A while ago I talked about Fringe. I mentioned that The Psychic Olivia was a dropped plot point. It's been 3 episodes, and they've picked it back up- just like I mentioned they'd done before. And they invented a whole new bucket of bullshit for the viewer to choke down, thinly disguised as "creepy" and "dramatic".
What I'd like to add is two points:
First, in the big mystery of episode 17, the viewer easily makes the connections about 3-5 minutes before the characters in the show make them- which is stupid and bad writing, in my opinion. It's one thing to let the viewer in on it from the jump; or to let the viewer make the connection a few seconds before the characters. It's an entirely other matter for the characters to have no clue, get one more piece of information and then magically jump to the same conclusion the viewers- who haven't been made aware of anything other than what the characters know- have already surmised.
Second, the ending of episode 17 means one of two (I'll include a third just to cover my ass) things. Either, the good Crazy Doctor has had his memory messed with (which I think they've alluded to, and suggested he might have done it to himself); or the writers seriously think anyone is buying their tacked on bullshit. That second possibility isn't quite as remote as it may first seem. It could be the writers going "Oh, hey! Great idea, what if we add in all this stuff to kinda tie things in and make it creepy and mysterious?" And no one catching how/that it makes earlier episodes inconsistent. Or it could be there's an actual meta-plot and it's that ridiculous.
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Showing posts with label Embarrassment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Embarrassment. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Your TV Shows
Fringe is such a stupid show. There is nothing redeeming about it. It's not sci-fi, because science fiction would imply some sort of actual science. It's more like modern fantasy- wild conjectures with very loose, very badly strung together, science facts used to, I guess, try and explain things.
They take it right up to the edge, and let the viewer make the conclusions. The acting is good, sometimes, but mostly it's too "serious" to actually be serious. They're not trying to be as campy as they are. It's got all the great hallmarks of horror/thriller sci-fi, and I think that's why I watch it.
I wouldn't recommend anyone else attempt it. Fringe is truly crap-tastic. But years of less than B slasher flicks, zombie fests, and monster movies keep me viewing. Just like all those horrible examples of "entertainment" (read: train wrecks), the creators obvious intend one reaction, and miserably fail.
If they accepted that despite their big budgets, their great special effects, and their sleek look/marketing, they were just shitty camp horror, it would suck even more. But throwing the lady with the robotic arm in with the mad (read: crazy) scientist who was researching every single bit of the latest and greatest in cutting edge science, 30 years ago, doesn't make it sci-fi.
What irks me is, if someone tried to write this shit, they'd be laughed at. Not because it's stupid, which it is, not because it's childish and predictable, which it is; but because it glories in the dumbest, worst, most throw together hodge-podge of "plots" that ever got rejected- and it does it without the slightest bit of irony.
There's talent in the pool that creates each episode; but it still can't overcome being absolute shit.
Plot points that were about to happen, then completely dropped, ignored, and never mentioned again:
* The Psychic Olivia. Episode 14 revealed Olivia was a powerful psychic able to control electronic devices. Then there was a long break, and in two episodes it has never been mentioned again. Instead there's the romantic angle of who is Peter romantically interested in: Olivia or her sister? Hint: It will be Olivia, as was thoroughly demonstrated in episode 14. (That is, assuming consistency is in anyway important to the writers- a big assumption that has no evidence to support it in the 16 episodes so far.)
* The Cyborg Lady. Sure, she's been in other episodes, and has shown disturbing interest in Olivia- which we can assume has something to do with her Psychic abilities. But there's been no more about cybernetics, and we've gone two episodes without hide nor hair of her or her ominous megacorp.
* The Hairless Man. He's a gimmick ("See him in every episode!"), a shitty Where's Waldo where the camera tends to settle on the hidden person, to underline that he's "secret" or "important" or just because this is a prime example of stupidity and hodge-podge. More importantly, though he is in episode 14, and in a VERY unsurprising role, all the geniuses and investigators, who have all discussed/encountered him before never ONCE mention him when they meet a kid who is also hairless and "important". They've shot their wad with him, in a way, having had a full episode devoted to him; but that's bad planning, in my opinion, and so I consider him a dropped plot point.
