mostly TV, teeny bit of politics
Jan. 23rd, 2004 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarea
The good news: They brought Krispy Kremes in this morning, and I had two.
The bad news: They brought Krispy Kremes in this morning, and I had two.
I haven't talked about TV in awhile (for me), so that's what I'm going to do. List format, because it helps me stay focused. Ha ha.
Smallville
1. Are Gough and Millar involved w/ this show anymore? If yes, how could they have allowed it to become so MIND-NUMBLINGLY STUPID??????
2. Smallville has about five plots that they recycle over and over again. Maybe five is being generous.
3. I'm normally fine w/ Tom Welling's acting. This last episode I was like OMG am I watching a high school play????
4. What little positive stuff there was on Clark/Lana (that episode that ends w/ a funeral, and them seeing one another in the rain to the tune of "Mad World" comes to mind) is now GONE. Give it UP. No one cares, there's nothing there, and the reasons they aren't together are completely asinine. (Though if they were together, it'd be so boring I'd want to kill myself, so it's not that I'm advocating that end, either.)
5. Lex/Lana would be so much more interesting, proven by the one scene they shared that was my only spark of interest the entire episode. L/L would turn things upside down, shake things up, make things HAPPEN. If they're not willing to go there, this show needs to be off the air.
Angel
1. WhyTF is Lindsey calling himself "Doyle"? And, according to Jade, his conversation w/ Spike was verbatim Angel's first conversation w/ Doyle, until Spike started just being Spike. (OMG his "saving" that woman was one of the best things ever.) How did Lindsey get the details of that conversation, as it surely cannot be a coincidence? Leftover info from his days at W&H? And WTF has he been doing since he sped off in his truck that he'd suddenly be in the position he's in now, w/ the skeery (but sorta hot) tattoos?
2. I don't think I like Scruffy!Christian Kane. He was lovely when Darla was around. Come baaaaack, Darla (again)! Speaking of Christian Kane, is he getting paid for this gig? I haven't seen him credited. Maybe I just missed it.
3. I cannot fully express how much I miss Connor and the Connor-Angel storyline from S3. God that was some good TV. I still can't believe all that culminated in the Jasmine mess.
4. What in the world are they going to do w/ Cordy? I still don't understand why they had to make Charisma leave. If they don't end things well for her character, I am going to be v. upset. After all Cordy's done and been through, for them to either have Cordy decide to leave, or be evil, or whatever the hell they're going to do along those lines, would piss me off immeasurably. Pretty much the only way for her to go and still be fair to the character would be for her to die. Which also kind of pisses me off.
5. David Boreanaz did a good job directing, didn't he? I actually liked Wed.'s ep v. much. They were probably like, "This is a freaky dream episode, anyway, so if he screws it up, we'll just say, 'It was a freaky dream episode, it was supposed to be like that.'"
Alias
1. Have now seen the first three eps of S3. First question has got to be, WHERE ARE FRANCIE AND WILL?!?! *weeps openly* Okay, Francie was probably going nowhere, and as much as I liked her, she probably had to go. But Will??? Did Bradley Cooper want to leave? Because that's the only thing that would excuse Will's absence in S3, imho. He was getting on the CIA track and everything; they totally could have used him more. And I had really, really started to like Will by the end of S1.
2. One of the reasons they might have needed to get rid of Will was because of the insipid Syd/Vaughn angst. Now that Vaughn's "happily married" (a la Billy/Georgia from Ally McBeal), if Will were around, there'd be no reason not to get Syd/Will together, and they didn't want that. Which I don't blame them for, because that ship turns me off for some reason, even though I like both of those characters individually. (Rather like Buffy and Xander. Or Buffy and Giles, for that matter.)
3. I LOVE WEISS. Okay, I have loved Weiss for quite some time now, but I am soooo glad to see that he gets to step up in his role! And that he and Syd get to be friends! And maybe more. </Chandler> I could so get into Syd/Weiss. But here's my thing -- if they're going to make Syd and Weiss be all friendly, and in fact, be neighbors, why can't they just be roommates? And does anyone have any good S/W stories they rec?
