As if there hasn't been enough ...
More thoughts on S5.
Let me preface this by saying that I still stand by everything I've said in terms of the end of the season - ie that, no matter what revisionist history prats like Shawn whatsit come up with it was not intended to definitively spell the end for bj, and that it was written the way it was solely to make C/L's "grand political statement" in the last scene. However, although I didn't like the end of the season, and thought it was poorly written, it was the earlier stuff that I truly hated.
I started to respond to a comment about Reverberations - about the canon writers and their lack of attention to the characters in that final season, when I realised that my response was going to go on a bit, so I decided to post it here instead.
*****
I don't think that the writers were particularly interested in the characters as such in the final season (or in S4 come to that). I think that they were all just hooks for a fairly banal series of political statements. And not especially profound or insightful ones at that.
I accept that C/L felt that with the political climate in the US moving more towards what someone once called "the religious wrong", they felt that the show provided a platform for making some statements about that, about their fears, and about how important it was to fight that process. I don't really have a problem with that.
My problem is with the fact that they did it so poorly and unimaginatively.
If they had had any real insights to offer into the situation other than just waving their hands around and saying "look at us poor gays being oppressed", I might have been more interested than I was.
If they had had any solutions to offer, other than letting Hunter bail out of school because of the prejudice he had to deal with, or Linds and Mel fleeing the country, or Drew losing everything to be out and proud, I might have had more respect. But the best solutions they could come up with were for Mikey to make his big speech to a crowd that were already in principle at least gay-friendly, Ben to beat the hell out of a guy twice his age and half his height, and, the infamous, "oh, let's all (except Justin) keep dancing at Babylon!". And those things are meant to symbolise triumph over all the hatred. I mean, puh-leeze. How lame!
How about some ideas on how to really activate and move public opinion? (Given that the only time anyone tried that they got bombed, not an awfully positive message.) How about showing some of the ways to positively influence the undecided masses - the people who aren't rabid right wing nutters, but just don't much care, because they don't know (or think they don't know) any gay people? How about ways to get to people like Jennifer Taylor that don't rely on her finding out about prejudice the hard way when it affects her son? How about all the Jennifer's, the decent people (of both sexes) who don't have gay sons, but who wouldn't want anyone's child to be treated that way? How do you enlist them to fight the hatred and the bigotry?
If C/L had had any suggestions on how to do any of those things, I might have had some time for how they chose to shape the last season of this show.
For instance, I know they showed the door knocking, but as all they showed were the unsuccessful visits, it wasn't exactly an encouragement to anyone looking for ideas that this might be a successful strategy. Why not have shown at least one visit where the people might have been given something to think about. If they had then showed those people's faces in the crowd (maybe next to Jennifer, or Emmett) at the vigil, that might have made some sort of point that it is worth trying to reach people, that it is possible to enlist all the decent human beings who are out there to fight this tide of bigotry.
But no, C/L's contribution was limited to "some people hate us" and "this isn't right" (both of which any audience watching QAF pretty much knows already without actually needing C/L to point it out to them), and, to top it all off, their grand finale statement was "we're going to keep dancing" .
Not, you will note, "we're going to keep living our lives out in the open, on the streets, in the offices, in the schools, in politics, everywhere", but "we're going to keep living our underground club lives" which, when you think about it, was a totally pathetic cop out on what the real statement should have been.
Geven all this, I feel free to say that in S5 in particular, C/L totally wasted everyone's time and efforts.
There was no insightful political commentary. There was no real attempt to analyse and offer solutions, ideas, encouragement to stem the tide of bigotry. There was only a pathetic attempt to say (in very high pitched girly simpers) "we're here, we're queer, and you won't have to worry about us, because we'll stay in the closet everywhere except in our own little clubs where we'll go on fucking like bunnies, because that's what we do best".
The only thing I personally got to take away from the final season of the show was that in each of the pathetic 13 episodes I got to see a few minutes of Gale and Randy, both of them doing their best to bring to life some of the worst writing that has ever been foisted on two such talented actors.
