aka Frazzled's 2016 Sonic Misadventures
Friday, December 30, 2016
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Fall
Well, we all knew we would end up here, didn't we?
I have to say that this was possibly my favorite resolution to any romantic storyline on TV ever, and one of the best TV episodes ever, from start to finish. I'm not that worried about Rory's plotline because we've seen it played out already, and it will end exactly this way. Which is the way it should be.
I wasn't that enchanted with Lorelai's nature misadventures, apart from the #Parenthood cameos. It was very kind of Lauren to give half of the cast of her last show a job. Peter Krause in particular cracked me up: it was very amusing to watch Lauren attempt to flirt shamelessly with Lauren Graham's real-life boyfriend (thankfully, they still have no romantic chemistry whatsoever).
Fun fact: Jason Ritter not only played Lauren's love interest on Parenthood but also Alexis Bledel's love interest on the doomed sitcom Us and Them (so terrible they never bothered to show episodes) and Scott Patterson's prospective son-in-law on the doomed The Event (also fairly terrible, though since I stopped watching after four episodes I couldn't tell you if it got better or not). All of this pretty much proves that Sarah Braverman really needed to end up with someone her own age.
Summer
I know a lot of people hate April and blame her for ruining Lorelai and Luke's relationship, but nothing that happened was that kid's fault. It's not her fault her father was an idiot about relationships, or that her mother kept her hidden away from him for so long. (On the other hand, it is absolutely at least half Christopher's fault that Lorelai was an idiot about relationships). It certainly wasn't her fault that the writers and Lauren Graham seemed really keen to have Lorelai embark on a relationship with Christopher (although in retrospect, I think that was mostly PR on Lauren's part). I'm probably a bad judge since I watched so little of the kid's originaltime on the show, but I didn't mind her return appearance.
I really did like the semi-blended family dynamic here, even if it's not as blended as perhaps it needs to be. As someone got got folded into a blended family after my parents split up when I was an adult, the interaction between April and Rory felt very true to how I interacted with my stepsisters, especially before we knew each other that well. Rory calming April down while their parents watch TV in the next room is something that's straight out of my life, although in my case it's usually our parents choosing to hide while my stepsisters and I discuss #WalkingDead theories. They didn't grow up together and they've probably only seen each other a couple of times, but there's definitely dramatic potential there. You know that April has heard a gazillion stories about how accomplished Rory is over the past nine years.
Spring
After six years, we finally have the eternal mystery solved. Mr. Kim exists!
I guess he was just hiding from Mrs. Kim this entire time. Can't say I blame him.
The whole episode in the Black White and Read theater was perfection. All the townies with their multiple snacks, Kirk in cosplay, Kirk and his weird short film. Luke telling Lorelai he'll be fine with having to hold her during the movie (Aw, y'all are the cutest). On that note . . .
Oh, Luke and Lorelai and their web of lies. In the long run, this isn't really relationship-ruining drama, but it does open up past bad patterns of behavior. This probably would have really worried me if I hadn't checked the spoilers for all of these episodes first.
I kind of can't believe it myself.
The whole episode in the Black White and Read theater was perfection. All the townies with their multiple snacks, Kirk in cosplay, Kirk and his weird short film. Luke telling Lorelai he'll be fine with having to hold her during the movie (Aw, y'all are the cutest). On that note . . .
Oh, Luke and Lorelai and their web of lies. In the long run, this isn't really relationship-ruining drama, but it does open up past bad patterns of behavior. This probably would have really worried me if I hadn't checked the spoilers for all of these episodes first.
Winter
A gorgeous scene that this Alabamian will never be able to relate to
The fact that Luke was so proud of Rory that he ordered extra copies of her New Yorker article and plastered them on the back of the diner menus (as well as meeting her forgettable boyfriend) really puts into focus on how he has essentially become her official surrogate dad. He always danced around that in the original series, in part because he didn't want to get in Lorelai's way and due to the ever-changing status of their relationship, but he's really settled into that role now and I heart it.
A Post on the #GilmoreGirlsRevival, the revival I never wanted to happen and yet somehow was everything I didn't think was possible.