4. I am very into Sark. How Spike was he in that black muscle T-shirt in the cell? The one thing I didn't like about him from previous seasons was his hair, and now they've even gone and fixed that (the same way they fixed Will's). What is it about TV shows that when they're fledgling, the male actors always have this horrendous/longish hair that gets cut to a more modern style in the second season? Anyway -- Sark. I am super interested in Sark (I likes me the bad boys), and Syd/Sark intrigues me the way Buffy/Spike intrigues me, in that I think they are extremely compatible and well-suited for one another in a way that might not necessarily be good. Sark, unlike Vaughn, is a match for Syd in every way (except the evilness, of course). And there's the fact that I can believe in redemption for him (though I can't for Sloane), because he's young and hey, everyone makes mistakes. Considering how young he is, it's amazing how deeply involved he is w/ everything. Clearly intelligent, and a survivor, both traits I find v. attractive. Any S/S stories to rec?
5. Vaughn is a pussy. I'm sorry, but he is. And while I don't dislike Michael Vartan, if I have to see that sorrowful/pinched/angsty look on his face one more time, I could grow to dislike him. Jack was wrong -- Vaughn is "too good" for Syd. Too good. He has no depth, no layers. He's so "Boy Scout" and I don't think Michael Vartan can be any other way. And the thing is, his "goodness" is what I like about Vaughn; I don't want him to be dark (MV couldn't hack it, anyway). But I'm also done with him. Like this whole marriage thing. First of all, if a woman you claim to be in love with "destroyed" you that much, you would not be able to woo and LOVE another woman and marry her in the space of two years. TWO YEARS????????? That's NOTHING. You pussy. And btw, fuck you and your "I'm glad I moved on with my life." Man, Sydney's "The worst part is, if I had been in your place, I would have waited ... and what a waste that would have been" was like, one of the bestest speeches ever. I feel v. strongly that if Syd/Vaughn represented the type of love they want us to believe it is, then Mrs. Vaughn should not have happened. Especially because we know Vaughn would not marry someone he didn't love -- he's not that guy. So yeah, now he loves someone else. Fuck that. For that reason, I want to say adieu to S/V and have her move on. Because I fully understand Jack's total lack of respect for Vaughn. I don't respect Vaughn anymore, and that was tenuous from the get go! In any given situation, Syd never needed Vaughn -- he was more of a liability than anything (how stupid was it when he got himself trapped w/ all the water?). Yet I can easily see Syd having a real partnership w/ Weiss or w/ Sark.
6. Most of the male characters I like have layers ... moments of darkness ... doing the wrong things for the right reasons. Mulder, Spike, Angel, Pacey ... they're all like that. Vaughn is just so ... well, vanilla.
7. I DON'T need any more pathetic "we know each other so well -- remember that case in Thailand?" moments between S&V, which were painfully unsubtle and unsophisticated. I also don't need the constant meaningful looks that they exchange every minute they're in a scene together.
8. I miss Syd's dramatic looks. They're making her wear a lot less make up, and I don't like it. I get so distracted looking at her, thinking, she looks really colorless and kind of drab. One of the things I liked so much about the show was how unafraid they were of capitalizing on the sexy/hot/dramatic. That was part of the fiction! One of the best parts.
9. Okay -- something significant better have happened between Jack and Irina in that missing year, because I'm not going to believe that they're IMing each other "I miss you" messages from where they had been + looking for Syd for a year. I mean, for Jack to go from utterly despising this woman, who, btw, UTTERLY BETRAYED HIM, to being like this ... ugh, it made me feel kind of pukey. I actually love Irina. I want to know more about her, and I want to find out what the "truth" is that she speaks of. And short of THAT TRUTH, I can't imagine Syd or especially Jack, forgiving her what she's done in the past. And I refuse to believe that Irina told all to him offscreen. So what gives??? And also, Jack was in PRISON. In SOLITARY CONFINEMENT. And once he gets out, he just gets reinstated to the CIA, like *that*?? Ridiculous.
