Cereal (hey, it's morning here):

What's a vocal cult, anyway? Do you all talk like me?

Only if it's in Hebrew.

They sometimes don't seem to see the thing that actually IS there.

It seems like this is what's happening with "The Inside", on several levels, doesn't it? It's not the same "solve the crime" show as others who are centered around such a concept, so instead of checking whether it does what it set out to do, people seem to be saying that it doesn't do well what those other shows set out to do. And now, with the blond-who-isn't-SMG.

Yes, Nilly. That is what I think.

Wow. A cult of five. We won't need much Kool Aid.

The five is just the upper echelon. Like, OT level 8s. Except without the dead aliens living in your head. Because, ewwww.

Hmm, so how is it possible to get out of this vicious circle? Marketing in advance (what a silly notion!)? I love the "take the familiar idea and put it on its head" or "investigate all new things with familiar settings" ways of looking at things.

Thanks to you and Allyson, I got to read the script of the broadcasted pilot. To me, the heart of it wasn't the serial killer, hunting him or out-smarting him. It was Rebecca's trying to find herself, about a young person growing up, or beginning to, taking a first step along that way. The people around her affecting her, or starting to, or trying to, in all sorts of new ways, and her attempt to stand on her own. It was about identity and what shapes you, from the inside - your actions and dreams and pains and attempts - and from the outside - the way people see you, your name (the whole "name" thing was played all along the first episode, IIRC). I loved that. This is where a show about FBI agents and murders in a completely different place becomes about, well, me. So, yeah, it does it by putting people in much more extreme situations than actual everyday life stuff, but that's just as using a space-ship with a broken engine to tell something about people trying to make it in the world, and it also, in a sense, felt to me to be about me.

And I'm babbling. Shutting up now.

People also seem to imagine shoutouts where there are none, Nilly. Like they're searching for a connection to something they miss terribly.

What really bothers me is not the comparison to SMG, although, except for the minor detail of blond hair, I really don't see it. No, what really bothers me is comparing The Inside to Point Pleasant. While I have some minor issues with The Inside, it is clearly well written and acted. I hope that I'm not offending a bunch of Point Pleasant lovers, but that show was just awful. I gave it a shot, but...ewwww. It's hard for me to see The Inside compared to it at all.

Like they're searching for a connection to something they miss terribly.

I'm not sure I understand - people miss other shows so much that they're finding shoutouts where there are none? And then, that makes the new show even more like those old shows, or following in their footsteps but not-them, so they're even more disppointed in the new thing, not being the old thing they love? And that's not even the new show's fault, because those shoutouts were not even there in the first place?

I managed to make my own head spin now. Allyson, I don't have your way with describing shomething shortly. Sorry.

I think that's a great explanation, Nilly. People are strange.

Wow. As someone who watches and likes both The Inside and The Closer, I really don't get why so many reviews focus on the two together. They're really not much alike at all. And the first para or two of that article makes me think the writer hasn't seen either one. And Buffy - I don't see any callbacks, deliberate or not, in either show. Trying to build them makes me remember Poli Sci papers in Uni where I chose my topic without having done the least bit of background research and found myself having to torture both the sources and myself to come up with correlations.

Nice fisking Tim.

The icing on the pissed-off cake for me with that article was the last paragraph, where he randomly changes gear entirely to the MTV/Live 8 fiasco, and bitches about commercials/marketing and Reality TV. That bit made a little head-shaped dent in the desk, given that a few heartbeats earlier he was effectively taking (badly researched and cheap) shots at one of (imho) the American Summer's best scripted dramas.

I wonder if he's even watched the show? If he had, surely he'd realise the flaws of his RN/SMG argument. Spooky how he mentions not one single other aspect of the show or the storyline. Meh.

Also? I think Rachel Nichols is cracking on the show. I read/heard a lot of criticism of her acting abilities after the first couple of episodes aired, with people saying she was weak etc, but as I read it, what some felt was weak/bad acting was simply an immersion of herself into the uncertainty of Rebecca's entering into this new environment... this new part of her life (as Nilly described rather nicely).

Now we've seen the episode (was it episode 5?) where she joins the team for drinks and makes that shift in gear to be more wholly involved with them, an effort to connect with them as people... Well I think you can look back from the Pilot onwards and easily see some great character development there.

I'd go as far as to say that I doubt SMG would do so well in the role as Rebecca (assuming that we had fallen into an alternate universe where the projections of badly researched journalism had become reality).

I think cast-wise, the only actor that irked me at first was Adam Baldiwn, but now we're a few episodes in, I think that was just because of the odd hairstyle. I find it to be distracting.

*looks up* Hmmm. Guess I'm not so good at describing something shortly either.

Was that harsh?

Not so much. He was asking for it with the "The Cuteness Of The Lambs or The Silence Of The Buffy" remark.

The five is just the upper echelon. Like, OT level 8s. Except without the dead aliens living in your head. Because, ewwww.

Ewwww indeed. Maybe the singing has scared away the dead aliens.

The use of the phrase "cult following" irks me a little. He's obviously suggesting that the "up in arms" fans are unquestioningly loyal viewers, blind to any faults or failures. But um, Hello?! I'd say that one of the main characteristics of Tim's vocal fanbase is (and especially here at B.org) is that we do vocalise our questions and criticisms.

People are strange.

So true.