Disclaimer: these little rants are spoiler-heavy and not recaps. I still think it's crazy I'm even doing this, but I spent a lot of time on the TWOP forums back in the day and I didn't realize until I watched this again how much the show had meant to me, how much I had missed it. I've got a lot to say and I don't really have anyone to talk to about it, because the forums are gone, Tumblr and Twitter are still too aghast at not getting the resolution to Rory's love life that they wanted, and no one in real life is going to get this. I also had lots of fun collecting the GIFs and captions. I spent years dissecting Luke and Lorelai's relationship, so expect lots of shipper talk. Strangely, after years of being indifferent to Rory's love life, I am now solidly #TeamJess. So take that as you will, and enjoy my random thoughts and pop culture musings.
I never wanted this revival to happen.
I have a long and complicated history with this show. I watched it happily during the first two and a half seasons, then quit because I was so over Rory's man issues. I started watching again when Lorelai and Luke got back together at the end of season 4, but I stopped watching quite so much when April showed up in season 6 and Christopher started sniffing around again. I could see the writing on the wall and by the time Lorelai threw her ultimatum and slept with Christopher, I was over it. I have seen about three episodes of the last season. I know Lorelai ended up with Luke at the last minute and that was all the resolution I needed. I have not-so-secretly thought for years that the writers always intended to have Lorelai run off with Christopher and that the only reason why that ended in the last season is because the story got away from them, and someone new came in and eventually fixed what they had ruined. I was fine with the ending and didn't want them to screw it up again.
I'm so glad I was wrong.
This particular shipper experience is a repeat of my angst over Doug and Carol in the first few seasons of ER, something that again got fixed at the last minute and left them in the perfect place. I never wanted the writers to revisit that again because I didn't trust them. I don't know if suffering through Lorelai's marriage with Christopher would be worse than watching Carol have Doug's babies alone while the writers try to convince us that the shoehorned-in love interest is superior, but I've never been interested in finding out. My shipper hopes kind of died with this Gilmore Girls experience, and I've rectified that by becoming attached to TV shows where so many character die that I don't have to worry about getting attached to anyone.
However, much like ER, this show did prove me wrong. In that case, I got a tidy epilogue that showed that Doug and Carol were married, domesticated and happy nine years later. With this show, I got much of the same, although there were some kinks and disappointments to work out. I knew there wasn't much danger in either case given that it was all but stated as such in the advance publicity, but I was still a little anxious. This shipper is happy, although I still haven't forgiven the writers for what happened before. Even as much as I love this revival, I doubt I'll go back and watch season 7.
I am pretty convinced that I don't want new episodes. Some of the things the Palladinos have said about Rory's future choices have really disturbed me and kind of tarnished my respect for that crazy ending. I'm also not crazy about the fact that Amy Sherman-Palladino has almost nothing to say about Luke and Lorelai but still gushes about how gorgeous Christopher is. They've written such a beautiful, thematically consistent ending, and then they have to ruin it all by opening their mouths. Jerks. I'm sort of horrified by some of the stuff they possibly envision for the future, so I'm more than content to leave things where they are.
I do believe that this incident in pop culture is pretty good evidence that it's untrustworthy to idolize writers and showrunners. Their visions are not sacrosanct: sometimes they're terribly, horribly wrong.
If the show had ended the way it did in 2007, it would have been a disaster, but updated to 2016, it does make sense . . . if you leave it the way that it is and just go with the interpretation that most fans have from that ending. I'd rather not hear what the showrunners have to say about it at this point. It is what it is, and it's best left alone.
Overall, I don't think that showrunners/writers really understand how passionate the fans are about the characters. To them, it's not any more significant than moving puzzle pieces around, and they don't get how hard the fans root for these characters and view them as real people. Television fandom is very different than it was ten years ago. The whole industry is catered to the fans and their obsessions: heck, there are elaborate aftershows these days where people just sit and talk about what happened for an hour. Actors are much more comfortable in that space than writers are: after all, they're the ones who have to answer these questions over and over. They go to the cons and root for their teams and while this enterprise probably isn't terribly healthy, I much prefer it to the era when showrunners were treated like gods who could do no wrong.
But regardless of all of that, this was the most fun I had watching TV in a long time and I really enjoyed it.
Winter
Spring
Summer
Fall
Monday, March 31, 2014
My Thoughts On The How I Met Your Mother Finale, or How An Ending I Haven't Wanted For The Past Nine Years Ended Up Working Anyway
I've watched How I Met Your Mother for nine years. I haven't watched all of those episodes chronologically, and until recently I didn't make a habit of watching it "live". And I have to admit that I pretty much gave up on the show during season five, and it wasn't until it improved over the next couple of years that I went back and re-watched those episodes (Thank you, Netflix!) Still, it's been a long habit and I knew I would end up missing the show. It's one of the few traditional sitcoms left, and unlike so much stuff that gets praised by critics, it was a pleasant, optimistic show about a guy who tried to find space for his dreams of true love and commitment in the typically depressing mileau of modern singles sitcoms.