* The Roguish Villian. Charming, star of City of Lost Children, and with an English accent, he was prominent in the episodes leading up to the break. Since then? Not even a mention of an off-camera hunt for him.
And that's the thing, innit:
1) No one is surprised, in the least bit, when they somehow try to tie a plot point back to something else- inventing a bunch of information that must be shoveled at the viewer like so much thought manure. Some of these plots are being PURPOSEFULLY ignored, at the moment, because hiding the obvious 4 episodes down the line makes it "smart", "savy", or in some other way, not obvious. (Uhm.... Hint: No it doesn't.)
2) All it would take, to force Olivia and Walter out of their Mary Sue status, and make the whole fucking show about a million times better, is to insert some throw-away lines about off-camera investigations. And guess what that would do? Allow the production staff to make web-based games, or text stories, or just blogs, for viewers (I hesitate to think anyone would actually be a "fan" of this drivel) to go exploring. In other words, it would allow them to move into the digital, interactive, internet age. (And you just KNOW the kind of people who like this shit are the weirdo internet conspiracy kooks who all think it's a fucking documentary- and all fo whom are avid members of ONLINE communities.)
Sense some hostility on my end? You might be a psychic- [insert irony here]- or it might be that I'm jealous people can write such sub-puerile bullshit and make a hella good living off it.
UPDATE: MEALWORMS ARE MEALWORMS, PUSHING THEM UP FROM A "CORPSE" AND CALLING THEM "MONSTER LARVAE" DOESN'T MAKE THEM NOT-MEALWORMS! (Technically, Mealworm Beetle Larvae.) Stupid, over-done, unsurprising, and shit-tastic. With as big a budget as they must have, you'd think they could use something other than standard horror staples as larvae for their "monster". Not to mention how stupid the whole concept is, scientifically speaking.
Read More...
They take it right up to the edge, and let the viewer make the conclusions. The acting is good, sometimes, but mostly it's too "serious" to actually be serious. They're not trying to be as campy as they are. It's got all the great hallmarks of horror/thriller sci-fi, and I think that's why I watch it.
I wouldn't recommend anyone else attempt it. Fringe is truly crap-tastic. But years of less than B slasher flicks, zombie fests, and monster movies keep me viewing. Just like all those horrible examples of "entertainment" (read: train wrecks), the creators obvious intend one reaction, and miserably fail.
If they accepted that despite their big budgets, their great special effects, and their sleek look/marketing, they were just shitty camp horror, it would suck even more. But throwing the lady with the robotic arm in with the mad (read: crazy) scientist who was researching every single bit of the latest and greatest in cutting edge science, 30 years ago, doesn't make it sci-fi.
What irks me is, if someone tried to write this shit, they'd be laughed at. Not because it's stupid, which it is, not because it's childish and predictable, which it is; but because it glories in the dumbest, worst, most throw together hodge-podge of "plots" that ever got rejected- and it does it without the slightest bit of irony.
There's talent in the pool that creates each episode; but it still can't overcome being absolute shit.
Plot points that were about to happen, then completely dropped, ignored, and never mentioned again:
* The Psychic Olivia. Episode 14 revealed Olivia was a powerful psychic able to control electronic devices. Then there was a long break, and in two episodes it has never been mentioned again. Instead there's the romantic angle of who is Peter romantically interested in: Olivia or her sister? Hint: It will be Olivia, as was thoroughly demonstrated in episode 14. (That is, assuming consistency is in anyway important to the writers- a big assumption that has no evidence to support it in the 16 episodes so far.)
* The Cyborg Lady. Sure, she's been in other episodes, and has shown disturbing interest in Olivia- which we can assume has something to do with her Psychic abilities. But there's been no more about cybernetics, and we've gone two episodes without hide nor hair of her or her ominous megacorp.
* The Hairless Man. He's a gimmick ("See him in every episode!"), a shitty Where's Waldo where the camera tends to settle on the hidden person, to underline that he's "secret" or "important" or just because this is a prime example of stupidity and hodge-podge. More importantly, though he is in episode 14, and in a VERY unsurprising role, all the geniuses and investigators, who have all discussed/encountered him before never ONCE mention him when they meet a kid who is also hairless and "important". They've shot their wad with him, in a way, having had a full episode devoted to him; but that's bad planning, in my opinion, and so I consider him a dropped plot point.
* The Roguish Villian. Charming, star of City of Lost Children, and with an English accent, he was prominent in the episodes leading up to the break. Since then? Not even a mention of an off-camera hunt for him.
And that's the thing, innit:
1) No one is surprised, in the least bit, when they somehow try to tie a plot point back to something else- inventing a bunch of information that must be shoveled at the viewer like so much thought manure. Some of these plots are being PURPOSEFULLY ignored, at the moment, because hiding the obvious 4 episodes down the line makes it "smart", "savy", or in some other way, not obvious. (Uhm.... Hint: No it doesn't.)
2) All it would take, to force Olivia and Walter out of their Mary Sue status, and make the whole fucking show about a million times better, is to insert some throw-away lines about off-camera investigations. And guess what that would do? Allow the production staff to make web-based games, or text stories, or just blogs, for viewers (I hesitate to think anyone would actually be a "fan" of this drivel) to go exploring. In other words, it would allow them to move into the digital, interactive, internet age. (And you just KNOW the kind of people who like this shit are the weirdo internet conspiracy kooks who all think it's a fucking documentary- and all fo whom are avid members of ONLINE communities.)
Sense some hostility on my end? You might be a psychic- [insert irony here]- or it might be that I'm jealous people can write such sub-puerile bullshit and make a hella good living off it.
UPDATE: MEALWORMS ARE MEALWORMS, PUSHING THEM UP FROM A "CORPSE" AND CALLING THEM "MONSTER LARVAE" DOESN'T MAKE THEM NOT-MEALWORMS! (Technically, Mealworm Beetle Larvae.) Stupid, over-done, unsurprising, and shit-tastic. With as big a budget as they must have, you'd think they could use something other than standard horror staples as larvae for their "monster". Not to mention how stupid the whole concept is, scientifically speaking.
Read More...
Monday, October 20, 2008
Top Gear
If you don't watch the BBC's Top Gear, you're missing one of the smartest, funniest, and most entertaining shows on television. I have watched it with my sisters in the room, one who mildly cares about cars the other who doesn't at all, and we were all laughing and enjoying the show. It's great, and most of you will probably already have seen it.
Recently, I saw a clip on YouTube that made me want to move away more than I ever have before. (A Quick Aside: Part of growing up in Alabama, and not being a worthless redneck bigot, is an intense desire to run far far away as quickly as possible- though this is usually an expression of teenage angst, and massive poverty tends to undermine this for most, imo.) Whatever. The point is, there are two clips, totaling about 20 minutes of an hour long Top Gear episode where they go through Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisianna.
What happens in Alabama is.... embarrassing, to say the least. (It happens in the second half, and there's no need to preface the events by watching the first half, but Top Gear really is entertaining and if you have the extra 10 minutes watch both instead of the horribly uncool bits of part 2)....
Without further ado:
(These are posted on YouTube by the BBC and embedding is disabled, but they should stay up for a long long time)
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOyDLUzAAOY
Part 2: (Containing the truly embarrassing visit to AL) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2syY12OPkwI Read More...
Recently, I saw a clip on YouTube that made me want to move away more than I ever have before. (A Quick Aside: Part of growing up in Alabama, and not being a worthless redneck bigot, is an intense desire to run far far away as quickly as possible- though this is usually an expression of teenage angst, and massive poverty tends to undermine this for most, imo.) Whatever. The point is, there are two clips, totaling about 20 minutes of an hour long Top Gear episode where they go through Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisianna.
What happens in Alabama is.... embarrassing, to say the least. (It happens in the second half, and there's no need to preface the events by watching the first half, but Top Gear really is entertaining and if you have the extra 10 minutes watch both instead of the horribly uncool bits of part 2)....
Without further ado:
(These are posted on YouTube by the BBC and embedding is disabled, but they should stay up for a long long time)
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOyDLUzAAOY
Part 2: (Containing the truly embarrassing visit to AL) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2syY12OPkwI Read More...
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