![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatDifficult work week - going back to it again tomorrow. Almost over with. With any luck...will be left alone to my own devices for most of the day, unlike last Friday. Snarky/cranky mood this week as a result of work and the monthly pain in the you know what.
Just finished watching Revenge - which I'm rather adoring at the moment. Such a fun manipulatively nasty soap.
Emily Thorn is turning into quite the complex heroine. As is her nemesis, the wicked Victoria Graystone. But my favorite character is definitely Nolan. Oh yes, dear friends, I definitely have a type. Somewhere around oh 2000, maybe 2002, my type shifted from tall thick dark andwhiny broody to lean, somewhat tall, light haired and snarky. I don't know what happened?
Last night's episode was a lot more fun than last week's - more happened, there were more twists, and more of the back-story was revealed. We now know why the Graystone's did what they did to Emily!Amanda's father and Emily herself.
This story is rather well plotted. Not that many gaps. And the emotion feels real and less manipulated than some of these types of series.
I also loved Nolan's what the fuck just happened, expression. We got more information on him as well and why he's hanging about. This series is moving along nicely. So far the best of the new crop of fall tv shows. Certainly the most entertaining.
Nolan to Emily: I promised your father that I would watch over you. But every time I try, you kick me out - so I set up a camera out of desperation.
Emily's Father in voice-over: Conrad Graystone and Victoria had friends go down in the flight - that their money-laundering resulted in. They had no choice but to set someone else to take the fall, so I was their patsy. But guilt is an interesting thing, it can make people go to extraordinary lengths.
Victoria to Conrad and his security chief: We have to do something to help those people. I'm not sure I can endure this guilt much longer.
Conrad (who clearly is not blessed with a conscience and a complete sociopath): Hmmm, you know that could make our company look even better and help our ratings and shares. Look into that.
Tyler? I'm wondering about Tyler and what his game is. He appears to have his own agenda, and much like Emily, it does not appear to be a nice one. He is not Daniel's friend. Did he kill Daniel? And set up someone else? Beginning to think it wasn't Emily or anything Emily did?
This show is not predictable. I did not see Lydia getting killed, I thought she'd left. Which means the other characters that Emily did in, could potentially pop up again. Also apparently Emily did not intend on Lydia getting killed by Conrad. Not sure what she intended. Nolan was clearly upset by it. I'm guessing Nolan is trying to follow the path the father wanted, and is torn up inside because he's failing miserably?
The show's depiction of the consequences of one's actions is rather interesting and reminiscent of both Dumas and Victor Hugo. Each action has a counter-action, and so on. Also the power games the characters are playing with each other are rather entertaining and unpredictable.
It's far from perfect, but it is fun.
In other news...I got my rant in this week, in part because I couldn't vent about work, so vented about cultural pursuits instead - not here, please, elsewhere, nicely hidden within 285 similar rants, I think mine may be wedged somewhere between a rant I agree with and one I don't quite agree with. LOL! A friend kindly gave us all a space to vent - some 285 comments and counting. (I wonder if they knew what they were getting into? And I seriously hope they turned off their comments and did not get all these emailed to them, I don't get any comments to my lj posts emailed to me anymore. Don't know why - lj just doesn't do it for some reason. And yes, I tried everything to change it, finally just gave up. It may be a good thing. Much prefer to check the inbox on lj instead.) No, I'm not telling where - if I said where, then the comment wouldn't be nicely hidden now would it? And there'd be no point. The people who found it - were similarily inclined, so next best thing to having it filtered.
I don't really permit myself to do much ranting on my lj, or try not to (I'm human I screw up on occasion) since it is a very good way to lose readers. Particularly when you rant about things your friends and readers love and adore, such as say... oh I don't know...Joss Whedon and the Buffyverse?
It's ironic really. What brought me online, and what I wrote obsessively about for an incredibly long time and avoided or ranked on other people for ranting negatively about ...is now something I feel the oddest desire to rank on. Highly ironic. That. Not quite sure why that is. It's almost as if I want to hurt the writer for disappointing me? For not living up to my expectations? For falling down on the job?
It's odd what we do to entertainers...this weird worship/putting up on pedestals that they can never quite live up to. They are after all, when it is all said and done, flawed human beings like ourselves, whose stories are well mere expressions of their psyche's and experiences...and as a result reflect their limitations as storytellers - because they cannot know what we know, they cannot see into the psyche of the other, the one who lies far outside themselves. I think one of the problems with loving something is ...disappointment lurks around every corner? We want the writer/entertainer to reflect our own experience or at the very least show us something new, show use a view that either reinforces our world-view or changes it or challenges it in a positive way. We want to be thrilled, fascinated, and well fill in the blank. And when we find a writer who has done that consistently and well, then suddenly doesn't. And we suddenly realize everything we saw in his work, everything that made us happy and thrilled was a mirage, it did not exist, except inside our own mind and the reality was well...what's the phrase...I thought I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, but in reality it was just a passing train? There's nothing worse...I think than disillusionment, disappointment, realizing what you loved is a fraud, an illusion that you created inside your head. And the question becomes...is this the fault of the writer or entertainer that you loved so dearly, or you..(I mean general you, or me actually) ?