Ted ended up the least likable character on the show, and he actually turned out to be almost as slutty as Barney, but none of that really kept the show from being a fun, pleasant experience. The characters had their setbacks and occasional tragedies, but they didn't give up on life. They kept plodding forth and eventually seeking that something better would be coming around the corner, despite what was happening to them at the present moment. And I LIKED them. That's not insignificant in these days when it seems that every drama on TV is in competition to see how morbid and cynical and ugly they can be in a 42 hour time frame. Sure, I'm a red-blooded American female and I love zombies and the prospect of Jon Snow's derriere as much as anyone else, but it's a good idea to get a break from all of that.
So why do I think a show that killed off The Mother in the last ten minutes and reunited Ted with the character he broke up with in the second season and that he spent entirely too much time obsessing over, even as she prepared to marry one of his best friends, ended up pulling it off, against all the odds?
Let's start with Barney and Robin. They have never really had a terribly healthy relationship: it's always been full of awe-inspiring romantic gestures and short on the day-to-day support and sacrifice that makes a real marriage work. They never really tested whether they could make a relationship work: the first attempt failed disastrously and the second attempt went straight to planning a wedding with no in between. That said, I think they both did have good intentions, but they just didn't have what it takes to make a relationship work. And it's not like the writers didn't tell us this repeatedly over 22 episodes of this very, very, very long wedding weekend.
It turns out Barney didn't have it in him to be Robin's husband, but apparently he really took to fatherhood. I love this ending much more than him ending up with Robin, because he apparently shed some of his more disgusting habits and ended up being a good father. The show didn't really spend that much time on it (mostly because there was only 5 minutes left, and they had some murdering to do), but I liked to think that Robin's congratulations to him was a sign that they reconciled a bit, and that she ended up being "Aunt Robin" to his kid, too. It may have not have been the expected ending, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a happy one.
As far as Ted and The Mother goes, I was a little surprised that they didn't end up getting married until years after the kids were born, since Ted seemed so adamant about marriage throughout the entire series. I'm guessing he didn't want a wedding until everything could be perfectly planned, but if there's anything this finale taught us, it's that life doesn't work out exactly as you plan. So he settles for an impromptu wedding that brings everyone back together after a long estrangement. It's at that point that Robin re-enters everyone's lives, and becomes the beloved Aunt Robin to all six (!) kids.
As far as the Mother dying -- well, this has been a fan theory theory for a very, very, very long time. When the episode first aired that hinted that The Mother might meet an untimely end, I groaned because I never wanted that ending. We've watched way too many episodes of Ted Pining over Robin, and frankly it went way past the line a long, long time ago. When Ted was considering going after Robin in season 7, he asked Barney if he would mind, since Barney had been pursuing Robin himself a few months earlier. Barney told him no, because he puts "bros before hos" and Robin will always be his "bro" first, and he wanted her to be happy. It always bothered me that Ted could never do the same for Barney, and this entire season of making him the "villain" has never set right with me. So I really never wanted this to happen, because Ted was being such a huge douche about it in the first place. Why should he be rewarded with Robin in the end? And what does that say about his affection for The Mother?
However, you cannot deny that there was plenty of foreshadowing. First of all, there was Ted's insistent whining about Robin marrying his best friend. 22 episodes of this. Plus all the whining the year before. (DUDE, GET OVER YOURSELF). Barney and Robin fought constantly. The fact that the mother didn't narrate "How Your Mother Met Me" was a big tip off. So when Baby Mama tells Ted she doesn't want him to "live through his stories" in the future and he almost burst into sobs when she brings up the prospect of a mother missing her daughter's wedding day, it was pretty clear she was a goner.
I think what made it work for me is thinking back to "How Your Mother Met Me". Tracy (OK, let's start using her real name) tragically lost her boyfriend, Max, at a young age, and swore off dating for a long time, because she thought she would never find someone like that again. It wasn't until she met Ted that she realized that she could actually love someone else again. It doesn't mean she didn't love her boyfriend before, but life eventually moves on and things don't always work out like you plan. The Mother knew what Ted would be going through after she died, because she had been through it herself. She didn't want him to focus on the past, but to move on and eventually find joy and happiness again.
