(no subject)
Feb. 26th, 2006 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krazykitkatMy cousin's bub, Logan, is finally home. Nearly 9 weeks old, he's just passed the 3kg mark (about 6 pounds 9 ounces, which was apparently about his mum's weight when she was born).
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Went into Ezydvd to get Scrubs season 3 (wow...it's not out in the US till May, we feel special). They had copies of Firefly and Serenity sitting on the checkout counter. I asked the bloke how they were selling. He said there's a good turnover (and he'd sold lots of Scrubs today, he had to go out the back to find me a copy).
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Just started listening to the commentary on the season 2 Pretender finale. It's the creators/producers/director, plus Andrea and Michael (oh, their voices...). If the first 5 minutes are any guide, it's going to be hilarious. And I'm proud of myself, managed to finish the season before season 3 arrives.
*
And I've just been contemplating the almost certainness that Commander in Chief will rate much better here than West Wing and the inherent unfairness in that, and lo and behold, there's an article in The Age:
Cult versus mainstream
Also has Buffy versus Charmed, and Oz versus Prison Break.
And when you recreate something to please the maximum number of people, you inevitably move further away from reality. Because reality isn't resolvable in 50 minutes and it isn't easily understood. What you lose is moral complexity.
And it's that moral complexity that arouses the passions, that creates must-see TV, that encourages heated water-cooler conversations. Because real life is complex. And drama that attempts to replicate that is not comforting. It's confronting. It makes us think - and argue - about the big stuff, whether that's the nature of reality, what it means to be human, the mutability of ethics, or if it's ever OK to assassinate a foreign leader.
But not everyone wants to be challenged by television. Most people don't. They want to sit down at the end of the day - a complicated, unresolved, unsatisfying day - and slip into a soothing self-contained world where no matter how bad things seem at the 40-minute mark, you know it's going to be OK by the time the credits roll.
And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But we need the cult shows too, the shows that people don't get, that confuse them or repulse them, the shows that don't rate, that attract an intense audience rather than a broad one.
Not least because they do pave the way for milder, more accessible remakes. Which even in diluted form give a mass audience the chance to view the world in a different way.
*
Went into Ezydvd to get Scrubs season 3 (wow...it's not out in the US till May, we feel special). They had copies of Firefly and Serenity sitting on the checkout counter. I asked the bloke how they were selling. He said there's a good turnover (and he'd sold lots of Scrubs today, he had to go out the back to find me a copy).
*
Just started listening to the commentary on the season 2 Pretender finale. It's the creators/producers/director, plus Andrea and Michael (oh, their voices...). If the first 5 minutes are any guide, it's going to be hilarious. And I'm proud of myself, managed to finish the season before season 3 arrives.
*
And I've just been contemplating the almost certainness that Commander in Chief will rate much better here than West Wing and the inherent unfairness in that, and lo and behold, there's an article in The Age:
Cult versus mainstream
Also has Buffy versus Charmed, and Oz versus Prison Break.
And when you recreate something to please the maximum number of people, you inevitably move further away from reality. Because reality isn't resolvable in 50 minutes and it isn't easily understood. What you lose is moral complexity.
And it's that moral complexity that arouses the passions, that creates must-see TV, that encourages heated water-cooler conversations. Because real life is complex. And drama that attempts to replicate that is not comforting. It's confronting. It makes us think - and argue - about the big stuff, whether that's the nature of reality, what it means to be human, the mutability of ethics, or if it's ever OK to assassinate a foreign leader.
But not everyone wants to be challenged by television. Most people don't. They want to sit down at the end of the day - a complicated, unresolved, unsatisfying day - and slip into a soothing self-contained world where no matter how bad things seem at the 40-minute mark, you know it's going to be OK by the time the credits roll.
And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But we need the cult shows too, the shows that people don't get, that confuse them or repulse them, the shows that don't rate, that attract an intense audience rather than a broad one.
Not least because they do pave the way for milder, more accessible remakes. Which even in diluted form give a mass audience the chance to view the world in a different way.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-26 01:30 pm (UTC)I hate CiC. Every single ep so far has been a rip of a WW plot without the humour, wit, intelligence, and amazing actors. If Aussies actually like it more than WW, I totally despair the state of the nation.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-26 01:49 pm (UTC)My understanding of the article was that the writer much prefers the complexity and challenge of the originals. Mainstream television must, to a great or lesser extent, have some appeal to the lowest common denominator. I thought it was a good analysis. And as much as I wish the mass would look for and enjoy the complex, she is right that most people use tv to unwind, not to think.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-26 01:59 pm (UTC)While I do enjoy brainless crap like DH, CiC is trying to be in the vein of serious, thoughtful drama but it's failing.
Random: I had a maths teacher in high school who said, when I complained that the work was too simplified and she was talking to us as though we were babies, that she had to teach to the lowest common denominator in the class.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-26 02:08 pm (UTC)Weren't your maths classes graded? Once we got into year 8 we were in classes according to our ability (and I was always towards the bottom of the top classes).
(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-26 02:15 pm (UTC)Nope, they were all the same until year 11/12 (when everyone dropped math anyway because it wasn't compulsory). That's Hornsby Girls for you.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-26 02:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-26 02:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-26 02:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-26 11:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-27 03:24 pm (UTC)$32.83 for the tinned version...wow, the online store is out of stock of both types. I think our local ezy still had some, but i'm not sure when I'll be able to get down there again :\
(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-27 09:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-27 03:25 pm (UTC)