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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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So I'm frankly not all that familiar with it. (Bet ya'll never considered that, didja? But it's the truth.)

I not only considered it, but figured either you never watched a lot of it, or you intentionally tried to keep Angel a beat away from it, somehow. Your Angels were too different for you to have been very Buffified at all. That's not a crack at you, or at either series by the way. I think it made sense for A:ts to take a step away from BtVS. It needed to make it on its own, and part of that is establishing its own tone, or feel, or mood, or whatever.

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.

That was odd Partyman, wasn't it? While reading it, I fully expected that Live-8/MTV stuff was all going to tie back into The Closer and The Inside. I was confused for a tick, when the article then just ended.

Tim,

I think your next series ought to be entitled, "I Never Wrote for Buffy." It should be a sitcom, but a dark one--like a serialized Heathers, or something. SMG should guest star in the pilot. Your lead character will be a writer named Tim Minear.

The premise, as the title suggests, is that fictional Tim never wrote for Buffy. However, Tim is so continually linked to/credited with writing BtVS, that even Fictional Sarah Michelle Gellar starts giving interviews, talking about working with Tim.

Soon, the SMG character turns up dead. Tim is, of course, the main suspect, but is quickly cleared, because obviously, if he's our lead in a sitcom, he is not the killer.

Each week, a new Mutant Enemy alum comes under suspicion for the murder of SMG: Alyson Hannigan, Charisma Carpenter, Seth Green, ASH, Alexis, Julie, David, James Marsters, you name it. Some of them can be killed, too. At the end of each episode, as the ME alum of the week is cleared, the running joke will be that even with all the publicity from the case, Tim is *still* linked to BtVS.

Although a TV writer by day, fictional Tim turns into an amateur detective by night, not because this case just isn't going away, but because he is obsessed with finding a way to get the press to stop perpetuating the false link between him and BtVS. Tim enlists the help of the cast of the show he is currently producing. These will be our other sitcom regulars and should include Tom Lenk, and of course, Armin Shimerman (who will be your Lou Grant character).

In the penultimate episode of the series, all signs re killing SMG will point to Joss Whedon. Maybe he'll even go to trial. But in the series finale, we'll see you, Joss, and every guest who has ever appeared, sitting in a swanky L.A. bar, watching a cop/Bronco chase on TV. The LAPD have finally caught onto and are after the real killer: Kristy Swanson.

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I would totally watch that.

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Yes! The vocal cult following follows on.

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

We sing about you. I'm composing a song as I type.

I don't see any connection between Rachel Nichols and SMG besides the fact that at one point, they have both been blondes. Does this mean Rachel Nichols is also disappointing because she isn't like Clare Kramer? What about Elisabeth Rohm? That chick who played Nina?

I hate this "same hair color = same person" thing. It happens far too often.

Cindy, that is brilliant. Brilliant, I say.

...I like that the people I spend time with, for all that they might not know the names of many writers, or who wrote what episode, they STILL know that Tim never wrote for Buffy.

I also chafed at the "vocal cult following" thing. I know that "cult" with respect to TV is not meant to be diminutive, but I always feel it that way, a little. Like, "Aw, Tim can't get a real following, but the three silly people who like him are so cute!" (Three was a number I chose at random, by the way.) It seems very dismissive to me of any show to call its following cult. Calling it a cult show somehow feels less bad, to me.

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Bwah! Good one, Cindy.

But admit it -- she does have a little young Jodi Foster thing happening? And a dash of Bridget Fonda.

Truthfully? Rebecca only reminds me of Foster inasmuch as her character is written that way by you and the gang—I don't really see echoes of the other actress in Rachel's acting choices. (Although now that I think of it, Foster herself is such a chameleon that "brilliant" is really the only identifying factor I can think of in her work.) The Fonda likeness hits me really strong though, in both her appearance and certain mannerisms.

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

Sadly I think most of your vocal cult does tend to pick up speech patterns from Joss rather than you. Maybe that's the source of confusion about your resume? Or it could be that your last couple of shows centered around pretty, talented actresses, since no one EVER did that before Buffy.

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