I don't know. I need to go to bed now.
Just finished watching Revenge - which I'm rather adoring at the moment. Such a fun manipulatively nasty soap.
Emily Thorn is turning into quite the complex heroine. As is her nemesis, the wicked Victoria Graystone. But my favorite character is definitely Nolan. Oh yes, dear friends, I definitely have a type. Somewhere around oh 2000, maybe 2002, my type shifted from tall thick dark and
Last night's episode was a lot more fun than last week's - more happened, there were more twists, and more of the back-story was revealed. We now know why the Graystone's did what they did to Emily!Amanda's father and Emily herself.
This story is rather well plotted. Not that many gaps. And the emotion feels real and less manipulated than some of these types of series.
I also loved Nolan's what the fuck just happened, expression. We got more information on him as well and why he's hanging about. This series is moving along nicely. So far the best of the new crop of fall tv shows. Certainly the most entertaining.
Nolan to Emily: I promised your father that I would watch over you. But every time I try, you kick me out - so I set up a camera out of desperation.
Emily's Father in voice-over: Conrad Graystone and Victoria had friends go down in the flight - that their money-laundering resulted in. They had no choice but to set someone else to take the fall, so I was their patsy. But guilt is an interesting thing, it can make people go to extraordinary lengths.
Victoria to Conrad and his security chief: We have to do something to help those people. I'm not sure I can endure this guilt much longer.
Conrad (who clearly is not blessed with a conscience and a complete sociopath): Hmmm, you know that could make our company look even better and help our ratings and shares. Look into that.
Tyler? I'm wondering about Tyler and what his game is. He appears to have his own agenda, and much like Emily, it does not appear to be a nice one. He is not Daniel's friend. Did he kill Daniel? And set up someone else? Beginning to think it wasn't Emily or anything Emily did?
This show is not predictable. I did not see Lydia getting killed, I thought she'd left. Which means the other characters that Emily did in, could potentially pop up again. Also apparently Emily did not intend on Lydia getting killed by Conrad. Not sure what she intended. Nolan was clearly upset by it. I'm guessing Nolan is trying to follow the path the father wanted, and is torn up inside because he's failing miserably?
The show's depiction of the consequences of one's actions is rather interesting and reminiscent of both Dumas and Victor Hugo. Each action has a counter-action, and so on. Also the power games the characters are playing with each other are rather entertaining and unpredictable.
It's far from perfect, but it is fun.
In other news...I got my rant in this week, in part because I couldn't vent about work, so vented about cultural pursuits instead - not here, please, elsewhere, nicely hidden within 285 similar rants, I think mine may be wedged somewhere between a rant I agree with and one I don't quite agree with. LOL! A friend kindly gave us all a space to vent - some 285 comments and counting. (I wonder if they knew what they were getting into? And I seriously hope they turned off their comments and did not get all these emailed to them, I don't get any comments to my lj posts emailed to me anymore. Don't know why - lj just doesn't do it for some reason. And yes, I tried everything to change it, finally just gave up. It may be a good thing. Much prefer to check the inbox on lj instead.) No, I'm not telling where - if I said where, then the comment wouldn't be nicely hidden now would it? And there'd be no point. The people who found it - were similarily inclined, so next best thing to having it filtered.
I don't really permit myself to do much ranting on my lj, or try not to (I'm human I screw up on occasion) since it is a very good way to lose readers. Particularly when you rant about things your friends and readers love and adore, such as say... oh I don't know...Joss Whedon and the Buffyverse?
It's ironic really. What brought me online, and what I wrote obsessively about for an incredibly long time and avoided or ranked on other people for ranting negatively about ...is now something I feel the oddest desire to rank on. Highly ironic. That. Not quite sure why that is. It's almost as if I want to hurt the writer for disappointing me? For not living up to my expectations? For falling down on the job?
It's odd what we do to entertainers...this weird worship/putting up on pedestals that they can never quite live up to. They are after all, when it is all said and done, flawed human beings like ourselves, whose stories are well mere expressions of their psyche's and experiences...and as a result reflect their limitations as storytellers - because they cannot know what we know, they cannot see into the psyche of the other, the one who lies far outside themselves. I think one of the problems with loving something is ...disappointment lurks around every corner? We want the writer/entertainer to reflect our own experience or at the very least show us something new, show use a view that either reinforces our world-view or changes it or challenges it in a positive way. We want to be thrilled, fascinated, and well fill in the blank. And when we find a writer who has done that consistently and well, then suddenly doesn't. And we suddenly realize everything we saw in his work, everything that made us happy and thrilled was a mirage, it did not exist, except inside our own mind and the reality was well...what's the phrase...I thought I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, but in reality it was just a passing train? There's nothing worse...I think than disillusionment, disappointment, realizing what you loved is a fraud, an illusion that you created inside your head. And the question becomes...is this the fault of the writer or entertainer that you loved so dearly, or you..(I mean general you, or me actually) ?
