In which I blather on more about telly
Jul. 26th, 2011 06:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyTreme: I finished watching the second season of Treme so, for the three of you who also watch the show, you may now analyze it to bits in the comments without fear of spoiling me.
If you're not already watching, read this interview with David Simon. He highlights what I like most about the show:
There are more dramatic stories in Season 2 than in Season 1, with more of an emphasis on crime (the cop story was, to me, the least interesting), but the best stories were the subtle ones. An accomplished musician attempts songwriting for the first time. A previously irresponsible man helps to teach a high school band class where most of the kids do not have instruments. A man tries to reconcile with his father and his city through music. These are not the kinds of stories that I am used to seeing on TV—perhaps one might see them in a very literary sort of novel—but in many ways, they're quite well-suited to serial, visual storytelling. I found myself incredibly invested in these stories (at some points talking to my TV—yeah, I know).
Some of my favourite bits:
• Albert and Desmond. Their story is one you can see coming right from the beginning, and its eventual outcome, Desmond moving back to New Orleans, is a foregone conclusion. What I didn't expect was the way it played out. I know I've mentioned the parallels to genre fiction before, but I feel the need to mention them again. It's an invention story, which I don't think you see in mainstream fiction very often, but which you see in sci-fi a fair bit: Desmond, by virtue of being both an outsider to New York and New Orleans, is inspired to create a type of music, rooted in the past but certainly experimental, that no one has heard before, and embraces both tradition and new technology to make it happen.
It's also a father-son reconciliation story, which is something I have an utter weakness for. And a person-city reconciliation story, which is the one thing I like even more.
• I would watch an entire spin-off about Janette and her pothead roommates. I lost my shit every time they cut to New York and it was clear that there would be a roommate scene. I don't even like pothead humour.
• Sonny's redemption story, such that it was, surprised me. Especially because he was my least favourite character by a long shot. So much of the narrative in Treme is about people owning their own damage and becoming stronger as a result.
• Davis continues to rock.
• Spider Stacy guest-starring wearing an IWW shirt. I am cheap that way.
• Annie's development as a musician, which is such a subtle, understated plot that culminates in one of the most shocking scenes they've shown so far.
• Antoine becoming a teacher, and through bonding with his students, becoming a slightly less godawful father and husband. That last scene in the finale of him taking his kids out at night to play was one of my favourites in the whole series.
• I want all the soundtracks.
I was less thrilled about LaDonna's story this season. I was pleased in the first season at how much they managed to avoid heavy-handed drama, and how they managed to write female characters that were strong without resorting to the sort of plots that TV writers tend to inflict on strong female characters. I don't know that a rape plot was really necessary. It was a well-written rape plot, leading to some brilliant moments at the end, and it gave Khandi Alexander a chance to act her heart out all over the emotional map, but it was still a case of male writers taking the strongest female character and making her story be about rape.
Next season, please oh please do a story focusing on the schools. They teased me with the bit where Desiree talks to her co-worker about the attacks on the public education system. Now there are three characters (Desiree, Antoine, and Sofia) in high schools, and a plot about the destruction of all public schooling in New Orleans would be amazing.
Torchwood: Miracle Day: It seems like as the plot of this gets better, the characterization falls by the wayside.
It's weird watching Miracle Day, because I'm entirely watching for the worldbuilding and social commentary, while not being invested in any of the characters. The ideas are fantastic. They've taken a simple concept—no one dies—and gone into insane detail about how the world changes as a result. All of the scenes that deal with institutions and governments trying to cope with the new reality are perfect.
All of the scenes where the characters do stuff have me looking at the clock to see when the episode is finished. It's like the writers have thought very hard about how society works, but not about how their specific characters might react.
I'm also going to lay down some flamebait and say that I thought the sex scenes (both of them) were gratuitous. If you are going to throw in a sex scene that adds nothing to the plot, can it please not been between a woman who hasn't slept for several days and a guy who was impaled a few days ago and is still bleeding everywhere? Because my mind goes to realistic places and honestly, that's gross. Also, they have no chemistry.
