Meme day 11: KRIPKE I AM DISAPPOINT
Trip report on my rewatch of The African Queen: It was still very good and I'm surprised by how much of it I remembered. It's very much a product of its times, with all the good and bad things that entails. The acting and writing are terrific. The African setting is gorgeous to look at, even though it's quite literally a backdrop for white people's problems. In short, I feel that it is very deservedly a classic. It's nice when something from your childhood turns out not to suck in retrospect!
On to the meme. Content notes: The TV cut contains spoilers for all of Supernatural.
[A show that disappointed you: Supernatural, The WB/The CW, 2005-present unfortunately]
My answer to today's TV prompt should surprise absolutely no one who has been following this journal long enough to see me go from wide-eyed hyperbolic raving fangirlism to bitter cynicism over the train wreck of a show known as Supernatural. I first watched Supernatural in the summer following its first season, and loved it for its tongue-in-cheek yet creepy atmosphere, its use and abuse of urban legends as inspiration for plots, its wit and humor, and (most of all) the complex relationship between the two main characters, estranged monster-hunting brothers Sam and Dean Winchester. Of course, the irrefutable fact of the utter hotness of both Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki didn't hurt at all either. (c;
I caught up quickly that summer in time for the second season, which I loved even more than the first. But by the time the third season and the writers' strike rolled around, things started to go off the rails. The episodes became less interesting, the quality of the writing diminished, and (perhaps most alarmingly of all) I realized the full width of the unpleasant misogynistic streak running through both the show and the fandom (if you haven't seen the Women's Work fanvid you really need to because it makes this point better - trigger warning for oh my god everything, but particularly violence against women, because, well, that's sort of the point). I was especially bothered by both the writers' and fandom's treatment of Ruby and Bela, the show's new recurring female characters. But, hey, the writers' strike made every show suck at least a little during that time, so I figured I would cut it some slack.
Season four of Supernatural got off to a good start with an intriguing new season-spanning goal and the introduction of Castiel, who certainly re-energized the show and the fans, whatever your personal opinion of the character may be. Unfortunately, for me, it's been all downhill from there. Now, I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that Supernatural is always going to be unconsciously and sometimes knowingly racist and sexist and ableist as hell, but hey, those things don't prevent me from liking the show even as I recognize their presence. No, the biggest problem I have with Supernatural right now is that the story sucks. Virtually all of the things I loved about the show from the beginning have been systematically discarded in favor of Eric Kripke's desire to have a grandiose metaplot and make not especially deep commentary about the nature of good and evil or some crap like that. Gone are the spooky and cheesy monster-of-the-week episodes and the clever one-liners, replaced with ill-thought-out ARC EPISODES and groanworthy meta-humor. And in a final ignominy, that wonderful awkward brotherly relationship has been blasted away and replaced with a Sam who the writers insist upon literally demonizing and making responsible for everything bad that has ever happened on the show, and a Dean who has crossed so many moral event horizons that it is a genuine effort for me to summon up the least bit of sympathy for him anymore.
None of this would make me so angry if I didn't still love this show, in spite of everything. When it has its good moments they are stunning. But Supernatural never had to grow a metaplot, or go darker and edgier, or add a bunch of new characters and a war in heaven, or do anything other than what it was doing in the first and second seasons in order for me to want to watch it. The further they've strayed from that early formula, the less fun I've had. It's astonishing to me that I still haven't given up on this show and that I still intend to watch its sixth (and hopefully last) season, but I guess I'm in it for the long haul now. Like a family member who's made bad and destructive choices, I still care about Supernatural no matter how low it sinks. And that, honestly, is the fact that disappoints me most of all.
[A movie that changed your opinion about something: American Beauty, dir. Sam Mendes, 1999]
I don't know that American Beauty directly changed my opinion about anything apart from maybe crystallizing some things I already thought anyway. But seeing it was a big milestone in my life as a moviegoer, so I definitely think it fits the theme of this prompt. While I can't remember a time when I didn't enjoy movies as a form of entertainment (and eustacio will remember that I pretty much forcibly instructed him about how movies are fun to watch and you should like them HOORAY), American Beauty showed me that movies can be art as well as entertainment. This is very fitting considering the tag line this film was promoted with: "Look closer."
