(no subject)

[shadowkat]

[ETA: found a new icon of Ayra from Game that I really like.]


Okay, my brain hurts...is it time to go home yet? ;-)

LJ brainless question of the day:

What is your favorite cult film, and why?

At the moment? Buckaroo Bonzai - Adventures Across the 8th Dimension.
Although Tremors comes in close second. Not sure Blade Runner counts as a cult film - if it does, then definitely that - since I actually own it on DVD.

I don't feel like explaining why. Figure it out for yourselves.

Speaking of taste issues? The whole Buffy S5-7 vs. Buffy 1-3 debate arises again.

Easy - if you are obsessed with high school stories and tween romance - you probably loved 1-3, if you are obsessed with stories about 20something angst, depression, abusive relationships, post and current college angst,
job frustration, and are either a frustrated psychology major or philosophy major at heart? You probably loved 5-7 and think S4 is the ultimate season. Although 3's stand-alone and Mayor/Faith arc had its appeal.

Hopeless romantic into Twilight novels? 1-3 only. (1-2 - I doubt they stuck around much after that.)Or casual fan into watching something not too deep. (there are exceptions of course, aren't there always?)

Cynics into Supernatural, BSG, Doctor Who, and tv shows like Game of Thrones and True Blood? 4-7 OR scholarly fan wanting to analyze the thing to death.
(also exceptions...ETA: some of these people love Doctor Who for example, which is far from cnynical.)

Then of course there are the weird people like myself who liked everything but the last 10 issues of the comics. We don't fit in any category and just look in bewilderment at the rest of you. ;-)

[ETA: Also should include people who liked all the tv series seasons but hated all the comics even though they masochistically read them anyway. And then there's the people who ignored the comics completely and loved all the seasons ...ETAA: Alright, I'm bound to have forgotten someone - so create your own little special category.]

And finally the folks who well liked all the seasons including all the comics...

Okay, not finally, there's also the people who think the show was about a cheerleader slaying vampires directed towards tween girls and just don't get the appeal. (Uh, no, that was the movie. But I can understand the confusion.)

In short try figuring out why people like what they like at your own risk.
Personally, I think it's impossible, without pissing everyone off and being proven to be an ass.

back to figuring out this change order request...then home again home again jiggedty jig.

Comments

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Eh...I can't say I entirely disagree. While I loved watching S6 when it was airing, it's the season I find the hardest to rewatch, at least without cringing. Up until "Wrecked" - it's actually really good in places and highly rewatchable. After Smashed...it sort of droops downhill, until about Villians where it picks up speed again and becomes watchable. As good as Dead Things may well be, I find it very difficult to rewatch. Just as I find Seeing Red, Wrecked, Gone, Older and Far Away, Doublemeat Palace, Hells Bells, and As You Were difficult to rewatch - without cringing. But I admire the risks they took and it felt at times like watching a trapeze act without a net. It was also the first time during the series that I wasn't quite sure what they were going to do next. But can't say I like re-watching it much.

Season 7 was similar. The first five to ten episodes highly entertaining, everything after Showtime a bit Spotty. Although will state I find S7 more rewatchable than S6 - far less painful season also less risky. Caleb was a mistake. As was how they chose to depict the First, and Angel should have only appeared as the First, never himself. Or better yet as both.

The other seasons are equally spotty of course. My favorite continues to be S5 for some reason - just because of all the Seasons it's the only one that I enjoy 90% of the episodes and find it enjoyable to rewatch from start to finish. Even the weaker episodes don't make me cringe in quite the same way several episodes in 7 and 6 do. It had an emotionally satisfying ending. And an emotionally satisfying story for me.
Also it may be the only season that didn't have that much sexual violence...it's implied in places, but it's not as in your face as all the other seasons - so that may have something to do with it. (shrugs)

S4 - I thought the overall plot was silly and it never worked for me. Whedon sucks at sci-fi - his knowledge of it clearly comes from B movies and comic books. Cheesy F/X and cheesier scripts. When they weren't focusing on the whole Initiative military arc - which the writers clearly didn't understand - the season wasn't that bad. It had a handful of great stand-a-lone episodes: Hush, Who are You - This Year's Girl, A New Man, The Freshman, Something Blue, and Pangs - most of which were typically at the beginning of the season. For some reason in the latter seasons - the beginning of the season was stronger than the end. (Where the Wild Things Are - I basically fastforward through everything but the Spike/Anya scenes, Spike scenes, and Giles singing scenes - which make the story work.
Also Anya/Xander are quite good in that episode.)

