the original billion back before anyone notices? And to heighten the challenge, Tor and Verity will compete against each other though Tor gives Verity an edge: she can use a computer for her theft but he cannot...(See? Twisty plots and I adore twisty plots. Simple plots with lots of world building and vague characters who pun about all day tend to bore me. But twisty convoluted plots that I need to keep track of - thrill me. This has been a problem with my own writing, actually - I get bored with simple plots and have a tendency to go off on tangents, hmmm sort of like I'm doing here.)
Watched Grey's Anatomy this week - or the Grey's musical. Sigh. Serious hospital dramas that verge on the melodramatic, really should not attempt to do musicals. So much fail. Where to begin?
Although, will state, it did make me appreciate what Whedon managed to pull off in the Buffy musical Once More With Feeling. Proving once again that writing and putting on a musical for a tv show is not something you should try at home - it's not as easy as it looks, kids.
I didn't exactly go into it with high expectations - because Grey's doesn't really lend itself to well a musical format. But, I was admittedly curious to see how they would pull it off. You can do it - other tv shows have, Scrubs did it by putting everything in a patient's pov and the patient happened to only hear people sing as if in a musical - due to a brain tumor. House did it with a dream sequence, and it was only one number by Hugh Laurie who can actually sing and dance. Grey's...tries to do it through the pov of Callie, one character, but unlike Scrubs and House, doesn't maintain that pov throughout, so we lose the thread. Instead of the other characters only singing when they are around her or when we are clearly seeing things through her pov, we have them singing in situations she is not privy to and knows nothing about and isn't even present. This problem is compounded by the fact that many of the songs are overlaid with dialogue, so you can't make out the song or the dialogue. A recurring problem that I have with Grey's by the way. One episode, not this one, another one, had a voice over, dialogue, and a soundtrack all competing for audio space - I had to turn on the close-captioning. If any show was in serious need of a good sound editor/mixer it is this one.
Add to all this - unlike Once More with Feeling - much of the music isn't necessary to the plot or story. They could have accomplished the same thing with two musical numbers sung either solely by Callie or in a dream sequence - as House did or for that matter Scrubs. They didn't need five songs. Also, only two of those songs propelled the plot forward - the first song and the last one.
None of the songs were very good. Some were cringe-worthy in fact. I did like the last song quite a bit, but it also confused me a little - was Callie singing to herself to get herself to wake up, or singing to Arizona, or both? I decided it had to be to herself.
In Whedon's ground-breaking musical - the music was in of itself a major plot-point. A spell cast by a demon accidentally summoned by one of the characters - results in the inhabitants of the verse singing at inappropriate times and about their feelings or basically giving voice to their hidden thoughts in song. Sort of the malady of saying whatever you are thinking except through song.
Each song in Once More is precisely chosen for the character and the character's plot arc. The things they don't want anyone to know, their hopes, fears, desires - come out in song. The fall out is felt for five episodes. At the same time - the episode makes fun of itself, the television musical, and musicals in general, often breaking the fourth wall in the process. It is detailed, well-thought out, and works on multiple levels.
Contrast this to Grey's Anatomy (where the writer was clearly inspired by Whedon's inventiveness, but doesn't quite have the right genre to do it in or the ability to pull it off.). The songs here are barely heard. Many feel inappropriate to what is happening on screen. There's a song about "Wait too long, and he's gone" - which makes little sense to Callie's situation. Also instead of examining the characters, or adding something to the episode, the songs weigh it down, make it slide over the line into absurd melodrama. Instead of opera, it becomes soapy and the audience's suspension of disbelief is sorely tested.
The set-up? On the road to a B&B with her lover Arizona, Callie takes off her seatbelt to retrieve a cell phone that she threw in the back seat to call her best friend and baby-dady Mark. Arizona proposes and out of nowhere they get hit by a truck - resulting in Callie being thrown through the windsheild. Callie's brain shuts down and this is the excuse for song or music. (A fairly cliche one that has been done to death, unfortunately. Also tends towards sappy melodrama if done badly. So they are taking a huge risk here.) The actress playing Callie is a broadway trained singer and performer - I know, I saw her in Spam-a-lot. And she has a tremendous voice. As do Chandra Wilson who plays Bailey and Kevin McKidd who plays Owen. If the show had stayed in Callie's pov throughout and all the actors sang whenever they were interacting with her zoned out character - or near her, but only when they were near her or interacting with her - this may have worked. But that's not what they did. Instead we have a lengthy song with Lexie - called Just Breath - that only peripherially involves Callie, also the song is overlaid with dialogue, so it is hard to hear or make out the words. Another song is by Owen telling the other arguing doctors to shut up and listen to his plan - it is also overlaid with dialogue and difficult to hear. Instead of providing us insight into Callie or clarifying how she views the world and the people in it - or how she's handling this pain, the songs confuse things. The confusion could work - depicting Callie's own confused state of mind, but the songs don't fit that image either - they are largely romantic ballads. Also, to date, Callie's character has not really been associated with music or singing, so the songs come out of nowhere. In short - it feels as if the show jumped the shark again. (Although Grey's has jumped the shark and back again so many times, one loses track. They could very well come up with some amazing stuff towards the end of the season, who knows. They did last year.)