10. One thing I'm v. concerned about is that they're dumbing down the show. On the S2 DVDs, JJ Abrams interviewed w/ Kevin and Bean, and made it clear that he was getting pressure from the network to get new viewers, and that meant making the show less complicated (which I'm sorry, was the BEST thing about it). So what do they do? They hose two years of Syd's life, basically wiping the slate clean. At the end of S2, I was so intrigued and thrilled by such a courageous, creative act (a la destroying SD-6), but now I'm not so sure. Was it just their "easy out" of having to deal w/ everything that came before? Now they can change everything around, make Dixon a director (WTF? In TWO YEARS?? Jesus, what kind of accelerated time do they live in???), get rid of Will, have Vaughn be married, Marshall's going to be a dad, etc. etc. There were seriously moments in the last two eps where the dialogue was so clunky, and the relationship moments so melodramatic that I kind of felt like I was watching Smallville. And that is not good for Alias. I'm hoping they'll prove me very, very wrong.
11. Haven't decided if I like Vaughn's wife or not. Melissa George is not a v. attractive woman, imho, though Jade tells me that this is an aberration. She has weird teeth. She kind of reminded me of Rebecca Pidgeon, though a much better actress (that's not difficult). I'm trying to be fair to her, even though part of me resents her being Vaughn's wife (and then, not so much because I want Syd and Vaughn to be together, but because regardless of my feelings on that, S/V supposedly had one of the those great loves, and her even being Vaughn's wife takes away from that ... I could probably like her just fine if Syd/the show would move on, confirming that S/V is dead).
12. If only JJ Abrams weren't totally about the "original ship," I could totally be over it. (Look at the inexplicable way he made it Ben/Felicity, despite the fact that in every way, she should have been with Noel.) But I know that they are intending for it to be S/V, in which case I have to view Vaughn as "the one" for Syd, and as "the one," I think he is sorely lacking. I resent Vaughn for everything he's done, because I don't think he deserves Syd -- and yet I would bear him no ill will if he weren't the one. Am I even making sense anymore?
Not to start a whole political thing in my LJ, but I'm just curious as I haven't formed an opinion yet ... my brother said: "Also, in an apology for his ranting and raving in Iowa, Dean said, 'I was leading with my heart, not my mind.' Well, yeah... and that's why he shouldn't be president." Intellectually, I see the merits of what he's saying ... at the same time, shouldn't heart factor into it somewhere? But politicians, like lawyers, cannot be emotional -- they wouldn't be able to do their jobs properly. Then again, would the world be a better place if, using those examples again, politicians and lawyers did act upon the prompting of their hearts rather than their minds? (Not that none of them do ... I'm talking v. generally, and possibly inaccurately ... but I just keep fluctuating from one school of thought to another.)
The bad news: They brought Krispy Kremes in this morning, and I had two.
I haven't talked about TV in awhile (for me), so that's what I'm going to do. List format, because it helps me stay focused. Ha ha.
Smallville
1. Are Gough and Millar involved w/ this show anymore? If yes, how could they have allowed it to become so MIND-NUMBLINGLY STUPID??????
2. Smallville has about five plots that they recycle over and over again. Maybe five is being generous.
3. I'm normally fine w/ Tom Welling's acting. This last episode I was like OMG am I watching a high school play????
4. What little positive stuff there was on Clark/Lana (that episode that ends w/ a funeral, and them seeing one another in the rain to the tune of "Mad World" comes to mind) is now GONE. Give it UP. No one cares, there's nothing there, and the reasons they aren't together are completely asinine. (Though if they were together, it'd be so boring I'd want to kill myself, so it's not that I'm advocating that end, either.)
5. Lex/Lana would be so much more interesting, proven by the one scene they shared that was my only spark of interest the entire episode. L/L would turn things upside down, shake things up, make things HAPPEN. If they're not willing to go there, this show needs to be off the air.
