Something bloody fantastic
You know the main problem with wanting to make one's first LJ post bloody fantastic is not knowing how to actually, in the words of the beloved Captain Jean-Luc, "make it so."
So I've decided to chuck all the good ideas (too time consuming and too much commitment), and ramble-on about one of my latest obsessions. Aren't you lucky.
This requires a little back-story: "Once open a long ago time, when Grannies ruled the world and Bill Gates was just a twinkle in Satan's eye, a little show called The Guiding Light premiered on one of the three television stations in existence then. That's how they got people to watch it."
Seriously though I am not a big fan of TV soaps, not since I escaped from Purgatory anyway. That said, shows such as East Enders; The Young and The Restless, Passions, Dark Shadows, The Days of Our Lives and a certain amount of Spanish soaps that always seem to be playing at three in the morning on the single operating TV in the only Washateria of a creepy named Arizona ghost town, are not unknown to me. Hey, everyone has a dark past(tm) so don't judge me, at least not based on that.
Dark pasts(tm) aside, it appears that the demons of daytime drama have seduced me for a second time in my life (I'm expecting the next wave some time around my 60's) with the advent of Otalia on Guiding Light. If you have been traveling in the same circles of internet fan wanking that I have than you know that 'Otalia' is the shipper name for Olivia Spencer and Natalia Rivera two characters from GL that have recently developed a romance (and if you don't know what 'shipper' means then my friend you really haven't traveled in the same circles).
Now there are a lot of mythos flying around. Some say that this storyline was GL's answer to All My Children's Bianca and Reese. Others that the Otalia story was something that developed 'organically' between the two characters and that the writers decided to go for it based on fan reaction, and yet still others say that it is clearly an uber Xena and Gabrielle plot. I enjoyed that last one particularly but I don't think any of it matters.
What matters is that there's a positive portrayal of a gay relationship on screen(so far, it is a soap after all), out there for anyone and everyone to see. What matters is that the actresses playing these characters are beautiful in a very natural and warm way just like real women. What matters is that the actresses, whatever their personal feelings or inclinations, are actually able to act and are portraying their character's romance no differently then they would have any other pairing on the show, it's not like trying to watch JLo give a seminar on lesbianism or the Greys Anatomy folks trying to weasel their way out of being called bigots.
But more than anything else, what really matters is that there is some actual decent fictional writing on TV! There are Television actors in the United States, in the year 2009, that are not total crap! Are far from the crap in fact! And it's not even a Joss Whedon or Rob Tapert production! This is what TV was created for people, ENTERTAINMENT! THAT SACRIFICE TO THE ANCIENT ONES WORKED!!!
["Look! It's moving. It's alive. It's alive... It's alive, it's moving, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, IT'S ALIVE!" -movie, Frankenstein 1931, qoute courtesy of IMDb.]
----------------
Now playing: Eels - Bus Stop Boxer
via FoxyTunes
So I've decided to chuck all the good ideas (too time consuming and too much commitment), and ramble-on about one of my latest obsessions. Aren't you lucky.
This requires a little back-story: "Once open a long ago time, when Grannies ruled the world and Bill Gates was just a twinkle in Satan's eye, a little show called The Guiding Light premiered on one of the three television stations in existence then. That's how they got people to watch it."
Seriously though I am not a big fan of TV soaps, not since I escaped from Purgatory anyway. That said, shows such as East Enders; The Young and The Restless, Passions, Dark Shadows, The Days of Our Lives and a certain amount of Spanish soaps that always seem to be playing at three in the morning on the single operating TV in the only Washateria of a creepy named Arizona ghost town, are not unknown to me. Hey, everyone has a dark past(tm) so don't judge me, at least not based on that.
Dark pasts(tm) aside, it appears that the demons of daytime drama have seduced me for a second time in my life (I'm expecting the next wave some time around my 60's) with the advent of Otalia on Guiding Light. If you have been traveling in the same circles of internet fan wanking that I have than you know that 'Otalia' is the shipper name for Olivia Spencer and Natalia Rivera two characters from GL that have recently developed a romance (and if you don't know what 'shipper' means then my friend you really haven't traveled in the same circles).
Now there are a lot of mythos flying around. Some say that this storyline was GL's answer to All My Children's Bianca and Reese. Others that the Otalia story was something that developed 'organically' between the two characters and that the writers decided to go for it based on fan reaction, and yet still others say that it is clearly an uber Xena and Gabrielle plot. I enjoyed that last one particularly but I don't think any of it matters.
What matters is that there's a positive portrayal of a gay relationship on screen(so far, it is a soap after all), out there for anyone and everyone to see. What matters is that the actresses playing these characters are beautiful in a very natural and warm way just like real women. What matters is that the actresses, whatever their personal feelings or inclinations, are actually able to act and are portraying their character's romance no differently then they would have any other pairing on the show, it's not like trying to watch JLo give a seminar on lesbianism or the Greys Anatomy folks trying to weasel their way out of being called bigots.
But more than anything else, what really matters is that there is some actual decent fictional writing on TV! There are Television actors in the United States, in the year 2009, that are not total crap! Are far from the crap in fact! And it's not even a Joss Whedon or Rob Tapert production! This is what TV was created for people, ENTERTAINMENT! THAT SACRIFICE TO THE ANCIENT ONES WORKED!!!
["Look! It's moving. It's alive. It's alive... It's alive, it's moving, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, IT'S ALIVE!" -movie, Frankenstein 1931, qoute courtesy of IMDb.]
----------------
Now playing: Eels - Bus Stop Boxer
via FoxyTunes