I think the reason that American Beauty demonstrated this so well to me is that not only is it of very high quality (Best Picture winner for 1999), it is very open to different interpretations. The basic plot is fairly complex but basically tells the story of the unhappy Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) who undergoes a mid-life crisis and takes drastic steps to change his miserable suburban life; his ambitious and equally unhappy wife Carolyn (Annette Bening); and their angsty teenage daughter Jane (Thora Birch). All of these characters search for meaning in their lives in separate and sometimes self-destructive ways, and ultimately find it in unexpected places. I remember seeing this for the first time with a friend of mine and, afterwards, walking around the mall where the movie theater was located and hearing him say something along the lines of, "Man, after seeing that movie I'd feel totally comfortable just doing whatever I felt like in public because now I realize that it doesn't matter." My first reaction to that was confusion - had we seen the same movie? How could he take that message away (don't let anything in society constrain you) when I had taken away almost the opposite message (choose your constraints carefully because they end up defining you in ways you might not expect)? And yet, the interpretation wasn't so out of left field that I couldn't see how he had arrived at it. I knew I disagreed with his interpretation, but I didn't have the tools in my mind or my vocabulary to articulate anything more than that.
So I started digging deeper, into reviews and film criticism, wanting to prove my point, I suppose. I saw American Beauty several more times in the theater, not only because I enjoyed it but so I could look beyond the story and into choices like color and shot composition and other things I hadn't really thought about before, and liked it a little more each time mostly because I saw new things in it every time. I found myself getting interested in classics I had never given a second glance before because they were referenced as benchmarks of good filmmaking, and reading reviews of the same movies from multiple places so I could better spot the bias in the sources, and caring about the Oscars. In short, I expanded my horizons and my tastes, and learned how to talk about why I liked or didn't like some element of a particular movie. And while I still think my own interpretation of American Beauty is closer to what the filmmakers intended than the way my friend viewed it, I ultimately learned that there are a huge number of ways to view the same film, that all interpretations are subject to the viewer's opinions and bias, and (most importantly) that a great movie is big enough to support a number of different interpretations.
I still watch movies with a critical eye - not critical in the sense of fault-finding (though I suppose I can be rather nitpicky when I want to be!), but critical in the sense of wanting to talk about film past the "who did what to whom" level and get into the "how" and the "why" of a movie. This has not always been easily understood by the people around me. Some of my friends in early college would often tease me about how I would often want to pick apart even the most shallow or inane movies, saying things like "Beth hates all movies" or "Beth hates fun." I don't think they ever really understood how much that hurt my feelings. Criticizing movies is an expression of my love for them, and it's how I have fun with them too - I pick them apart because for me, that's what movies are made for. In fact, it is a very bad sign if I don't want to talk in great detail about a film after I've seen it. (Needless to say, I was incredibly happy that dayzdark understood this about me right away and in fact sees it the same!) So while American Beauty did not necessarily change my opinion on life, it certainly changed my opinion on movies as a whole. For that, I am very grateful.
This entry was originally posted at http://gamerchick.dreamwidth.org/560922.html. You can comment on either journal. Number of comments on Dreamwidth:
On to the meme. Content notes: The TV cut contains spoilers for all of Supernatural.
[A show that disappointed you: Supernatural, The WB/The CW, 2005-present unfortunately]
My answer to today's TV prompt should surprise absolutely no one who has been following this journal long enough to see me go from wide-eyed hyperbolic raving fangirlism to bitter cynicism over the train wreck of a show known as Supernatural. I first watched Supernatural in the summer following its first season, and loved it for its tongue-in-cheek yet creepy atmosphere, its use and abuse of urban legends as inspiration for plots, its wit and humor, and (most of all) the complex relationship between the two main characters, estranged monster-hunting brothers Sam and Dean Winchester. Of course, the irrefutable fact of the utter hotness of both Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki didn't hurt at all either. (c;
I caught up quickly that summer in time for the second season, which I loved even more than the first. But by the time the third season and the writers' strike rolled around, things started to go off the rails. The episodes became less interesting, the quality of the writing diminished, and (perhaps most alarmingly of all) I realized the full width of the unpleasant misogynistic streak running through both the show and the fandom (if you haven't seen the Women's Work fanvid you really need to because it makes this point better - trigger warning for oh my god everything, but particularly violence against women, because, well, that's sort of the point). I was especially bothered by both the writers' and fandom's treatment of Ruby and Bela, the show's new recurring female characters. But, hey, the writers' strike made every show suck at least a little during that time, so I figured I would cut it some slack.
Season four of Supernatural got off to a good start with an intriguing new season-spanning goal and the introduction of Castiel, who certainly re-energized the show and the fans, whatever your personal opinion of the character may be. Unfortunately, for me, it's been all downhill from there. Now, I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that Supernatural is always going to be unconsciously and sometimes knowingly racist and sexist and ableist as hell, but hey, those things don't prevent me from liking the show even as I recognize their presence. No, the biggest problem I have with Supernatural right now is that the story sucks. Virtually all of the things I loved about the show from the beginning have been systematically discarded in favor of Eric Kripke's desire to have a grandiose metaplot and make not especially deep commentary about the nature of good and evil or some crap like that. Gone are the spooky and cheesy monster-of-the-week episodes and the clever one-liners, replaced with ill-thought-out ARC EPISODES and groanworthy meta-humor. And in a final ignominy, that wonderful awkward brotherly relationship has been blasted away and replaced with a Sam who the writers insist upon literally demonizing and making responsible for everything bad that has ever happened on the show, and a Dean who has crossed so many moral event horizons that it is a genuine effort for me to summon up the least bit of sympathy for him anymore.