Angel
1. WhyTF is Lindsey calling himself "Doyle"? And, according to Jade, his conversation w/ Spike was verbatim Angel's first conversation w/ Doyle, until Spike started just being Spike. (OMG his "saving" that woman was one of the best things ever.) How did Lindsey get the details of that conversation, as it surely cannot be a coincidence? Leftover info from his days at W&H? And WTF has he been doing since he sped off in his truck that he'd suddenly be in the position he's in now, w/ the skeery (but sorta hot) tattoos?
2. I don't think I like Scruffy!Christian Kane. He was lovely when Darla was around. Come baaaaack, Darla (again)! Speaking of Christian Kane, is he getting paid for this gig? I haven't seen him credited. Maybe I just missed it.
3. I cannot fully express how much I miss Connor and the Connor-Angel storyline from S3. God that was some good TV. I still can't believe all that culminated in the Jasmine mess.
4. What in the world are they going to do w/ Cordy? I still don't understand why they had to make Charisma leave. If they don't end things well for her character, I am going to be v. upset. After all Cordy's done and been through, for them to either have Cordy decide to leave, or be evil, or whatever the hell they're going to do along those lines, would piss me off immeasurably. Pretty much the only way for her to go and still be fair to the character would be for her to die. Which also kind of pisses me off.
5. David Boreanaz did a good job directing, didn't he? I actually liked Wed.'s ep v. much. They were probably like, "This is a freaky dream episode, anyway, so if he screws it up, we'll just say, 'It was a freaky dream episode, it was supposed to be like that.'"
Alias
1. Have now seen the first three eps of S3. First question has got to be, WHERE ARE FRANCIE AND WILL?!?! *weeps openly* Okay, Francie was probably going nowhere, and as much as I liked her, she probably had to go. But Will??? Did Bradley Cooper want to leave? Because that's the only thing that would excuse Will's absence in S3, imho. He was getting on the CIA track and everything; they totally could have used him more. And I had really, really started to like Will by the end of S1.
2. One of the reasons they might have needed to get rid of Will was because of the insipid Syd/Vaughn angst. Now that Vaughn's "happily married" (a la Billy/Georgia from Ally McBeal), if Will were around, there'd be no reason not to get Syd/Will together, and they didn't want that. Which I don't blame them for, because that ship turns me off for some reason, even though I like both of those characters individually. (Rather like Buffy and Xander. Or Buffy and Giles, for that matter.)
3. I LOVE WEISS. Okay, I have loved Weiss for quite some time now, but I am soooo glad to see that he gets to step up in his role! And that he and Syd get to be friends! And maybe more. </Chandler> I could so get into Syd/Weiss. But here's my thing -- if they're going to make Syd and Weiss be all friendly, and in fact, be neighbors, why can't they just be roommates? And does anyone have any good S/W stories they rec?
4. I am very into Sark. How Spike was he in that black muscle T-shirt in the cell? The one thing I didn't like about him from previous seasons was his hair, and now they've even gone and fixed that (the same way they fixed Will's). What is it about TV shows that when they're fledgling, the male actors always have this horrendous/longish hair that gets cut to a more modern style in the second season? Anyway -- Sark. I am super interested in Sark (I likes me the bad boys), and Syd/Sark intrigues me the way Buffy/Spike intrigues me, in that I think they are extremely compatible and well-suited for one another in a way that might not necessarily be good. Sark, unlike Vaughn, is a match for Syd in every way (except the evilness, of course). And there's the fact that I can believe in redemption for him (though I can't for Sloane), because he's young and hey, everyone makes mistakes. Considering how young he is, it's amazing how deeply involved he is w/ everything. Clearly intelligent, and a survivor, both traits I find v. attractive. Any S/S stories to rec?
