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shadowkat1. TV shows collide...
On General Hospital today there was the following conversation between Derek Wells (aka Julian Jerome, a nefarious mobster posing as a publishing magnate) and Franco (an alleged serial killer and street artist). They are arguing over Carly, whom Franco has a thing for and wants Derek to stay the heck away from.
I burst out laughing. Classic. Although it was actually exhausted in S5-S7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because apparently the writer's hadn't made up their minds on the topic.
(Also, considering the number of times Whedon reference General Hospital in interviews and the series, it's about bloody time.)
As a side note? I've come to the realization that my difficulty with Joss Whedon's work post S1 Dollhouse (Man on the Street), although I saw signs of it there too but was too distracted by the cool urban legend references (hello! cultural anthropology minor!) to think too much about it, is...he's stopped focusing on character building, character emotional arcs, and character relationships romantic and familial. Instead it's all about the big power hungry organization or fighting the machine or the power made gods or dealing with your superpowers. Which I'm sorry, I find dull and redundant. Other people have handled these topics better long before Whedon wrote a script. But the characters - those rich, textured, relateable, psychological portraits of characters appear to be missing. I just see stock characters or pale imitations of previously created ones, like he's pulling a dusty action figure off the shelf. Also too much emphasis on gimmickery and film angles, not enough on telling the story...Director Whedon, sorry to say, isn't as interesting or as entertaining as the television scribe. (Yes, I know your mileage may vary on this, yaddah, yadda, yadda. I'd be more interested to see if anyone out there agrees with me. I already know who doesn't.)
2. The co-worker (who is also a frustrated television/screen scribe and who'd convinced me to give Breaking Bad a try in the first place) - sent me an email today on what he thought of the season finale and last eight episodes. The skinny? He thought it was a huge mess and was incredibly disappointed.
Coworker: (I'm paraphrasing) This series should have ended with the Season 4 finale. They didn't know what to do with Jesse. Killing Jesse's girlfriend was out of nowhere and didn't further the plot. What was that undergound railroad bit with Hank and Walt? The whole bit in New Hampshire was a waste of time, except it was nice to see Robert Forrester on screen again. And how did he easily poison Lydia when it was so hard to find a way to poison Gus Fringe? Also the shootout at the end was complete ex deux machina...and totally a cliche. (A nazi biker gang? Really? Is this a Charles Bronson movie?? ) And no big organization would allow a meth lab to be in a bus." (In short he gave me a two paragraph rant.)
Me: I don't entirely disagree - but? Hey, at least Walt took a bullet for Jesse.
Also there were a few great scenes in there: the phone conversations with Skylar and Flynn,
Hank figuring out Walt was Heisenberg on Walt's toilet, Walt's last conversation with Skylar in her new home, Walt playing one last con on his ex-partners with the aid of Jesse's pals,
and the finale scene between Walt and Jesse. Seriously this is more than we get in most tv series. Also, it's my personal view that 98% of tv series should be limited to no more than
4 - 5 seasons, and 20 minutes should be shaved off of 98% of movies.
Co-worker: Yeah, that's true. I just wish I was part of that writing team.
On General Hospital today there was the following conversation between Derek Wells (aka Julian Jerome, a nefarious mobster posing as a publishing magnate) and Franco (an alleged serial killer and street artist). They are arguing over Carly, whom Franco has a thing for and wants Derek to stay the heck away from.
Derek:So you see yourself as Carly's protector? Isn't that a tad hypocritical considering you have a criminal record? Unless you plan on selling her on the idea that she can redeem you.
Franco : We're sort of in the middle of a disagreement on that..
Derek: Which brings up an interesting philosophical question - can something or someone as evil as you are experience love and if they can experience love are they still evil?
Franco: A query completely exhausted during the third season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I will leave you to ponder that.
I burst out laughing. Classic. Although it was actually exhausted in S5-S7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because apparently the writer's hadn't made up their minds on the topic.
(Also, considering the number of times Whedon reference General Hospital in interviews and the series, it's about bloody time.)
As a side note? I've come to the realization that my difficulty with Joss Whedon's work post S1 Dollhouse (Man on the Street), although I saw signs of it there too but was too distracted by the cool urban legend references (hello! cultural anthropology minor!) to think too much about it, is...he's stopped focusing on character building, character emotional arcs, and character relationships romantic and familial. Instead it's all about the big power hungry organization or fighting the machine or the power made gods or dealing with your superpowers. Which I'm sorry, I find dull and redundant. Other people have handled these topics better long before Whedon wrote a script. But the characters - those rich, textured, relateable, psychological portraits of characters appear to be missing. I just see stock characters or pale imitations of previously created ones, like he's pulling a dusty action figure off the shelf. Also too much emphasis on gimmickery and film angles, not enough on telling the story...Director Whedon, sorry to say, isn't as interesting or as entertaining as the television scribe. (Yes, I know your mileage may vary on this, yaddah, yadda, yadda. I'd be more interested to see if anyone out there agrees with me. I already know who doesn't.)
2. The co-worker (who is also a frustrated television/screen scribe and who'd convinced me to give Breaking Bad a try in the first place) - sent me an email today on what he thought of the season finale and last eight episodes. The skinny? He thought it was a huge mess and was incredibly disappointed.
Coworker: (I'm paraphrasing) This series should have ended with the Season 4 finale. They didn't know what to do with Jesse. Killing Jesse's girlfriend was out of nowhere and didn't further the plot. What was that undergound railroad bit with Hank and Walt? The whole bit in New Hampshire was a waste of time, except it was nice to see Robert Forrester on screen again. And how did he easily poison Lydia when it was so hard to find a way to poison Gus Fringe? Also the shootout at the end was complete ex deux machina...and totally a cliche. (A nazi biker gang? Really? Is this a Charles Bronson movie?? ) And no big organization would allow a meth lab to be in a bus." (In short he gave me a two paragraph rant.)
Me: I don't entirely disagree - but? Hey, at least Walt took a bullet for Jesse.
Also there were a few great scenes in there: the phone conversations with Skylar and Flynn,
Hank figuring out Walt was Heisenberg on Walt's toilet, Walt's last conversation with Skylar in her new home, Walt playing one last con on his ex-partners with the aid of Jesse's pals,
and the finale scene between Walt and Jesse. Seriously this is more than we get in most tv series. Also, it's my personal view that 98% of tv series should be limited to no more than
4 - 5 seasons, and 20 minutes should be shaved off of 98% of movies.
Co-worker: Yeah, that's true. I just wish I was part of that writing team.