I don't know. I need to go to bed now.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-10-21 10:50 am (UTC)Ha! BtVS gave me back some confidence in contemporary pop culture, that pop culture is more than either idiotic or fascistic, that it is able to at least incorporate artistic ideas into an otherwise purely economic enterprise.
Alas, it also took that away again, too. *lol* (But that's mostly the comics, since i'm very forgiving towards the TV show.)
For me, it really helps to keep the disappointment you speak of down, to remember what pop culture actually is. A business. As such, any forms of art found there are the fluke, and not the norm.
(But i get the disappointment and nerd-rage towards the author.)
no subject
Date: 2011-10-21 10:25 pm (UTC)Buffy rose above it for me. And there are a few episodes that still show and demonstrate that level of artistry and no holds barred creativity. Hush, The Body, Once More With Feeling, and Restless - are the four episodes that come to mind. I honestly think that is the best writing and direction Whedon's ever done, and may well ever do - he may well be a one-trick pony. The closest Angel ever came to that moment of brilliance was possibly "Smile Time" which was not written by Whedon. Firefly - maybe Objects in Space but that was sort of derivative of other sci-fi I'd seen. Dollhouse? A mess from start to finish. The comics? Nothing good there. Even his foray into the X-men felt...a bit lame, as if he were treading old ground - although I did like the Emma story.
I don't know. I know I saw something in the comics that revealed a rather disturbing underlying pattern to Whedon's writing and work stretching all the way back through his Buffy tv series - that made it impossible for me to like the writer or condone/be fannish about what he wrote any longer. It was something that left a really bad taste in my mouth and left me feeling a little disillusioned. I know you know what it is - since we've discussed it at length elsewhere. And I'll should probably just leave it at that.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-22 11:49 am (UTC)Sometimes i envy you and your anglo-saxon liberal tradition which shielded you (= all you people with english, us-american, australian, canadian, etc. cultural background) at least partially from the horrors of romanticism and rationalism. The joys of pure entertainment are lost to me (living on a mass grave and being aware of it makes every statement political).
no subject
Date: 2011-10-22 02:50 pm (UTC)Actually, Americans aren't really immune although we have been shielded just not from what you think. We've been shielded from our own complicity, due in a large part to the manipulation of historical record in schools. It's gotten better, but not a whole lot. Our films, tv, and media has a tendency to white-wash or minimize the horrible things in our own history. There are some sources that don't do that...but not many.
*The American Indian Wars - basically immigrants came to the new world and these settlers either slaughtered the natives or restricted the natives to a section of land that the settlers did not want. This was changed in movies, tv shows and books and historical textbooks - to show that the natives were the bad guys, scalping them and raping them, and the poor settlers had no choice. Not true. In our movies - we often demonized the natives, we called them "Indians".
*Slavery and the Civil Rights Movement - basically Immigrants brought slaves on slave boats from Africa with them to the new world and for decades treated them like little more than animals to do their bidding. We did this long after Europe declared slavery inhumane and illegal. Our Civil War brought an end to it, finally. Later, when these people were finally freed, people lynched them, segregated them and restricted their rights. Movies, films, and text-books to this day white-wash the behavior and make it look like it wasn't all that bad. (See Gone With the Wind, The Blind Side, and The Help as examples.)
*Japanese-Americans interment camps during WWII (completely ignored by US history books and pretty nasty)
*Support of Nazi Germany by various US corporations and US interests up until Pearl Harbor (also completely ignored, few people know this happened.)
It was just a lot longer ago...and many recent immigrants don't have that on their conscience. And well the media has lied about it.
I think the big difference is I live in a huge country with 308 million people and our major industry and biggest export is well the American media. In short, Americans are great liars or rather our media is great at spinning the truth.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-21 11:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-21 10:14 pm (UTC)Feel much the same way. While I understand why he felt compelled to do it, I sort of wish he hadn't. And I'm rather glad Gellar chose to quit after 7 seasons, to go out while they were still doing okay.
Wish I'd not bothered with the comics...if I'd ignored them, I probably would still be a fan of the writer. Which is ironic in a whole other way. Buffy got me off of comics, Whedon got me back into comics, now Whedon's comics has killed my interest in Whedon, Buffy, and comics all together. LOL!
no subject
Date: 2011-10-21 07:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-21 10:11 pm (UTC)That's exactly how I feel at the moment. Although I didn't come to this conclusion until the final 10 issues of the comics, in which I saw the pattern finally and realized, wait - I've made this whole series into way more than it ever was? Damn. How embarrassing. Not to mention disappointing.