None of this would make me so angry if I didn't still love this show, in spite of everything. When it has its good moments they are stunning. But Supernatural never had to grow a metaplot, or go darker and edgier, or add a bunch of new characters and a war in heaven, or do anything other than what it was doing in the first and second seasons in order for me to want to watch it. The further they've strayed from that early formula, the less fun I've had. It's astonishing to me that I still haven't given up on this show and that I still intend to watch its sixth (and hopefully last) season, but I guess I'm in it for the long haul now. Like a family member who's made bad and destructive choices, I still care about Supernatural no matter how low it sinks. And that, honestly, is the fact that disappoints me most of all.
[A movie that changed your opinion about something: American Beauty, dir. Sam Mendes, 1999]
I don't know that American Beauty directly changed my opinion about anything apart from maybe crystallizing some things I already thought anyway. But seeing it was a big milestone in my life as a moviegoer, so I definitely think it fits the theme of this prompt. While I can't remember a time when I didn't enjoy movies as a form of entertainment (and eustacio will remember that I pretty much forcibly instructed him about how movies are fun to watch and you should like them HOORAY), American Beauty showed me that movies can be art as well as entertainment. This is very fitting considering the tag line this film was promoted with: "Look closer."
I think the reason that American Beauty demonstrated this so well to me is that not only is it of very high quality (Best Picture winner for 1999), it is very open to different interpretations. The basic plot is fairly complex but basically tells the story of the unhappy Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) who undergoes a mid-life crisis and takes drastic steps to change his miserable suburban life; his ambitious and equally unhappy wife Carolyn (Annette Bening); and their angsty teenage daughter Jane (Thora Birch). All of these characters search for meaning in their lives in separate and sometimes self-destructive ways, and ultimately find it in unexpected places. I remember seeing this for the first time with a friend of mine and, afterwards, walking around the mall where the movie theater was located and hearing him say something along the lines of, "Man, after seeing that movie I'd feel totally comfortable just doing whatever I felt like in public because now I realize that it doesn't matter." My first reaction to that was confusion - had we seen the same movie? How could he take that message away (don't let anything in society constrain you) when I had taken away almost the opposite message (choose your constraints carefully because they end up defining you in ways you might not expect)? And yet, the interpretation wasn't so out of left field that I couldn't see how he had arrived at it. I knew I disagreed with his interpretation, but I didn't have the tools in my mind or my vocabulary to articulate anything more than that.
So I started digging deeper, into reviews and film criticism, wanting to prove my point, I suppose. I saw American Beauty several more times in the theater, not only because I enjoyed it but so I could look beyond the story and into choices like color and shot composition and other things I hadn't really thought about before, and liked it a little more each time mostly because I saw new things in it every time. I found myself getting interested in classics I had never given a second glance before because they were referenced as benchmarks of good filmmaking, and reading reviews of the same movies from multiple places so I could better spot the bias in the sources, and caring about the Oscars. In short, I expanded my horizons and my tastes, and learned how to talk about why I liked or didn't like some element of a particular movie. And while I still think my own interpretation of American Beauty is closer to what the filmmakers intended than the way my friend viewed it, I ultimately learned that there are a huge number of ways to view the same film, that all interpretations are subject to the viewer's opinions and bias, and (most importantly) that a great movie is big enough to support a number of different interpretations.
I still watch movies with a critical eye - not critical in the sense of fault-finding (though I suppose I can be rather nitpicky when I want to be!), but critical in the sense of wanting to talk about film past the "who did what to whom" level and get into the "how" and the "why" of a movie. This has not always been easily understood by the people around me. Some of my friends in early college would often tease me about how I would often want to pick apart even the most shallow or inane movies, saying things like "Beth hates all movies" or "Beth hates fun." I don't think they ever really understood how much that hurt my feelings. Criticizing movies is an expression of my love for them, and it's how I have fun with them too - I pick them apart because for me, that's what movies are made for. In fact, it is a very bad sign if I don't want to talk in great detail about a film after I've seen it. (Needless to say, I was incredibly happy that dayzdark understood this about me right away and in fact sees it the same!) So while American Beauty did not necessarily change my opinion on life, it certainly changed my opinion on movies as a whole. For that, I am very grateful.
This entry was originally posted at http://gamerchick.dreamwidth.org/560922.html. You can comment on either journal. Number of comments on Dreamwidth: