it's crazy how love stays with me
Just kidding, I'm still here. This morning the health center provided me with all the drugs in the world, so although I may be a little bit loopy, I don't feel like I'm on my deathbed anymore. Thank you to those of you who wished me well, and pshh to those of you who didn't. I think I'm finally ready to talk about the scarring experience that was Sunday's Brothers & Sisters now, but it's going to be a lot less of a commentary and a lot more of a...rant/explication of my own bafflement.
I don't know if the problem is a direct result of the writers or if it came from upstairs, but I'm going to start with the writers.
There are shows that experience consistent quality in writing because they have one head writer who writes all episodes, i.e. Aaron Sorkin and David E. Kelley. There is rarely a bad episode of these shows, unless the writer had an off-week or ran out of shrooms. Unfortunately, this style of writing is all too rare these days. Most shows have a pool of about 10 or 12 writers who write in teams of two or three and alternate. With this comes freshness, yes, but also inevitable inconsistency and varying quality, because let's face it, some writers are just better than others.
Brothers & Sisters is a prime example of this problem. Ever wonder how an episode can be so good (i.e. 1x19 "Game Night") and the next episode so bad (i.e. 1x20 "Bad News")? This is how it occurs. You have the brilliance that is Molly Newman writing Game Night, and all by herself too, and the horror that is Monica Owusu-Breen & Alison Schapker writing Bad News...well, it's bound to happen. And it's all too unfortunate.
B&S has five or six really, really good writers. They include Jon Robin Baitz of course (the creator/former head writer), Molly Newman ("Game Night," "36 Hours," "An American Family," "Love is Difficult," "Northern Exposure," etc), David Marshall Grant ("Northern Exposure," "Something Ida This Way Comes," "Family Day," "36 Hours," "The Feast of the Epiphany," etc), Sherri Cooper-Landsman ("Something Ida This Way Comes," "All in the Family," "Grapes of Wrath," "Something New," etc), and Greg Berlanti ("Mistakes Were Made, Pt. 2," "Matriarchy"), though he is mostly a producer, and a great one. I don't understand why it's an impossibility to have these five writers be the only writers. Surely if Aaron Sorkin and David E. Kelley can write every episodes all by themselves (DEK usually has more than one show he's writing by himself), these five people can handle it, right? Why do we need these others?
Speaking of these others. B&S has a mediocre-to-blah writers as well. They include (and I'll do this one by teams) Monica Owusu-Breen & Alison Schapker ("Bad News," "Sexual Politics," "Holy Matrimony!" "Two Places"), Cliff Olin & Peter Calloway ("Light the Lights," "Valentine's Day Massacre," "Domestic Issues," and the upcoming "Compromises"), and a whole bunch of writers' assistants that really don't have any place penning episodes all by themselves.
Sunday night's episode, "The Missionary Imposition," was written by two such writers' assistants. These are the people that get the staff writers their coffee, okay? There's a reason they're not staff writers themselves. We know via Cliff Olin's blog that Molly Newman was supposed to write this episode, then she got saddled with jury duty. Can I just say how incredible this episode would have been had it been written by Molly Newman? I want to cry just thinking about all the greatness we missed out on. It troubles me that such a pivotal episode was given to these writers' assistants. Don't get me wrong-- I have the greatest respect for these people, I'll probably end up being one for a period of time someday.
Problems I Had With This Episode:
1. Way too much Lena. She was treated like a regular. She was given her own character development, as seen in her scene with Holly, and she never should have been. And it's baffling because fucking NO ONE likes Lena. She is universally hated and violently despised, and I'm not exaggerating, this is truth. I'm glad she's gone, but she was still given way to much screentime for someone as insignifcant and hated as she is.
2. Sarah/Graham. I'm not gonna say I dislike them as a couple, because they're kind of cute and I've liked them up until now, but COME ON. MOVE THINGS ALONG. This flirt/hate relationship is getting so fucking old. Graham flirts with her, she insults him, ad nauseum. Especially because Sarah really has no reason to be an asshole to him. She's a bitch to him due to the possibility that he could be an asshole, but he never is nor has he ever been. I'm over them. And my life has been all about Rachel Griffiths getting laid since I saw The Rookie and even moreso after I got into Six Feet Under, but I'll be honest, the previews of Sarah and Graham getting it on completely nauseated me.
