Fumarama

Fair Warning: If you have not seen the movie yet, don't read this...

So if i were ever to get into a comic book, i think it would be X-Men. I really like that it is this whole society with family-like relationships and love triangles, it is a soap opera, plus super heroism, which I also dig. I don't remember the first two movies however, but unlike batman and superman, and spiderman, these guys don't seem as into saving the world as ensuring their own peaceful existence. That being said, I have a couple of questions about this X-Men world, if anyone out there is a comic book reader....

1. where do the x-men get all their money? I mean that school is pretty nice, but none of them seem to have jobs or any means of making money.

2. Why at the end of the movie where there only 6 good guys? I mean this is the big mutant school. Shouldn't some of the mutants out there is the world be graduates to the school and loyal to Xavier, why didn't they help out the good guys against the bad mutants? Or why weren't some of them at the meetings? where are all these grads?

3. Most importantly, Gene Grey, why did she have to die? I mean couldn't Wolverine just hurt her enough to subdue her and then they could have put her in all those brain machines again. It almost worked early in the movie. I mean I know Xavier is dead and can no longer control her, but there has to be another thought reading mutant out there who could try and help out. You know, perhaps a graduate of this school.

In Sunday's Style Section of the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/fashion/sundaystyles/21Television.html

Read the article, and then insert male names and replace television with like college basketball. And seriously, it could be the exact same article. Except the New York Times would never publish such a patronizing article about men and their sports!

From Shonda Rhimes, in the Grey Writer's weblog, which I absolutely adore:

On Meredith and Derek getting back together:

"I can’t promise you anything because, like I said earlier, the characters are alive for me and thus, I can’t make them do anything against their will. But my fingers and toes are crossed for the Mer/Der love…"

On Killing off Denny:

"Look, I honestly have nothing to say for myself. No words in my own defense. Except I told you guys that the characters have to do what the characters have to do."

I like this sentiment for two reasons.

First, I really like the idea of a story taking on a life of its own beyond the people who wrote it. As if narrative itself has a life of its own.

Second, from the perspective of a fan, she is totally right. A television show is so much better when it is driven by the needs of the story and the personalities of the characters created. She is right that Denny dying felt shocking but also not wrong. It made sense for the story that Denny died and so it was good that it did. What I find more interesting is that it does not work the other way, when a character must be killed off or move away somewhere because of some outside reason, the writers putting it in the story line never quite works as well. Think of all the characters who left ER, their departure never felt very satisfying because the writers had to put it in because of various actors being sick of being on the show.

Or lets examine, my now ending favorite show, Everwood. (I am actually too numb from the news to be depressed, plus it is probably karmic punishment for having missed Everwood to watch Grey's Anatomy on Monday. Yes, you 3 million or so fans of the show, Everwood being cancelled it all my fault.) Colin's death was amazing because it was truly uncertain what was going to happen and it totally propelled the story where it needed to go. However, Marcia Cross leaving was pretty lame. Sure, she could no longer work in Everwood cause she had AIDS, but it was not a compelling story line, and she really had to leave cause she was going to be on Desperate Housewives.

Anyway, on to the Death of Marissa on last nights OC, which was the real jumping off point of this entry. Television Without Pity describes it perfectly:

Unfortunately for her, Crazy Volchok will do anything to get her back -- including driving his new car and running her and Ryan off the road. Despite his section of the car being completely smushed, Ryan survives the crash with nary an injury, making him well able to carry Marissa's body out of the car before it dramatically explodes. And wow, it looks just like all those other times he's had to carry her body around, as we see in a montage celebrating this show's love of repetition instead of creativity. And as a barely-awake Imogean Heap sings "Hallelujah" over and over again, Marissa DIES. She dies! And even more pointlessly than she lived.

Obviously, all the rumors of her leaving the show took away from any of the shock that her death may have caused. (Unlike Colin's death in the best show ever, which was totally unexpected). But also, it just felt tacked on or something. Not really an integral part of the story line.