Seasons 1-3 - feel increasingly juvenile to me. 3 is by far the strongest - with some interesting stand-a-lones such as The Wish and Dopplegangland. 1-2 - this story has been done so many times now that it feels cliche, and I'm not even sure any more who originated it. Girl meets dreamboat, he turns evil, they can't be together, she kills him...woe is me. There's maybe five or six episodes between those two seasons, most of which are in S2 - Spike and Dru definitely were the main attractions.
The episodes without them, with few exceptions, felt a bit like a warmed up version of Scooby Doo Where Are You meets RL Stine.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Oh, I still can't watch a great deal of Season 6. Just too damn painful. But I at least have a feeling in Season 6 that they were trying something so I give credit for having a goal even if I think that they bit off more than they could chew in the end. But, yeah, too painful to watch. I always remember some critic's review during Season 6 calling it "tv to slash your wrists by" and... yeah. Its kind of that. It's view of human nature is depressing as hell.

Season 7 was similar. The first five to ten episodes highly entertaining, everything after Showtime a bit Spotty.
I agree. re-watched most of Season 7 about a year ago and was surprised at first that it was better than I remembered. When it was initially dealing with the characters from the show, it actually felt like there was a there there. Then they started importing a boatload of potentials crowding up the place and never developing any of it really and it all just evaporated and then it draaaaaags (and just as passionless as I had remembered). Someone needed to remind him 'keep it simple, stupid.' Too much piling on with potentials and impossible to kill then easy to kill ubies and the screen got too cluttered to actually tell a coherent story about the characters that brought us to the story (see the same in Season 8... only on crack).

Whedon sucks at sci-fi - his knowledge of it clearly comes from B movies and comic books

This. God yes, this. Whedon desperately needs to stick with fantasy because he needs to be able to say 'magic!'. He has no interest in how things work. Now, sure, in sci-fi the science is actually a bit of story magic, but to make science fiction work, you have to have enough actual understanding of science to give your 'magic' a modesty patch. Sure, you're going to go well beyond what known science can support (it's fiction!) but you need enough science to give your fiction a leaping off point.

Joss clearly has zero fascination with science and so never, ever added that layer to it.

Stick to 'it's magic!' Joss. Really. People who do science fiction might not be using science, but you can tell there's some interest in it (and Star Wars isn't so much science fiction as it is a Space Opera... which makes it no less fun, but it has more in common with fantasy tropes than science).

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Very much agree with everything you state above.

Had the same experience with both S6 and S7. S6 - you have to appreciate just for breaking the boundaries of its own genre and television in general. They literally drew outside the lines that season. And I agree, you have to give them credit for trying something new and having goal - even if they bit off far more than they could chew. Really painful to rewatch though. At the time I called it "six characters on the verge of a nervous breakdown or in the midst of a nervous breakdown." Talk about literally throwing all your characters off the cliff.

Someone needed to remind him 'keep it simple, stupid.' Too much piling on with potentials and impossible to kill then easy to kill ubies and the screen got too cluttered to actually tell a coherent story about the characters that brought us to the story (see the same in Season 8... only on crack).

Yes. Exactly. It's very hard to do this well. I think Whedon's biggest problem is he got a bit too ambitious and tried biting off more than he could chew, without taking the time to sit down and carefully plot out each character arc. Not just Buffy's.
The fact that he hadn't a clue what he was going to do with Spike or even Xander for that matter - should have been a wake-up call that he needed to scale back a bit. He's too fly by the seat of my pants or make it up as I go along - to be able to handle an epic story with a cast of thousands, multiple story-threads, and complex themes. The writers who do stories like that effectively are far more detail oriented than Whedon and take the time to actually chart out their characters journey's - examples are George RR Martin and the writers of Friday Night Lights. (While it is tempting to say Lost or BSG, they didn't quite pull it off either - just better than Whedon did.)