5. Vaughn is a pussy. I'm sorry, but he is. And while I don't dislike Michael Vartan, if I have to see that sorrowful/pinched/angsty look on his face one more time, I could grow to dislike him. Jack was wrong -- Vaughn is "too good" for Syd. Too good. He has no depth, no layers. He's so "Boy Scout" and I don't think Michael Vartan can be any other way. And the thing is, his "goodness" is what I like about Vaughn; I don't want him to be dark (MV couldn't hack it, anyway). But I'm also done with him. Like this whole marriage thing. First of all, if a woman you claim to be in love with "destroyed" you that much, you would not be able to woo and LOVE another woman and marry her in the space of two years. TWO YEARS????????? That's NOTHING. You pussy. And btw, fuck you and your "I'm glad I moved on with my life." Man, Sydney's "The worst part is, if I had been in your place, I would have waited ... and what a waste that would have been" was like, one of the bestest speeches ever. I feel v. strongly that if Syd/Vaughn represented the type of love they want us to believe it is, then Mrs. Vaughn should not have happened. Especially because we know Vaughn would not marry someone he didn't love -- he's not that guy. So yeah, now he loves someone else. Fuck that. For that reason, I want to say adieu to S/V and have her move on. Because I fully understand Jack's total lack of respect for Vaughn. I don't respect Vaughn anymore, and that was tenuous from the get go! In any given situation, Syd never needed Vaughn -- he was more of a liability than anything (how stupid was it when he got himself trapped w/ all the water?). Yet I can easily see Syd having a real partnership w/ Weiss or w/ Sark.
6. Most of the male characters I like have layers ... moments of darkness ... doing the wrong things for the right reasons. Mulder, Spike, Angel, Pacey ... they're all like that. Vaughn is just so ... well, vanilla.
7. I DON'T need any more pathetic "we know each other so well -- remember that case in Thailand?" moments between S&V, which were painfully unsubtle and unsophisticated. I also don't need the constant meaningful looks that they exchange every minute they're in a scene together.
8. I miss Syd's dramatic looks. They're making her wear a lot less make up, and I don't like it. I get so distracted looking at her, thinking, she looks really colorless and kind of drab. One of the things I liked so much about the show was how unafraid they were of capitalizing on the sexy/hot/dramatic. That was part of the fiction! One of the best parts.
9. Okay -- something significant better have happened between Jack and Irina in that missing year, because I'm not going to believe that they're IMing each other "I miss you" messages from where they had been + looking for Syd for a year. I mean, for Jack to go from utterly despising this woman, who, btw, UTTERLY BETRAYED HIM, to being like this ... ugh, it made me feel kind of pukey. I actually love Irina. I want to know more about her, and I want to find out what the "truth" is that she speaks of. And short of THAT TRUTH, I can't imagine Syd or especially Jack, forgiving her what she's done in the past. And I refuse to believe that Irina told all to him offscreen. So what gives??? And also, Jack was in PRISON. In SOLITARY CONFINEMENT. And once he gets out, he just gets reinstated to the CIA, like *that*?? Ridiculous.
10. One thing I'm v. concerned about is that they're dumbing down the show. On the S2 DVDs, JJ Abrams interviewed w/ Kevin and Bean, and made it clear that he was getting pressure from the network to get new viewers, and that meant making the show less complicated (which I'm sorry, was the BEST thing about it). So what do they do? They hose two years of Syd's life, basically wiping the slate clean. At the end of S2, I was so intrigued and thrilled by such a courageous, creative act (a la destroying SD-6), but now I'm not so sure. Was it just their "easy out" of having to deal w/ everything that came before? Now they can change everything around, make Dixon a director (WTF? In TWO YEARS?? Jesus, what kind of accelerated time do they live in???), get rid of Will, have Vaughn be married, Marshall's going to be a dad, etc. etc. There were seriously moments in the last two eps where the dialogue was so clunky, and the relationship moments so melodramatic that I kind of felt like I was watching Smallville. And that is not good for Alias. I'm hoping they'll prove me very, very wrong.
11. Haven't decided if I like Vaughn's wife or not. Melissa George is not a v. attractive woman, imho, though Jade tells me that this is an aberration. She has weird teeth. She kind of reminded me of Rebecca Pidgeon, though a much better actress (that's not difficult). I'm trying to be fair to her, even though part of me resents her being Vaughn's wife (and then, not so much because I want Syd and Vaughn to be together, but because regardless of my feelings on that, S/V supposedly had one of the those great loves, and her even being Vaughn's wife takes away from that ... I could probably like her just fine if Syd/the show would move on, confirming that S/V is dead).
