Holy damn TVGN who the hell makes your cuts?
(Fandom minutia ahead...but damn it, this is important to me.)
I just spent a full ten minutes with my mouth moving and nothing coming out.
When "Fate" aired on the Hallmark channel (this is the version available for download and on YouTube, as far as I've seen), they cut part of the exchange between Marissa and Gary when she's up in his loft (the second time). In the original version, Gary says, "Marissa, we've been friends a long time. And I love you very much. But don't tell me how to feel." In the Hallmark version, they cut something; I believe it's the first sentence. It's not great that they cut it, but at least you still get that there's a deep core of friendship there.
The scene is important because even in the midst of his being so lost and hurt and lashing out, Gary remembers and acknowledges their friendship. What she's doing in her attempt to talk him out of his reaction to Jeremiah's death isn't working, and they both know it, but at least she's trying, and at least he's still connected enough to tell her their friendship's still there, still real. And so the next day, when he tells Marissa and Erica that his obituary's in the paper, and he makes cutting comments to both of them and there's none of that connection, you realize how far gone he is. He put it in writing with the note to the lawyer about the bar, and then he severs that connection. I'm sure some part of him thought he was doing them a favor--act like a jerk, and they won't be so hurt when he dies (of course that isn't true, but that's my perception of what he's doing). It's the contrast with the "Don't tell me how to feel" scene that makes that one all the more jarring.
Today "Fate" aired on the TV Guide channel, and you know, despite the fact that it's barely a real network and I know they make stupid cuts, I'm not going to not watch "Fate".
They cut the "Don't tell me how to feel" scene. ALL OF IT.
I thought yesterday was bad, when they cut so much stuff out of "Number One with a Bullet" that the characters knowing what they did when they did made absolutely no sense. But this just leapfrogged over a key point in Gary's downward trajectory, made him look like he went from a BFF to an ass overnight, and downplayed the importance of the friendship that became the heart of the show in Season 3 when Erica...really didn't work out*. It's a horrible decision from a storytelling standpoint and it's pissing me right the hell off.
I want to write fix-it fic because of a cut in syndication. What is wrong with the world? GIVE ME SEASON 3 & 4 DVDS AND NO ONE GETS HURT.
They also cut the scene with Erica at the planetarium in the beginning, but I can live without that. ;)
- - -
*BTW, in the script for "Fate" there's a stage direction for the end, when Gary's getting into the ambulance, that Erica's face is supposed to show "the realization that she can't go through this again". It's the beginning of the end of that doomed relationship, thank God, but I don't think we really got it the first time it aired, because all Kristy Swanson could pull off was a look of dull surprise (TM MST3K). The first time I remember knowing Erica was outski was in the next episode, "Crumb Again", when Brigatti gets the better of Erica in a verbal exchange (you don't let that happen, as a writer, if you want Erica to be presented as Gary's one & only), and proceeds to bleed chemistry all over the scene every time she's in a scene with Gary. (OTPOTPOTPOTP! :)
This entry was originally posted at http://akamarykate.dreamwidth.org/349278.html. You may comment either here or there.
I just spent a full ten minutes with my mouth moving and nothing coming out.
When "Fate" aired on the Hallmark channel (this is the version available for download and on YouTube, as far as I've seen), they cut part of the exchange between Marissa and Gary when she's up in his loft (the second time). In the original version, Gary says, "Marissa, we've been friends a long time. And I love you very much. But don't tell me how to feel." In the Hallmark version, they cut something; I believe it's the first sentence. It's not great that they cut it, but at least you still get that there's a deep core of friendship there.
The scene is important because even in the midst of his being so lost and hurt and lashing out, Gary remembers and acknowledges their friendship. What she's doing in her attempt to talk him out of his reaction to Jeremiah's death isn't working, and they both know it, but at least she's trying, and at least he's still connected enough to tell her their friendship's still there, still real. And so the next day, when he tells Marissa and Erica that his obituary's in the paper, and he makes cutting comments to both of them and there's none of that connection, you realize how far gone he is. He put it in writing with the note to the lawyer about the bar, and then he severs that connection. I'm sure some part of him thought he was doing them a favor--act like a jerk, and they won't be so hurt when he dies (of course that isn't true, but that's my perception of what he's doing). It's the contrast with the "Don't tell me how to feel" scene that makes that one all the more jarring.
Today "Fate" aired on the TV Guide channel, and you know, despite the fact that it's barely a real network and I know they make stupid cuts, I'm not going to not watch "Fate".
They cut the "Don't tell me how to feel" scene. ALL OF IT.
I thought yesterday was bad, when they cut so much stuff out of "Number One with a Bullet" that the characters knowing what they did when they did made absolutely no sense. But this just leapfrogged over a key point in Gary's downward trajectory, made him look like he went from a BFF to an ass overnight, and downplayed the importance of the friendship that became the heart of the show in Season 3 when Erica...really didn't work out*. It's a horrible decision from a storytelling standpoint and it's pissing me right the hell off.
I want to write fix-it fic because of a cut in syndication. What is wrong with the world? GIVE ME SEASON 3 & 4 DVDS AND NO ONE GETS HURT.
They also cut the scene with Erica at the planetarium in the beginning, but I can live without that. ;)
- - -
*BTW, in the script for "Fate" there's a stage direction for the end, when Gary's getting into the ambulance, that Erica's face is supposed to show "the realization that she can't go through this again". It's the beginning of the end of that doomed relationship, thank God, but I don't think we really got it the first time it aired, because all Kristy Swanson could pull off was a look of dull surprise (TM MST3K). The first time I remember knowing Erica was outski was in the next episode, "Crumb Again", when Brigatti gets the better of Erica in a verbal exchange (you don't let that happen, as a writer, if you want Erica to be presented as Gary's one & only), and proceeds to bleed chemistry all over the scene every time she's in a scene with Gary. (OTPOTPOTPOTP! :)
This entry was originally posted at http://akamarykate.dreamwidth.org/349278.html. You may comment either here or there.