And while I can buy that Jack wants to jump everything that moves, I really can't buy him abandoning his duties and randomly going to a bar to pick up. He's like that a bit on Doctor Who, where he doesn't need to be in charge, but when he's in charge, he takes himself way too seriously. It felt as though the writers wanted to remind us that Jack likes the cock, so they had him hook up with some dude (I do appreciate the fanservice, but really), but then also still wanted him as a viable romantic interest for the female lead, so they had him drunk dial Gwen and tell her that he loved her more than his dead ex-boyfriend.
About the only character I find interesting is Jilly. I can't tell if this is just because she's played by Lauren Ambrose, though. Lauren Ambrose is so dreamy. I still don't get the point of Bill Pullman's character, though he does do a good job with a script that forces him act like an entirely different character in every episode.
I also appreciate that there is a lot of Bechdel win in the show overall, with all of the female characters having motivations completely divorced from whatever men are in their lives. So that's at least good.
Not telly related but while I'm going on about pop culture, check out![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
eumelia's post about X-Men: First Class, because it's really damned good.
If you're not already watching, read this interview with David Simon. He highlights what I like most about the show:
But it's not that it lacks plot. What it lacks is the life and death stakes of the television trope. If you tell me that somebody is going to lose the love of her life, which is a restaurant, and it's going to happen in real time, and we're going to see them make a choice to abandon their city - that's an awful lot that's happened to a character. On the other hand, are you measuring it by asking, "Did I see a gun put to this person's head? Did I see them raped? Did I see them wreck their car drunkenly and end up in the hospital? Were they put on trial for their life? Were they sent into an ER and the doctors hovered over them making life and death decisions? Were they hurtled into the West Wing where they had to consult on a decision that would mean the lives and deaths of thousands?" Those are the standard tropes of a standard television drama. I'm uninterested in telling a story that is a lie, and those are not the stakes of post-Katrina New Orleans, and I'm interested in post-Katrina New Orleans.
There are more dramatic stories in Season 2 than in Season 1, with more of an emphasis on crime (the cop story was, to me, the least interesting), but the best stories were the subtle ones. An accomplished musician attempts songwriting for the first time. A previously irresponsible man helps to teach a high school band class where most of the kids do not have instruments. A man tries to reconcile with his father and his city through music. These are not the kinds of stories that I am used to seeing on TV—perhaps one might see them in a very literary sort of novel—but in many ways, they're quite well-suited to serial, visual storytelling. I found myself incredibly invested in these stories (at some points talking to my TV—yeah, I know).
Some of my favourite bits:
• Albert and Desmond. Their story is one you can see coming right from the beginning, and its eventual outcome, Desmond moving back to New Orleans, is a foregone conclusion. What I didn't expect was the way it played out. I know I've mentioned the parallels to genre fiction before, but I feel the need to mention them again. It's an invention story, which I don't think you see in mainstream fiction very often, but which you see in sci-fi a fair bit: Desmond, by virtue of being both an outsider to New York and New Orleans, is inspired to create a type of music, rooted in the past but certainly experimental, that no one has heard before, and embraces both tradition and new technology to make it happen.
It's also a father-son reconciliation story, which is something I have an utter weakness for. And a person-city reconciliation story, which is the one thing I like even more.
• I would watch an entire spin-off about Janette and her pothead roommates. I lost my shit every time they cut to New York and it was clear that there would be a roommate scene. I don't even like pothead humour.
• Sonny's redemption story, such that it was, surprised me. Especially because he was my least favourite character by a long shot. So much of the narrative in Treme is about people owning their own damage and becoming stronger as a result.
• Davis continues to rock.
• Spider Stacy guest-starring wearing an IWW shirt. I am cheap that way.
• Annie's development as a musician, which is such a subtle, understated plot that culminates in one of the most shocking scenes they've shown so far.