12. If only JJ Abrams weren't totally about the "original ship," I could totally be over it. (Look at the inexplicable way he made it Ben/Felicity, despite the fact that in every way, she should have been with Noel.) But I know that they are intending for it to be S/V, in which case I have to view Vaughn as "the one" for Syd, and as "the one," I think he is sorely lacking. I resent Vaughn for everything he's done, because I don't think he deserves Syd -- and yet I would bear him no ill will if he weren't the one. Am I even making sense anymore?
Not to start a whole political thing in my LJ, but I'm just curious as I haven't formed an opinion yet ... my brother said: "Also, in an apology for his ranting and raving in Iowa, Dean said, 'I was leading with my heart, not my mind.' Well, yeah... and that's why he shouldn't be president." Intellectually, I see the merits of what he's saying ... at the same time, shouldn't heart factor into it somewhere? But politicians, like lawyers, cannot be emotional -- they wouldn't be able to do their jobs properly. Then again, would the world be a better place if, using those examples again, politicians and lawyers did act upon the prompting of their hearts rather than their minds? (Not that none of them do ... I'm talking v. generally, and possibly inaccurately ... but I just keep fluctuating from one school of thought to another.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-01-23 07:26 pm (UTC)Allowing your heart to influence your decision is something else. That's allowing compassion in. It's justice tempered with mercy--if someone does something wrong, they still get punished, but perhaps the sentence is lowered to account for circumstances. It's idealism with a backbone, not just dreamy thoughts about what could be.
And thus ends my serious thought for the day. Man, I wish Cordelia and Angel would have sex. That would be nice.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-23 07:42 pm (UTC)Seriously, I agree -- I just didn't know how to express how I felt w/o sounding like I was some callous, unfeeling person who doesn't believe in the merits of human compassion and yet does believe that how we behave professionally should be separate from "what our hearts tell us." At least, in RL. In fictional situations, not following one's heart nearly always leads to disaster and unhappiness.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-23 08:12 pm (UTC)In fanfic, following one's heart leads one into Draco's pants. Hurrah for that, but there's a shortage of Draco types around and the ones that are around tend to be canon!Draco types and they blow.
Brain activity is returning back to normal levels.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-23 08:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-23 08:21 pm (UTC)But yeah, I'm with you on the politicians/hearts issue, in that there should be just the "right" amount of heart in every politician. Not so much that it interferes with his/her civic duty, but enough that I could feel like they actually wanted to serve the people, instead of serving their desire to be in public office.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-23 09:18 pm (UTC)Yeah I miss Connor too! I had a little crush on him. And I liked how he was always being mean to Angel. But I am glad to see Lindsey. I picked up right away that he was emulating the recruitment of Angel in the earlier episodes, although I didn't realize it was verbatim dialogue. Interesting. Very interesting.
Re: Dean
Yeah I definitely think that your heart has to factor into your decision-making. Because how else can you assess the true human cost of what you are doing? I think there is very little true compassion in the upper echelons of politics and I think that is a flaw. It would also be nice to have a smart President. That might be good.
As far as the Dean thing goes, I finally got to see the now infamous clip of his speech and I am kind of mystified as to what the big deal is. He doesn't seem to be doing anything over the top or odd to me. But even if he was, you would have to be pretty shallow to assess Dean's fitness as a candidate from 5-10 seconds of video.
Maybe the Press should go back to focusing on Bush not finding WMDs in Iraq and his recent statement that it is going to take years to uncover Iraq's WMD program. Perhaps they should be concerned about financial and social ramifications of such lengthy (and pointless IMO) investigation.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-23 09:45 pm (UTC)A smart President and one who has true compassion? It's probably sad that, in my heart of hearts, I think we're talking about a fantasy world. You know. A Harrison Ford from Air Force One.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-23 11:29 pm (UTC)A smart President and one who has true compassion?