A side issue is also the promo department, who often ruins deaths by telling us that they are going to happen. See the final episode of the Dawson's Creek which I think would have been much better if we did not know Jen was going to die from all the dumb WB commercials. And maybe I would have forgotten the rumors, if the FOX promo departments did not remind me of it with thier stupid commercials.

Well, for all my anticipation for Stick it, I have to say it is not a classic.

However, I still think it is totally movie theater worthy, can I have a middle ground in my ratings between seeing it in the theater and renting it on video, perhaps if you are in a town that is not New York that has second run movie theaters, perhaps with some beer and food, then you absolutely have to see Stick It, especially if there is beer.

So yes, I thought the movie was good. The ending was fantastic and totally worth the whole thing. But somewhere in the middle, I got kind of bored. Yeah, we get it, you think the rules of gymnastics are too rigid, you want to be different. Yeah, we get it, people are hypocrites. Really, I wanted the girl and her voice over to just stop whining.

So yeah, maybe you should go see it when you have other things on your mind, so you can cover those during the boring parts. And then watch the end, it is hilarious.

A couple of thoughts from the series finale of the West Wing:

1. You know, I have always felt that John Wells is not a bad writer. He wrote much of early ER and I remember thinking that was just great. And so I would like to mention that while I am sad that Aaron Sorkin did not write the episode, I still thought it was compelling. And yes, I cried. quite a bit.

2. However, in case you missed it or stopped watching 3 years ago, Aaron Sorkin had a cameo. wtf? Why didn't he just write the episode?

3. Toby gets pardoned. So I was wrong, but as you can guess from my previous post, I am really happy that I was wrong. However, why wasn't Toby featured in this episode? He was such an essential character, he should have been in the finale. Ron the secret service agent made the finale, Ed and Larry made the finale, Mallory too, why not Toby?

4. Loose ends. What is CJ doing next? besides living with Danny, they never tell us. Also, is that woman whose name I can't remember (kate?) is she fellowing Will to Oregon? Is he definately going? Also, no idea. Who is the next press secretary?

5. Charlie would not be going to Georgetown law, he would be going to Yale.

6. I got all teary when Donna saw her new office.

7. It was totally predictable, the whole Bartlet for America thing, and yet as soon as I realized that this is where the episode was going, I got all teary.

So I made two rules for myself when restarting this blog.

1. never write about politics
2. never write about myself.

Well, I am going to break #2 briefly to note that today i must get rid of my tv. It is 16 years old. For the past couple of months the picture has been kind of fuzzy. But mostly it is really heavy and now that i basically have to lift everything on my own, I just cannot manage to take it to my mom's in Virginia (she lives on the third floor with no elevator). And as has been astutely pointed out to me, it would cost me more to store my tv than to just buy a new (lighter) one. But I must say I am a bit sad. I have this tv for 16 years! Really, all my formative tv watching years. From Saved by the Bell, to 90210, to Dawson's Creek, to Everwood and Gilmore Girls. But alas, I must bid it farewell.

Wow, so I am really risking turning my little blog into just commentary on the West Wing. And I totally don't mean to do that, especially since I don't even think of the West Wing as one of my top must watch shows. But at least this is better than me turning this into a blog about how much I now I hate the OC. (I saw Thank You For Smoking, and Adam Brody is a one trick pony and the trick has lost its charm)

Anyway, back to Toby. As of the last episode, he is going to jail. For five years!!! Now next week is the series finale, so something might change, but if not, he is going to jail. So here is the problem, I like these characters, and I want to believe that when they leave me, they will live happily ever after. Hence, my joy that Donna and Josh got together, and CJ and Danny, and Sam is engaged...in my imagination they will spend the next 40 years, hanging out and engaging in witty dialouge. But Toby? The idea of him in the next 5 years in an orange jumpsuit is just so so sad. And after he gets out, what will he do? Who will hire him? He will end up alone and depressed. It is just such a sad sad ending for such a great character.

TV is not great literature. In the end of the day, it is escapism. If toby going to jail said something great about the universe I might understand, but this is pointlessly heartbreaking.