Ugh I wrote a novel on television, good.

Mar 01, 2011 16:25

OKAY SO I'M GOING TO ACTUALLY POST ONCE IN AWHILE YOU GUYS. Let's talk about teevee.

So, 30 Rock. ( Ugh )

parks and rec, fringe, episode commentary, fandom march madness, 30 rock

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Comments 51

cleversimon March 1 2011, 21:37:10 UTC
That episode of 30 Rock made me intensely uncomfortable, especially the domestic-violence ex machina that wrapped it up. So gross. So not okay.

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annakovsky March 1 2011, 21:38:46 UTC
God, right? I felt so squirmy and wanted to die. The end was so wtf and gross I just... did not even know how to deal with it. What is wrong with you these days, Tina Fey?

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buffyx March 1 2011, 21:37:18 UTC
I'm pretty sure the 30 Rock storyline was referring to an article Jezebels wrote called Why Does The Daily Show Hate Women? (or something similarly titled), which talked about TDS's lack of female correspondents and had interviews with some former female correspondents. I remember Jon Stewart was pretty upset/angry over it, and the female staff at TDS wrote an open letter to Jezebel calling them ridiculous or something.

Thanks for the link to that article! I've felt since season two of P&R that Leslie Knope is one of the most feminist-ideal-embodying characters currently on television, and it makes me shake my head when people automatically point to Liz Lemon as filling that role because her characterization has become so increasingly problematic from a feminist standpoint while Leslie just gets more and more awesome.

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annakovsky March 1 2011, 21:41:07 UTC
Ugh, was it responding to that TDS thing? Because it super annoyed me when Jon Stewart, like, lost his shit over that, especially since, dude, your show is TERRIBLE ABOUT HAVING REGULAR WOMEN CORRESPONDENTS. I mean, there was that period of TDS where they had all white dudes, so at least they're better on race than they used to be, but STEP IT UP WRT THE LADIES. I don't even care if it's, like, a good working environment for ladies on the crew, that is not really the issue. Ugh, though, why the eff would Tina Fey need to get involved in that discussion?

Seriously, right? Not that Leslie Knope is totally perfect, but she is SUCH a great female character and the show is so great at, like, passing the Bechdel test and having lots of interesting ladies and not being awful about them like 30 Rock. WAY TO GO, POEHLS.

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buffyx March 1 2011, 21:49:18 UTC
Ugh, yes. I felt like that whole mess was ~the beginning of the end~ of my love affair with Jon Stewart. I still watch TDS regularly, but my opinion of him is a lot lower than it used to be, between his reaction to the Jezebel mess and then combined with the stupid rally speech he gave. His automatic defense to any criticism is to say "Hey, I'm just a comedian, don't take me seriously," but then he turns around and uses his position and power in ways where he clearly wants to be taken seriously. He really tries to have it both ways, and it's so frustrating ( ... )

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annakovsky March 1 2011, 23:35:52 UTC
Ugh, I know, I still watch TDS too but Jon has lost some of my respect for exactly those reasons you just said. The Jezebel reaction was so inappropriate (seriously, what was with him acting PERSONALLY HURT? Uh, dude, the entire Left still worships you, so maybe people on the internet pointing out that there aren't enough female correspondents shouldn't make you all butthurt?) and you're totally right about the "Don't take me seriously except do" thing. Ugh, Jon, get it together.

I'm really unsure about what 30 Rock was trying to say too, and that makes me even MORE ANNOYED. At least have a coherent point! And I totally would've been on board with, like, that joke about Jezebel, because yeah, but the whole sexy baby comedian thing was just like "..." What IS this?

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cheapmetaphor March 1 2011, 21:42:02 UTC
Hahaha, I was bitching to M about 30 Rock a couple of days ago and all I could come up with was that it was dumb and I was really annoyed and I didn't know why. So thanks for articulating all of that :)

PARKS AND REC. I jumped in a few weeks ago and have watched The Flu about 700 times since then. STOP POOPING.

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annakovsky March 1 2011, 21:46:07 UTC
Hahahaha, God, I'm glad it annoyed you t0o. That night that was totally my reaction too, but then I COULD NOT STOP THINKING ABOUT IT, that's how annoyed I was. Haha leading to me writing way too much about it, but ew, 30 Rock. Ew.

HASN'T PARKS AND REC BEEN GREAT LATELY? The Flu is my favorite episode of all time, everyone is so hilarious! The cab meter was in Egyptian hieroglyphics, do you know the exchange rate?