Hey—it is possible. Have you ever taken a good look at the Secretary General of the UN Kofi Annan? He's a rock star of intellect and compassion. There's a documentary about him floating around on public tv. Take a gander and realize that this combination is possible.
We have to hold our leaders to certain standards—even if they are high. Otherwise, they will never meet them. Besides, in my mind, our President is supposed to represent the best of us, our truest version. So I feel perfectly fine holding him (or her) to the highest standard possible. Keep the faith Babe.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-24 12:15 am (UTC)Anyways, as for this season of Alias, it gets so much better as the season progresses. Now that I look back at it, the first few episodes left me feeling betrayed as the show did not continue with the bang that it left off at last season. But now it's starting to sizzle up, so hopefully you won't be so disappointed when you catch more of the season. Not that I want to sway your thinking, cause I too remember feeling blah about this season of Alias when I saw the first episode. But I wanted to comfort a fellow fan. ^_^
no subject
Date: 2004-01-24 12:27 am (UTC)And btw, LOVE your icon! The little dudes were my fave part of the whole movie.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-24 12:39 am (UTC)As for icon...isn't he a cutie! I saw the boy who did the voice for him, and he's a little cutie too! Am dork.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-24 01:30 am (UTC)I will presently comment on Smallville, which I stopped watching after I caught about 10 episodes over the summer and early this season, because that was more than enough to show that all they ever do is recycle the same storylines. Zzzzz. I wish Clark would meet Lois Lane already because Clana is such a clunker; their relationship is SO contrived.
In general, I think contrived relationships (I haven't watched Alias, but I suspect it probably applies to what you said about Syd/Vaughn) between characters who are "meant to be" tend to play very badly on TV, although I suppose that kind of love panders to the target audience of 16-year old girls. *rolls eyes* Give me some characters/actors who have real chemistry on screen instead of those chosen by the writers to be together forever, please. *Hugs UC ships*
no subject
Date: 2004-01-24 01:52 am (UTC)I think you're probably right about the whole "meant to be" contrivance, because ... on TV, as in fiction, there needs to be conflict for something to be interesting. That's just how human nature works. Now, I usually root for a "happily ever after" ... but once I get that, I usually don't need or want to see more.
Usually, the actors/characters that I find to have the kind of chemistry you're talking about is between opposites, or between enemies. Like Buffy/Spike or Sydney/Sark. And maybe that's just my personal preferences, and it's not fair to malign show creators who want stuff like Sydney/Vaughn or -- sorry, Jade -- Buffy/Angel to be "the" couple to root for.
I never realized I was such a little UC shipper at heart, since I was so into MSR (Mulder/Scully romance, in Phile-speak), but in nearly every other ship since then, I've had preferences for UC couples.
To be fair to Alias, however, I have to say that in S1 and S2, the show was so incredible that I really didn't care where they wanted to take me. Now that I think the show overall is suffering a bit (though still better than most shows on TV), I find myself thinking of the ships more.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-24 02:17 am (UTC)In TV it's so important unlike in books that that the actors play off of each other in a way that is not massively contrived. In fiction you have a little more room for imagination--but onscreen if a couple doesn't work for me, I just can't be interested in them. I used to watch ER, which is the worst show ever in pairing up characters because the writers contrive romances between characters whose actors just have zero chemistry together as played.
UC ships have a soft place in my heart because they're usually based on something other than boring old initial attraction that's hammered into our heads by various contrived obstacles; there's the spark between enemies as you said or the long time friendship of two people who see each other in a different light for the first time (which may be more like your MSR). I can't seem to like dramas where it's obvious from the beginning which characters are going to end up together, because that's just, well, boring.
Now fic, of course is different, because I don't read those for drama, I read them for fun. That's why I can read ship fic--I'm not really looking for high drama there, heck too much UST drama there usually makes me bang my head on the keyboard, especially when D/G should clearly be getting it on. :P And dramatic TV shows tend to take themselves too seriously and then the characters' relationships just become overwraught.