Thoughts on a scene from Time of Angels (SPOILER)

[sensiblecat]

Sam got Frodo up Mount Doom by reminding him that back home in the Shire the first strawberries would be ripening. And I bawled, unashamedly, hearing the voice of who knows how many Tommies in the trenches trying to get their comrades through hell on earth.

Comments

[wendymr]

watching the two of them in that scene was like watching two marbles knocking against each other. There was no depth, no subtlety. Too many times in this new series, we’ve been told, not shown.

Yes. Definitely yes.

I want to be emotionally engaged. I'm not interested in a series that doesn't offer me that kind of engagement, through compelling, likeable characters who grow and develop over the weeks. I know no more about Amy now than I did in episode 1, and Eleven's still not resonating with me. Without emotional engagement... yeah, I'll watch, but I don't care. If it was taken off-screen right now, I wouldn't even miss it.

And your observation about that scene with Amy is so astute. I liked it; in fact, it was probably the one scene in the entire episode that I did enjoy, but it did lack that degree of emotion. Where's the gut-wrenching fear as Ten watched Martha being swept off into the sun in 42, poor and all as that episode was? Or, far, far better, the tears and the lump in my throat as Nine can only stare through a screen at Rose trapped with a Dalek? It's not your fault - oh, that hit hard.

There is a real difference between writing for soaps and writing for situation comedies, isn't there? As has been said in your LJ previously, RTD's time on Coronation Street and other soaps gave him a real feel for human nature, and an excellent handle on characterisation and developing characters, flaws and all, as a result. Situation comedy calls for a broad sweep, a caricature, because that's what gets the laughs. There's no place for depth, for nuance, for that silent moment when the camera holds on one character and catches that giveaway emotional reaction. It's just froth which never goes anywhere - like that awful Duty Free, where the characters stayed on holiday in Spain for years.

(I watched one episode of Coupling, years ago, before DW returned to TV in 2004. Hated it, to the point of refusing to watch a second episode).

[sensiblecat]

Of course, the point about comedy is that you mustn't care too much about any of the characters or the whole thing falls apart. That's been the truth from Shakespeare onwards, a point I've made before. Try enjoying Much Ado About Nothing without handwaving what happens to Hero, for example.