How people really feel

[yourlibrarian]

1) Audiofiles has now launched to promote podcasts. The first one I listened to? Matchmakers. "Elna Baker worked at the giant toy store, FAO Schwartz. Her job was to sell lifelike "newborns" displayed in a "nursery" inside the store. When the white babies sell out, white parents are faced with a choice: Will they go for an Asian, Latino, or

Comments

[tabaqui]

You keep typing 'Chuck' and I keep thinking of the Chuck in SPN and yet - you're talking about the *show* Chuck so - wow. Incredibly confused

[yourlibrarian]

Ha, you're not the only one who was confused with the multiple Chucks, particularly since one has it as their show name! I probably could have avoided talking about Chuck Shurley at all, but then he is tied to Becky and besides, like I said there, Chuck's super special aspects as prophet and such hardly ever get put to much use in the series. I liked the character as Rob Benedict played him but I thought the idea of the character was terrible.

Similarly, I know people have very different opinions of Becky, but she never made any sense for the storyline and as far as a commentary/discussion of fans or fandom, I thought all their "meta" episodes were badly handled. I never liked what they did for the show as a whole.

I think it's useful to contrast SPN with Community. The meta stuff is exactly what Community does but it started doing it very early on in the series so that became the center of the show, regardless of what the original plan for it was. Plus Community was already set in "the real world", it's a comedy, and even

[tabaqui]

Heeee. I really liked Chuck the prophet, and though the idea of prophets was a neat idea. I can't decide, in my mind, if he was simply 'lifted up to heaven' after the apocalypse was averted, like 'your job is done' kind of thing, or if 'Chuck Shurley' never *really* existed at all, but was a sort of 'made' mouthpiece rather than a real person.

I *don't* think he was or is now the god of the SPN 'verse.

I have enjoyed the 'meta' episodes. I agree that subtlety is not Show's strong suit. But then again, as I said in a flisty's lj the other day - the number of people who discuss Show and are *so very confused* about what happened or what's going on is kinda high, so too much 'subtle' might be a bad thing.

I've seen a few episodes of 'Community' but i don't watch regularly. It's funny, yes, but i haven't seen enough to comment on it in any in-depth way.

[ivy03]

Number 1 was on TAL a few years ago.

[yourlibrarian]

Yes, the Audiofiles site is just supposed to host podcast recs. So they come from all over, but I imagine there's quite a few TAL stories on there.

[daria234]

I completely agree that the portrayal of Becky as increasingly depraved is a problem. Her fangurling and her foolish/selfish/unethical tendencies are shown as being closely connected. As in, look, only a crazy obsessed woman with nothing going for her would write porn on the Internetz. It's totally different than being a guy who watches a video of porn. *could rant on, but won't

[yourlibrarian]

The gendered aspects of fans and fandom are what have always bothered me the most about their chosen characters and storylines. Even when it comes to their RP episode, French Mistake. We never see Sera, just hear her voice. Instead Kripke, who's pretty much off the show at this point, is the one who gets featured. And there's no other speaking part for any other woman on the show. It's only Genevieve who gets any lines, and she's not really connected to the show, she's connected as a love interest to the lead actor.

I LOVED that Ellie said that staying home all day was a whole different kind of tough than what he was used to - and showed it to be true. That was an unusually enlightened moment for television, imho.

::nods:: And given that Ellie and Devon understand not only one another but one another's work since it's very similar, it makes sense that his experience should play out as it does.

[moorspede]

The link to Matchmakers isn't working for me.

[yourlibrarian]

Try this: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/347/Matchmakers?act=3

I'm not sure what happened to the link in the post, but thanks for the heads-up.

[moorspede]

Thanks for that, it looks intriguing.

I felt no surprise whatsoever watching the latest Becky fail. As the woman who wrote the thesis said, fangirls are hardly ever portrayed, she's only one of a few examples and to expect SPN to do anything positively innovative is to expect too much.