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irishmizzy March 1 2011, 22:04:41 UTC
In fandom's defense: wank about the angel dude from Supernatural making a scavenger hunt for fans is DELIGHTFUL while famous people using their TV show to respond to things said about them on the internet is ridiculous. It's like taking out a billboard because someone was mean to someone Facebook thinks you might know. CALM DOWN, YO. Also that whole episode was shitty, everyone acted so gross during it I could barely watch.

Everything about Fringe that isn't parallel universes or Special Agent Joe Toye or Joshua Jackson wandering around in a peacoat is so boring to me. YEAH, I SAID IT.

vote for Robin Scherbatsky and Penny to try to take down Barney and Sheldon.

SERIOUSLY I AM SO SICK OF BARNEY AND SHELDON IN GENERAL. ALSO I SHIP AMY/SETH LIKE BURNING BUT NO ONE WROTE IT FOR YULETIDE THIS YEAR, SADTIMES.

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annakovsky March 1 2011, 22:21:27 UTC
Lololol THE ANGEL DUDE MADE A SCAVENGER HUNT??? Haha, that's amazing, I'm sorry to have missed that wank. But seriously, that 30 Rock ep was so epically bad it made me actively angry. Though I did kind of enjoy Jack Donaghy getting bested by a little girl, but otherwise, UNCOOL.

Ahahaha, oh Fringe. IT'S SO TRUE, I'm so emotionally uninvested in, like, everything. I mostly just like seeing zeppelins over the twin towers. EXCEPT JOE TOYE AND JOSHUA JACKSON ARE AWESOME, AND ALSO OLIVIA WHEN THE SHOW ISN'T TREATING HER BADLY.

I honestly cannot even believe people are still voting for Barney and Sheldon. WHERE IS THE BACKLASH??? WHERE IS IT???? And augh, why would no one write Amy/Seth???? THEY PLAY MARRIED COUPLES AN AWFUL LOT. Also my shipping of all Weekend Update teams is really out of control, but for serious.

(Also, like, Amy and Seth started SNL the year after Amy and Will got together, which clearly just goes to show that Seth has been pining after Amy all this time, y/y? NO WONDER HE WON'T SETTLE DOWN WITH ANYONE ELSE.)

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moireach March 1 2011, 22:33:07 UTC
Remember the time Seth dated Rashida? And then Amy made Rashida her lady wife on P&R? I'm just saying. I'm not sure what, but I'm saying it.

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annakovsky March 1 2011, 22:34:58 UTC
Lol dude, I am not even kidding when I say that since I have fallen down this Parks hole I THINK ALL THE TIME ABOUT THAT AND HOW THAT IS TOTALLY HOW AMY MET RASHIDA AND NOW THEY'RE BESTIES WHO CALL EACH OTHER POEHLS AND STUFF. I BET SETH'S SO MAD THAT AMY STOLE HIS GIRLFRIEND.

(Ugh what happened to my Rashida iconsssssssssss.)

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deaver March 1 2011, 22:21:54 UTC
THIS SHOW IS MADE OF MAGIC. I LEGIT DO NOT KNOW HOW I AM GOING TO GET THROUGH THE NEXT TWO WEEKS WITHOUT IT TO LOOK FORWARD TO.

OMG, I know! How did this goofy show end up being one of the best things on tv?!

maybe it's just me, but I kind of can't get past the whole thing where Walter EXPERIMENTED ON CHILDREN AND DOES NOT SEEM VERY REMORSEFUL?

I feel like the show, particularly in the last three episodes or so, has really started to work on this - they are actively making Walternate seem sympathetic (he REFUSED to do experiments on kids!) and making us remember that Walter is not such a good guy. I think Walter was right to have made the decision to have parts of his brain removed so that he isn't so easily capable of doing these horrible things. I, for one, like that the show is working to make both universes equally valuable (and honestly, I kinda like the alternate universe a wee bit more than "ours".)

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annakovsky March 1 2011, 23:38:45 UTC
Seriously, Parks just CLICKED at a certain point and started firing on all cylinders and now it is 100% my happy place. Came out of nowhere!

That's good to hear that the show's working on the Walter thing in those episodes! I haven't gotten up to there yet (though lol, do not care about spoilers, so) -- and yeah, I like that they're working on both universes. Walternate refused to do experiments on children??? WELL WELL. Anyway, yeah, I feel like the show's been better about the whole issue in the third season altogether, but in season 2 the whole time I kept feeling like, HE DID EXPERIMENTS ON KIDS, DOES NO ONE CARE, AM I TAKING CRAZY PILLS? Haha.

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