I didn't like S5 very much, could you tell?
Let me preface this by saying that I still stand by everything I've said in terms of the end of the season - ie that, no matter what revisionist history prats like Shawn whatsit come up with it was not intended to definitively spell the end for bj, and that it was written the way it was solely to make C/L's "grand political statement" in the last scene. However, although I didn't like the end of the season, and thought it was poorly written, it was the earlier stuff that I truly hated.
I started to respond to a comment about Reverberations - about the canon writers and their lack of attention to the characters in that final season, when I realised that my response was going to go on a bit, so I decided to post it here instead.
*****
I don't think that the writers were particularly interested in the characters as such in the final season (or in S4 come to that). I think that they were all just hooks for a fairly banal series of political statements. And not especially profound or insightful ones at that.
I accept that C/L felt that with the political climate in the US moving more towards what someone once called "the religious wrong", they felt that the show provided a platform for making some statements about that, about their fears, and about how important it was to fight that process. I don't really have a problem with that.
My problem is with the fact that they did it so poorly and unimaginatively.
If they had had any real insights to offer into the situation other than just waving their hands around and saying "look at us poor gays being oppressed", I might have been more interested than I was.
If they had had any solutions to offer, other than letting Hunter bail out of school because of the prejudice he had to deal with, or Linds and Mel fleeing the country, or Drew losing everything to be out and proud, I might have had more respect. But the best solutions they could come up with were for Mikey to make his big speech to a crowd that were already in principle at least gay-friendly, Ben to beat the hell out of a guy twice his age and half his height, and, the infamous, "oh, let's all (except Justin) keep dancing at Babylon!". And those things are meant to symbolise triumph over all the hatred. I mean, puh-leeze. How lame!
How about some ideas on how to really activate and move public opinion? (Given that the only time anyone tried that they got bombed, not an awfully positive message.) How about showing some of the ways to positively influence the undecided masses - the people who aren't rabid right wing nutters, but just don't much care, because they don't know (or think they don't know) any gay people? How about ways to get to people like Jennifer Taylor that don't rely on her finding out about prejudice the hard way when it affects her son? How about all the Jennifer's, the decent people (of both sexes) who don't have gay sons, but who wouldn't want anyone's child to be treated that way? How do you enlist them to fight the hatred and the bigotry?
If C/L had had any suggestions on how to do any of those things, I might have had some time for how they chose to shape the last season of this show.
For instance, I know they showed the door knocking, but as all they showed were the unsuccessful visits, it wasn't exactly an encouragement to anyone looking for ideas that this might be a successful strategy. Why not have shown at least one visit where the people might have been given something to think about. If they had then showed those people's faces in the crowd (maybe next to Jennifer, or Emmett) at the vigil, that might have made some sort of point that it is worth trying to reach people, that it is possible to enlist all the decent human beings who are out there to fight this tide of bigotry.
But no, C/L's contribution was limited to "some people hate us" and "this isn't right" (both of which any audience watching QAF pretty much knows already without actually needing C/L to point it out to them), and, to top it all off, their grand finale statement was "we're going to keep dancing" .
Not, you will note, "we're going to keep living our lives out in the open, on the streets, in the offices, in the schools, in politics, everywhere", but "we're going to keep living our underground club lives" which, when you think about it, was a totally pathetic cop out on what the real statement should have been.
Geven all this, I feel free to say that in S5 in particular, C/L totally wasted everyone's time and efforts.
There was no insightful political commentary. There was no real attempt to analyse and offer solutions, ideas, encouragement to stem the tide of bigotry. There was only a pathetic attempt to say (in very high pitched girly simpers) "we're here, we're queer, and you won't have to worry about us, because we'll stay in the closet everywhere except in our own little clubs where we'll go on fucking like bunnies, because that's what we do best".
The only thing I personally got to take away from the final season of the show was that in each of the pathetic 13 episodes I got to see a few minutes of Gale and Randy, both of them doing their best to bring to life some of the worst writing that has ever been foisted on two such talented actors.
I didn't like S5 very much, could you tell?