I completely missed the shout-out to you. I am a bad Buffista.
They said Allyson's name twice, and showed a picture of a woman (Allyson, was that a picture of you, it went by too quickly for me to take a good look), the second time, I think.
The first time I heard it, I squeed even though I knew it was coming, and paused the TiVo to explain to Scott that it was a shout out to [the woman who was from out here, but moved out there, but came back out here for a visit and went out with the Buffistas the night I did and that she was a Bronzer, too] someone I knew. Then he went all, "You'll never get me, Minear, muahahaha" again. He's getting *far* too much mileage out of this, so I told him his episode was the
Feel Good Dead Baby
episode of the year, which, of course, he found hysterical.
The Short-Bus-Dupe-Guy definitely said
Skyman.
I think it was because of the cameras.
I don't know why, but I love that Adam Baldwin's character's name is Danny Love. It made me laugh.
So yeah obviously, I finally watched last night. Here are my way-random ramblings...
There's a shot of Rachel Nichols in the opening montage that I swore was Jodie Foster, and then thought, "Oh, that's what Tim meant." I hadn't seen the resemblance, 'til then. Before that (and after, mostly) the main physical resemblence I could see was between Nichols and Bridget Fonda. Regardless, I thought it worked well that Tim hung a lantern on the Clarice Starling similarities.
Something about Nichols put me in mind of Amber Benson, too. I don't know if it was her physicality, or maybe some sort of less tangible vulnerability.
WRT Damsel Issues:
I *didn't* feel like I was watching a
Little Miss Muffet
last night. LLM is the best way I can think of to describe my personal issues with Girl!Victims, in film and on TV. I've seen misogyny discussed a lot over the last few days. For me, it's not even that my misogyny meter is pinged by some stories and/or characters. I try not to get bent out of shape over tropes or the socio-political implications someone can pull out of them, as long as the story works.
My Little Miss Muffet aversion isn't a misogyny-portrayal aversion. It's just...I want to see (some? most?) women fight back, with whatever they have in their arsenal (for some of us, that isn't physicality). Where episode one is concerned, I don't think my issues would have been pinged (a la Amy Amatangelo), because Rebecca was resourceful, and confident. She put herself in danger, even after Webster ordered her to stop. And once she was too close to Simon, she chose to remain in her precarious position, over endangering the mother and little boy on the train.
Rebecca wasn't a Little Miss Muffet in this episode. That said, I think Amatangelo's point that there might be difficulties sustaining the premise, if Rebecca is always the one in danger, week after week, was probably a kindness. "Dawn's in trouble, must be Tuesday," was okay, because Dawn was not the lead character.
The gore was far too much for me, but I am such a wimp, it ought to be spelled
whimp,
of the less-is-more school,
and,
as has been
well
demonstrated, my tastes *so* do not mirror those of the 18-34 BOY demographic, so that's probably good. Thanks to the watch & post, I knew enough to watch between my fingers while the first crime scene was explored. In my mind, I heard Tim telling his family, "This show isn't fit for you people," over and over again, when the gore was on-screen. Gore doesn't scare me, it just disgusts.
For me, the scariest moment was when Rebecca was looking in the mirror and had a flashback (???) to the guy who was licking a soft serve ice cream cone and said
t memfault
to her. Creepy!
I want to know Webster's story. I want more Adam and Katie. Paul looks like the Love child of Rob Morrow (Joel on Northern Exposure) and Judd from the Real World (the season that featured that icky Puck), and I'm glad there's a (continued...)
( continues...) kindly person on the show. I remember reading some interview with or post by Joss, in which he said he thought it was important to like the characters, if you were going to expect people to invite them into their living rooms, each week. So far, I like Paul and Rebecca. We shall see about the others. I can't imagine liking Web, but that's okay. I don't think you have to like them all.
The Herc AICN article on
The Inside,
quoted Tim as saying:
“It's ‘Silence Of The Lambs’ by way of ‘L.A. Confidential.’ Paul sees himself as the one thing standing between Rebecca and Web's corrupting influence. It is a battle for her soul. If in fact she has one.”
I think she certainly has a soul, at least right now. She was too moved by the video-feed of the final victim, for me to think otherwise. It will be interesting to see how this triangle battle-for-soul plays out.
I'm glad the title didn't get changed to
Southland.
