No, there's nothing inherently wrong with loving Twilight, but what Entertainment Weekly did was absolutely ridiculous to the highest degree. They gave the credit to Twilight for everything that has ever happened in the world and more!
Hollywood's obsession with Young Adult novels? Thank you, Twilight. It had nothing to do with Harry Potter, nothing at all. Nope, it was all Twilight!
"Twilight created a tidal wave of interest in the paranormal-vampires, werewolves, zombies..."
Wow, what a sentence. So big and so flawed, it must be deconstructed piece by piece. Let's start with "vampires." First off, I guess we have to ignore the books here because if we don't, then EW crediting Twilight for Vampire Diaries would be all wrong because Vampire Diaries came out in 1991. But the real argument goes to a great show called True Blood. It debuted September 7th, 2008 and was a success for HBO. The first Twilight movie didn't come out until almost THREE months later. So, the credit for the vampire craze would belong to True Blood, not Twilight.
But don't forget, Twilight is not just getting credit for vampires, it's getting credit for ALL paranormal creatures here. So next up, we have zombies.The one-two punch of 28 Days Later and the remake of Dawn of the Dead in 2003 and 2004 ushered in the new age of zombies and began or reinvigorated many people's love affair with this paranormal creature. Over the next few years, a string of cool, new zombie moves came out in the theaters, but after four years, interest was beginning to wane and the zombie craze went underground for a while, living on in straight to DVD movies. Hollywood was looking for the next paranormal creature to bring back from the dead.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer had been off the air for three years by 2006, and continued to have a dedicated and loyal following. So let's just rip off Buffy, right? Central female lead? Check. Fall in love with a vampire? Check.
What I'm saying is that a strong and logical argument can be made that Buffy deserves the credit for Twilight, Harry Potter deserves the credit for the explosion of Young Adult novels in Hollywood, True Blood deserves the credit for the vampire craze and 28 Days Later/Dawn of the Dead deserve the credit for the new wave of paranormal creatures in the movies.
A strong and logical argument can't be made at all that Twilight deserves the credit for any of this. Unless, of course, you're Entertainment Weekly and you just say it is so.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Saturday, November 3, 2012
I'm Tired Of...
I'm tired of babies and all baby related things. I think television is in a baby booming phase because it seems to me that every show has some sort of baby or pregnancy plot. New sitcoms are being made about new parents; old sitcoms are having characters get pregnant, dramas are having the "big dramatic twist" be a pregnancy. I'm just tired of it all. There's a whole world out there without children who just don't care, but even if you have children, how many new and original jokes or story lines can be created about this subject? The answer to that is none.
I'm tired of my favorite (or any) sitcoms injecting "heart" into the story and or characters. Yes, I realize that How I Met Your Mother's audience skyrocketed when they started injecting a lot more heart into the show, but fuck it, when I sit down to watch a sitcom, the last thing I want to see is a three episode arc about one of the characters parents dying. It's called a "sitcom," meaning a "situation comedy," which means you put a character or group of characters in a common situation or location and you make it FUNNY.
While I'm at it, I'm goddamn tired of advertising agents on TV and in the movies. You would think half the country were advertising agents, because they're targeting this demographic so often. Yes, I get it, when you have a character whose an advertising agent, it allows the writer to easily have life lessons learned throughout the show or movie give him or her the great idea for the advertising campaign they're working on. It also allows for new and famous guest stars week in and week out. And no, lets not modernize this by switching to sports agent, Hollywood agent, or any other kind of agent.
While they're at it, let's also do away with characters on shows or movies being producers of some sort of show, characters writing articles for a magazine or newspaper, interns who somehow have enough money for a nice apartment in New York...
...Characters in a high school show who are going off to college far away from where the show is set. I mean, come on. We all know they'll be right back on the show next year, so let's just not fake it. But for god's sake, don't make their reasoning be for their boyfriend or girlfriend; that just gives too many high school kids bad ideas.
If I have to talk about someone, or reveal to a friend something bad I did to another friend, I'm going to do it quietly and when I absolutely know that the person I'm offending is nowhere near where I'm talking. I also make sure to follow the same rules if the evil gossip of my friends is anywhere near. That way they can't threaten me with the juicy information they just overheard. So, can we please do away with all characters who are overheard because they decided to open their stupid mouths when the offended person is in the next room.
And finally, please, we do not need "this season on...." Just give me a 20 second teaser for next week's episode and be done with it. I don't want plot spoilers for the next nine months of the show. Just stop it already.
I'm tired of my favorite (or any) sitcoms injecting "heart" into the story and or characters. Yes, I realize that How I Met Your Mother's audience skyrocketed when they started injecting a lot more heart into the show, but fuck it, when I sit down to watch a sitcom, the last thing I want to see is a three episode arc about one of the characters parents dying. It's called a "sitcom," meaning a "situation comedy," which means you put a character or group of characters in a common situation or location and you make it FUNNY.
While I'm at it, I'm goddamn tired of advertising agents on TV and in the movies. You would think half the country were advertising agents, because they're targeting this demographic so often. Yes, I get it, when you have a character whose an advertising agent, it allows the writer to easily have life lessons learned throughout the show or movie give him or her the great idea for the advertising campaign they're working on. It also allows for new and famous guest stars week in and week out. And no, lets not modernize this by switching to sports agent, Hollywood agent, or any other kind of agent.
While they're at it, let's also do away with characters on shows or movies being producers of some sort of show, characters writing articles for a magazine or newspaper, interns who somehow have enough money for a nice apartment in New York...
...Characters in a high school show who are going off to college far away from where the show is set. I mean, come on. We all know they'll be right back on the show next year, so let's just not fake it. But for god's sake, don't make their reasoning be for their boyfriend or girlfriend; that just gives too many high school kids bad ideas.
If I have to talk about someone, or reveal to a friend something bad I did to another friend, I'm going to do it quietly and when I absolutely know that the person I'm offending is nowhere near where I'm talking. I also make sure to follow the same rules if the evil gossip of my friends is anywhere near. That way they can't threaten me with the juicy information they just overheard. So, can we please do away with all characters who are overheard because they decided to open their stupid mouths when the offended person is in the next room.
And finally, please, we do not need "this season on...." Just give me a 20 second teaser for next week's episode and be done with it. I don't want plot spoilers for the next nine months of the show. Just stop it already.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)