3. Nora/Isaac. From what I've read, it's pretty widely accepted that they have the potential to be the cutest thing ever, but I don't know how Sally Field and Danny Glover put up with the shit they've been given. The episode description for this episode said, "Nora and Isaac take their relationship a critical step further." THEY DIDN'T. THEY ARE EXACTLY WHERE THEY'VE BEEN FOR, LIKE, THREE EPISODES. Obviously smitten with each other, they both know it, BUT NOTHING EVER HAPPENS. They're in a similar boat with Sarah/Graham, which is the "MOVE THE FUCK ON" boat. I swear sometimes these writers move so quickly (as in the beginning of this season) and sometimes they move like molasses. And don't even get me started on the things that were cut from this episode (which we know from the casting sides and the press release). There was supposed to be meangingful conversation on the date (and not, you know, "you're a very well put together mut") and some hot making out. And that shit was cut in favor of more Lena time? Really, guys?
If they break up in the next episode (episode description: "Nora discovers Isaac is not the man she thought nor hoped he was"), I swear it, here and now, I will stop watching this show forever.
4. Jason/Kevin/Scotty triangle. I just feel like it wasn't handled well at all and I was left feeling unsatisfied. They took the easy way out with Jason like they always do with McCallister-- make him an arrogant prick and move on. I don't even know who I ship Kevin with. Jason is an asshat now and Scotty is super needy and irritating, so. Dare I say, bring back Chad? Nah, he was annoying too. Balls.
5. Justin. Man, his thing was so annoying in this episode. And I love Justin, we all know this. His opening scene with Lena was gross, no one wants to see that, and the scene at the vets' meeting was wayyyyy too long and not nearly important enough to be that long. I'm glad he resolved things with Rebecca, although that ending scene between them two was pretty unnecessary, the kitchen scene was plenty. And they weren't integral enough in this episode to have them wrap the whole thing up.
6. I never thought I'd say this, but I missed Kitty a little bit. I didn't miss Robert at all, but Kitty has become a much more enjoyable and human character this season and I enjoy her interaction with Nora and her siblings. She's boring as hell on the campaign trail though.
7. Oh, man, Holly, enough with the judgemental, holier-than-thou "don't make the same mistakes I did" lectures. Shut up, Holly, you did it for twenty fucking years. You had plenty of time to realize it was a mistake and get out and you didn't, because you're a dumbass and a whore. You have no right to talk to Tommy and Lena the way you do sometimes. Especially since you're not even trying to help them, you're only trying to protect your company.
What I Did Like:
1. Sarah Jane Morris's acting. Really, she's loads better than Balthazar Getty. I'd just as soon have them get him of Balty and keep Sarah Jane. She really hit this episode out of the part
2. The Nora/Kitty phone conversations. I think it's so awesome and ironic how much chemistry Sally Field and Calista Flockhart have together. I don't think anyone on earth could have predicted it, but it's been apparent since the first episode. Together, they're gold.
3. The Nora/Rebecca scene. I loved this. They've been one of my most favorite relationships on the show since late last season. I just think their relationship is so cool and so interesting. And we haven't really seen them together since 2.06, so this was great.
4. No Rob Lowe. Man, I love Rob Lowe in the general sense, but nine times out of ten I watch to stab him in the face on this show. I like him when he's interacting with the family (like at the beginning of 2.08 with the virginity discussion and at the dinner in 2.10), but other than that, gahhhhh. Die.
So, you know. This has been my super long rant, which probably no one read. Not that I blame any of you. I just needed to get that off my chest.
At some point this week, I feel there will be a fairly long Decision '08 post coming your way. But I want it to be coherent, so I'm waiting until I'm not hocked up on meds. Meanwhile, this article seems to think that Sally Field & Burt Reynolds are among the best romantic comedy pairings in film, listed alongside the likes of Katharine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy and Woody Allen & Diane Keaton. lol...?
I had a dream last night that I was getting married to some fairly rich guy, who was a family friend of Sally Field's so she was there, and then suddenly
annasedlakand I were in some kind of underground tomb trying to find a body, and then it turned into a field trip with all my favorite teachers from high school. And then somehow my ex-best friend Betsy (who I recently started talking to again) fell off, like, a hundred-story building because I threw a Hostess cupcake at her. All this medication is really getting into my head, I think.