It's a great title, and I understand it's slang to people in the business, for the LA area, but I think for me (and I suspect others who aren't in the business or don't live in Cali), it would have evoked somewhere more like Georgia.
QUESTION:
"Lurk much," cracked me up, even though I knew it was coming. My friend from another board swears someone toward the end of the show said a Lilah-line, but she can't remember who said it, or what it was. Was that "Lurk much," or is there something else? I think "Lurk much" is a BtVS line--Dawn maybe said it to Spike. I think Angel once said, "I lurk," to someone, but I disremember the circumstances. And, now I can hear both Buffy and Lilah saying it to Angel (and maybe they both did, at one time or another) in my head. Obviously, I'm of no help at all, neither are the voices.
How many credits does Tim get for this gig, anyhow? I think I stopped counting around 149.
Oh, P.S. I'm *SO* glad this isn't an Undercover High School story. Of all the things Tim has killed, that premise needed killing the most--yes, even more than Darla. Watching Tim write for such a show would have been a disappointment--a Point Pleasant-sized disappointment.
There's something to be said for creating an alternate reality. Arguably, it too encourages forward progress.
I'm not saying The Inside is mysoginistic. (I've only seen the one but I sincerely doubt that would be the case.) But I can see how some people would really prefer the other approach.
Just read the article, and it makes me perhaps interested in catching Grey's Anatomy, when I hadn't been before because the promos were so very SEX!SEX!SEX! (which is a story element I, purely as a matter of taste, find uninteresting, cf Buffy S6). I would never say that we should go out of our way to address the nastier elements of life because something like casting happens to make it more apparent - I've always been a big believer in colorblind casting any time the script doesn't specify a race, because you might be closing out a brilliant actor based on looks and that is something I loathe. I don't mean that you should change what your show is about to highlight those unpleasant parts of life. What I mean is that I don't think shows should be expected to completely dance around them.
I guess my feeling is, if you don't want to watch something because you don't like that it is horribly misogynistic, or forces you to be exposed to violence you'd rather not see, that's your business and it's precisely the way to deal with your discomfort or upset. My problem starts when rather than saying, "This contained [whatever your thing you don't like is] and so I won't watch it," people say, "This contained [thing x] and so obviously its creator is morally bankrupt, completely supportive of [thing x], and should not be allowed to make art."
As ita pointed out, there are times when portraying something without supporting it is still exploiting it, and I don't like that, either. But if it is part of a well-constructed story, it fits within the story, it is not being used as a shortcut to certain reactions, then I don't think it needs to be changed. At the same time, if you have a story that forces us to suspend disbelief a little bit (like the extremely diverse hospital staff in Grey's Anatomy), but it would not add to the story in any significant way, I see no reason to bring that disconnect between real-world and TV-world to the fore and go on about it at length. (We should just assume that's a diverse hospital and that's how it is, rather than messing around with statistics of how many doctors may or may not be black or Korean or white or any other racial or ethnic group.)
ETA: I do think that if the ONLY stories available to us were ones that highlighted misogyny then something would need to change. And you can make different arguments about how present misogyny is in art currently. I do not feel (emphasis on the emotion present there) that it is so ubiquitous that we need to go on a crusade to make sure it isn't portrayed anywhere at all. [My main point that I have now completely left behind is that there is a difference between a misogynistic show and a misogynistic character, and I think that is an important distinction.]
My main point that I have now completely left behind is that there is a difference between a misogynistic show and a misogynistic character, and I think that is an important distinction.]
Yes. And I'd add that there's a difference between a misogynistic show, and a misogynistic story, or even arc. In fact, I think it is possible to have a misogynistic premise (I don't think "The Inside" will) and not be a misogynistic show.
An awful lot of crime *is* misogynistic in nature, so for me, it wouldn't work to ignore that.
While I know that there's some overlap between the two terms, a lot of what gets discussed as misogyny strikes me as more correctly described as chauvinism. Despite "Billy," I don't think there was much misogyny on Angel, but the show and character were often guilty of chauvinism.
I rewatched the episode again today (3rd time lucky) and it is indeed Skyman, not Simon.
I kinda get a Darla/Angel vibe from Web/Becky (but not really in a sexual way. Although that would be funny).
For those who had trouble downloading the GF pilot: [link]
P-C, myself and my boyfriend's roommate thank you.
I shouldn't even attempt that with dialup, should I?
It's over 400 megs, so I say...no.