• Antoine becoming a teacher, and through bonding with his students, becoming a slightly less godawful father and husband. That last scene in the finale of him taking his kids out at night to play was one of my favourites in the whole series.
• I want all the soundtracks.
I was less thrilled about LaDonna's story this season. I was pleased in the first season at how much they managed to avoid heavy-handed drama, and how they managed to write female characters that were strong without resorting to the sort of plots that TV writers tend to inflict on strong female characters. I don't know that a rape plot was really necessary. It was a well-written rape plot, leading to some brilliant moments at the end, and it gave Khandi Alexander a chance to act her heart out all over the emotional map, but it was still a case of male writers taking the strongest female character and making her story be about rape.
Next season, please oh please do a story focusing on the schools. They teased me with the bit where Desiree talks to her co-worker about the attacks on the public education system. Now there are three characters (Desiree, Antoine, and Sofia) in high schools, and a plot about the destruction of all public schooling in New Orleans would be amazing.
Torchwood: Miracle Day: It seems like as the plot of this gets better, the characterization falls by the wayside.
It's weird watching Miracle Day, because I'm entirely watching for the worldbuilding and social commentary, while not being invested in any of the characters. The ideas are fantastic. They've taken a simple concept—no one dies—and gone into insane detail about how the world changes as a result. All of the scenes that deal with institutions and governments trying to cope with the new reality are perfect.
All of the scenes where the characters do stuff have me looking at the clock to see when the episode is finished. It's like the writers have thought very hard about how society works, but not about how their specific characters might react.
I'm also going to lay down some flamebait and say that I thought the sex scenes (both of them) were gratuitous. If you are going to throw in a sex scene that adds nothing to the plot, can it please not been between a woman who hasn't slept for several days and a guy who was impaled a few days ago and is still bleeding everywhere? Because my mind goes to realistic places and honestly, that's gross. Also, they have no chemistry.
And while I can buy that Jack wants to jump everything that moves, I really can't buy him abandoning his duties and randomly going to a bar to pick up. He's like that a bit on Doctor Who, where he doesn't need to be in charge, but when he's in charge, he takes himself way too seriously. It felt as though the writers wanted to remind us that Jack likes the cock, so they had him hook up with some dude (I do appreciate the fanservice, but really), but then also still wanted him as a viable romantic interest for the female lead, so they had him drunk dial Gwen and tell her that he loved her more than his dead ex-boyfriend.
About the only character I find interesting is Jilly. I can't tell if this is just because she's played by Lauren Ambrose, though. Lauren Ambrose is so dreamy. I still don't get the point of Bill Pullman's character, though he does do a good job with a script that forces him act like an entirely different character in every episode.
I also appreciate that there is a lot of Bechdel win in the show overall, with all of the female characters having motivations completely divorced from whatever men are in their lives. So that's at least good.
Not telly related but while I'm going on about pop culture, check out
eumelia's post about X-Men: First Class, because it's really damned good.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-07-26 10:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-27 12:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-26 10:21 pm (UTC)I'll watch it eventually. Probably. It sounds too good to actually miss out on.
Also, thanks for the plug :D
no subject
Date: 2011-07-27 12:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-27 12:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-15 01:09 pm (UTC)And the MUSIC, sweetie, the music is so great. You would totally love it.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-27 09:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-27 12:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-15 01:07 pm (UTC)First, I will get Torchwood out of the way. After the scene where the pedophile holds up a baby for the cameras, I stopped watching. I continue to read people's snarky re-caps.
Now for Treme: I started out being so annoyed by Davis, because he's that guy, you know, the really annoying one. But I ended up liking him, and especially liking how they show his relationship with Annie as good for both of them.
The rape plot... I was disappointed that there was a rape plot, but happy with how they told the story and especially how they made it all about her, and not about how it affected the men in her life... because we've all seen that too many times.
Annie, I love Annie so much.
And Janette, and the stoner roomates.
More focus on the schools would be fantastic.