The sub-plots also make little sense. While Whedon's Once More With Feeling pushed all the characters arcs forward, this one...does weird things with them. I still do not understand what happened with Kim Raver's heart surgeon and Yang, why she told Yang at the end that she can't teach her if she doesn't listen. (Which to be honest, she's done one too many times before now. Look, hon, Yang's a bit of a daredevil - that's why you like her. She isn't going to change.) My reaction was pretty much, huh? And this may in part be due to the fact that I couldn't hear the interaction in the operating room due to the song that was overlaying the dialogue. Looping for this show must be a bitch to do. I feel sorry for the actors. Also, not sure what is going on with Lexie Grey - who seems to have the hots for Mark one moment and Avery the next.
Overall rating? D- (While not quite unwatchable, there are some good scenes in there believe it or not - and two decent musical numbers - both sung by Torres, it's awfully close.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 03:51 am (UTC)I wish I had tuned in for this (the only episode of 'Seventh Heaven' I ever watched was their musical episode, and it was the most enormous fail I've ever seen on TV... none of the songs fit into the story in any way at all, and none of the actors could sing well enough to excuse their trying it).
Thanks for the review!
no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 12:48 pm (UTC)LOL!
This was actually better than Stephen Bocho's attempt - in ahem,
Cop Rock. But not by much.
And you wish you'd tuned in? I think the melodrama would have made you crazy.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 12:55 pm (UTC)Oh it would, that is why I never got into the show (even though I'm a fan of George Clooney), but I LOVE to catch musical episodes (that is also the only episode of 'Scrubs' I ever watched).
no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 01:57 pm (UTC)ER to be fair, never did a musical episode. ;-)
but I LOVE to catch musical episodes (that is also the only episode of 'Scrubs' I ever watched).
Ah a musical junkie. I can relate. I'm the same way. I actually watched High School Musical on Disney.
How you made it through Seventh Heaven I don't know - that's sentimental religious and melodramatic at the same time - I found the show unwatchable and I tend to have a high tolerance for that stuff. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 02:54 pm (UTC)I also never watched 'Seventh Heaven', except for that one musical episode that I just had to see... but it was a total fail.
Yeah, I am definitely a musical junkie, I loved them as a child (of course Disney taught me to love them with 'Pinocchio' and 'Snow White') and I've never given up on them (but I really disliked the movie versions of 'Chicago' and 'Mama Mia').
no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 01:20 pm (UTC)Wait. What?? They are trying to do a Hush episode? Are they nuts? They do realize that some of their viewers (actually I'm willing to bet the vast majority if my flist and family members are any indication) only watch Glee for the musical numbers, right?
Take away the music...and well, you expose all the things that are massively wrong with Glee. And there goes the audience...
At least Whedon had a genre and a television series in which these concepts actually work plot wise and character wise. I mean you can explain everyone losing their voices and make it suspenseful in a show where the characters are fighting supernatural villains on a daily basis...but not in non-genre tv series.
Are the writers bored? I do wonder about the television writing business at times. Because this seems to happen whenever writers get really comfortable and think there's no way anyone is going to cancel my series, so I'm going to have fun now and see how far I can push the network and studio. Because, writing the same episode every week gets really boring after a while.
It's a weird self-destructive tendency that seems to happen whenever a tv show passes it's five year mark or what I like to call, television writer burn-out syndrom. Althoug with Glee - they seem to be ahead of schedule - since we've only made it to the second season, but Ryan Murphy is an angry tv writer who likes to see if he can make his shows jump the shark without anyone noticing. (He did it all the time with Nip/Tuck).
i wish now, Grey's had gone in that direction.
Sigh, yes. That could have worked. Grey's actually does do silence fairly well and it fits with the genre.
yes, what is going on with Lexie Grey? i mean both guys are hot and caring at what they do. so i can sympathize, but girl just pick!
Sigh. Yes. Lexie Grey to be honest? Grates on my nerves at times.
Have the character pick Avery already and move on. This is delving into soap opera territory. Grey's likes to milk these romantic triangles longer than it should, it's not very good at them. It's actually better at friend/romantic triangles - such as Cristina/Meredith/Derek or Owen/Cristina/Meredith or Mark/Callie/Arizona. Where one end of the triangle is the individual's best friend/soul mate and the other is their lover/husband or wife. But whenever they try romantic ie - Alex/Izzie/George or Callie/George/Izzie or Mark/Lexie/Avery - the story loses its thread and it falls into silly melodrama.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 09:54 pm (UTC)They are doing David Bowie? I'm not sure whether to be thrilled or scared. I lovvve David Bowie. No, they definitely have not done David Bowie yet. The Beatles, yes. But none of the classic British rock groups - ie The Stones, Pink Floyd, the Who, or Bowie. Glee's stayed pretty pop music in its tastes to date.
yeah, i don't know what the writer's aversion is to developing break up relationships. at least this is just what i see happening with the writing. let me know if i'm completely off base, ok?
Hadn't noticed that, but I think you are right. Owen and the heart surgeon aren't friends any more. Yang and Burke no longer talk. George and Izzie barely spoke when their relationship ended. And it goes on and on. Maybe the writers have never experienced it? Or had bad break-ups?
no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 04:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 04:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 09:56 pm (UTC)But the joke makes a lot of sense, actually. It really fits with Ryan Murphy's specific brand of satiric humor. And it was most likely targeted at both Grey's Anatomy and House for doing musical bits.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 04:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 09:57 pm (UTC)