In Which There Are Many Television Links
Is anyone watching V? I finally caught the pilot yesterday and I'm totally in. This can be one of my four* shows I'm allowed to watch regularly now that Dollhouse is ending *sob*.
So V totally got me in my stomach, made it all fluttery and nervous and stressed out. That's good television-and good writing. I want to analyze it and figure out why and how it affected me that way, so I can also do such things to my readers. One thing I noticed was that the suspense was drawn out and split up over two different storylines, going back and forth between them. I think the main stresser for me was waiting to see what Bailey would do with Inara's suddenly sinister demands...I wonder if there had been just enough doubt laid in the scenes leading up to the interview that you were already half-wondering what the frack was up with these aliens so that when the facade began to crack, it was just confirming what you had been subconsciously thinking all along, but because most everyone and everything else seemed to be pointing at the Visitors as being wonderful you were maybe not allowing yourself to fully entertain that fear/question/hesitation and that was even scarier-because you had been falling for it? Did that make any sense?
That is only a half-baked theory because I found myself strongly identifying with the priest guy who was like, um, smells like Kool-Aid? (even though his inability to reconcile aliens with God is RIDICULOUS; nowhere in the Bible does it say we are the only people/sentient beings/kids God has ever created; God could have dozens of universes out there and it wouldn't make Him any less God, or the Bible any less true) I kept wondering why and how everyone was just swallowing their presence, their talk of sweetness and light with such ease and eagerness-I would think, based on the number of alien movies I've seen, that people would react with much more hostility, or at least wariness.
ANYWAY. V did its job well, and I will continue to watch. And analyze. Who's with me (or who am I with, as I'm totally late to the party)? Any ideas (better than mine, please!) as to why that first episode worked so well?
Oh yeah,
How does Wash keep doing it? How does he keep seducing me into believing he's just another version of his Firefly character when actually he's just gonna kill people?
ETA: Okay, I watched it again and, in addition to some annoying dialogue and the fact that I hate the kid, I've come to the conclusion that my half-baked theory is mostly wrong and actually my *real* theory is the complete opposite: Precisely because we have doubts about these visitors, because we don't trust them, that makes Inara/Anna's casual, matter-of-fact adjuration to do as she says all the more chilling.
* The others are
-Bones (usually excellent writing and the best characterization of any crime procedural that I've ever seen)
-The Mentalist (Patrick Jane is charming and nearly unflappable and smarter than anyone you know)
-Life Unexpected (this hasn't started yet but I am positive I will love it; it has Liz from Roswell [who puts a K at the end of her ing words and it is super annoying but whatever] and Jesse's reporter friend from that one sitcom episode of Roswell and I can't wait to watch it)
-ahem...for the record, ANTM and Tough Love do not count in my four shows because they are cyclical; they aren't full season shows. They are shorter. They are not real.
So V totally got me in my stomach, made it all fluttery and nervous and stressed out. That's good television-and good writing. I want to analyze it and figure out why and how it affected me that way, so I can also do such things to my readers. One thing I noticed was that the suspense was drawn out and split up over two different storylines, going back and forth between them. I think the main stresser for me was waiting to see what Bailey would do with Inara's suddenly sinister demands...I wonder if there had been just enough doubt laid in the scenes leading up to the interview that you were already half-wondering what the frack was up with these aliens so that when the facade began to crack, it was just confirming what you had been subconsciously thinking all along, but because most everyone and everything else seemed to be pointing at the Visitors as being wonderful you were maybe not allowing yourself to fully entertain that fear/question/hesitation and that was even scarier-because you had been falling for it? Did that make any sense?
That is only a half-baked theory because I found myself strongly identifying with the priest guy who was like, um, smells like Kool-Aid? (even though his inability to reconcile aliens with God is RIDICULOUS; nowhere in the Bible does it say we are the only people/sentient beings/kids God has ever created; God could have dozens of universes out there and it wouldn't make Him any less God, or the Bible any less true) I kept wondering why and how everyone was just swallowing their presence, their talk of sweetness and light with such ease and eagerness-I would think, based on the number of alien movies I've seen, that people would react with much more hostility, or at least wariness.
ANYWAY. V did its job well, and I will continue to watch. And analyze. Who's with me (or who am I with, as I'm totally late to the party)? Any ideas (better than mine, please!) as to why that first episode worked so well?
Oh yeah,
How does Wash keep doing it? How does he keep seducing me into believing he's just another version of his Firefly character when actually he's just gonna kill people?
ETA: Okay, I watched it again and, in addition to some annoying dialogue and the fact that I hate the kid, I've come to the conclusion that my half-baked theory is mostly wrong and actually my *real* theory is the complete opposite: Precisely because we have doubts about these visitors, because we don't trust them, that makes Inara/Anna's casual, matter-of-fact adjuration to do as she says all the more chilling.
* The others are
-Bones (usually excellent writing and the best characterization of any crime procedural that I've ever seen)
-The Mentalist (Patrick Jane is charming and nearly unflappable and smarter than anyone you know)
-Life Unexpected (this hasn't started yet but I am positive I will love it; it has Liz from Roswell [who puts a K at the end of her ing words and it is super annoying but whatever] and Jesse's reporter friend from that one sitcom episode of Roswell and I can't wait to watch it)
-ahem...for the record, ANTM and Tough Love do not count in my four shows because they are cyclical; they aren't full season shows. They are shorter. They are not real.