Even knowing this, the bare facts of the situation didn't sell me onto this ending. It's one thing to know something intellectually and another to accept it as it's happening, even if it's completely fictional. I completely rejected the prospect when it re-emerged a few weeks ago, and hoped that The Mother would recover. I didn't want The Mother to die: I loved her myself and wanted her to stick around. Besides, wouldn't the kids be angry that their father is having a relationship with their "Aunt", and wonder if something had been going on when their mother was alive? Is Robin really going to be able to handle resentful, recently traumatized teenagers? And since Ted obviously still idealizes and loves The Mother, is he really ready to jump into a relationship with someone else, even if he's known her for 25 years?
I think what turned this around was the reaction of the kids. They insisted the story wasn't really about their mother, but about "Aunt Robin". They still love their mother, but she's been gone a while now. They are close to Robin, and they endorse their father's potential relationship with her. They know, even before their father does, that his relationship with her doesn't negate the relationship he had with their mother. He did really love her and cherish every moment of their relationship, which is why she was so idealized throughout the entire show. That's the way he always thought of her. She seemed perfect to us because she was perfect to him. As more and more time passed, she stayed that way in his memory in a way that she wouldn't be if she was sitting on the couch beside him the entire time, picking her toenails. And even after her death, Ted remained the loyal family man he always wanted to be, remaining primarily devoted to his children and remembering life as it was.
However, life goes on, and as Ted ponders picking up that cordless phone that cannot possibly be functioning in the year 2030, he knows it's time to move on. So he shows up to Robin's old apartment, with the same grand romantic gesture he greeted her with 25 years earlier. Maybe he's not completely over The Mother at this point, but it's a date, not a marriage proposal. (And for the kids' sake, let's hope that doesn't come for a while, because she knows them and she won't let them get away with as much as they think). It's a new story, because the old one's already been told. It turned out to be a pretty great one.
A few extra thoughts before I conclude this:
- I noticed that throughout the finale the rest of the cast looks like the almost middle aged parents that they are. Even Barney. But Robin always look gorgeous and poised, because Ted is feeling those old feelings again and he looks at her differently, even if he doesn't realize it. But when Ted finally greets her at her apartment, she looks more like the rest of them, complete with bad haircut, because she's ready to meet him on real life terms.
- That scene with Barney and his daughter. TEARS.
- If nothing else, this show should deserve credit for making NPH into a star.
- I wonder if any of the kids end up dating each other. That should be an interesting story to tell the grandchildren.
-I think the reason this resonated so much with me is like most of America, I come from a long line of remarriages and blended families. I won't go into all of the details, but when my younger sister died 15 years ago and my parents split up soon afterwards, I was devastated. I felt like I had lost everything. My parents remarried and now instead of being the only child of estranged parents, I have two lovely stepparents, three stepsisters, one stepbrother, more in-laws and inherited cousins than I care to list right now, and I am the "aunt" of five wonderful kids. I never could have had all of that if my parents had stayed together. I won't pretend that it's solved all of my problems or that it hasn't upped the dram quotient by a considerable number, but I am glad things worked out this way. Admitting that doesn't mean that I didn't appreciate my family as it originally was when I was growing up, but it does mean that even if things didn't work out like anyone had planned, life does move on and it can be good again in new and wonderful ways. And that's really all I have to say about it.
I've watched How I Met Your Mother for nine years. I haven't watched all of those episodes chronologically, and until recently I didn't make a habit of watching it "live". And I have to admit that I pretty much gave up on the show during season five, and it wasn't until it improved over the next couple of years that I went back and re-watched those episodes (Thank you, Netflix!) Still, it's been a long habit and I knew I would end up missing the show. It's one of the few traditional sitcoms left, and unlike so much stuff that gets praised by critics, it was a pleasant, optimistic show about a guy who tried to find space for his dreams of true love and commitment in the typically depressing mileau of modern singles sitcoms.
Ted ended up the least likable character on the show, and he actually turned out to be almost as slutty as Barney, but none of that really kept the show from being a fun, pleasant experience. The characters had their setbacks and occasional tragedies, but they didn't give up on life. They kept plodding forth and eventually seeking that something better would be coming around the corner, despite what was happening to them at the present moment. And I LIKED them. That's not insignificant in these days when it seems that every drama on TV is in competition to see how morbid and cynical and ugly they can be in a 42 hour time frame. Sure, I'm a red-blooded American female and I love zombies and the prospect of Jon Snow's derriere as much as anyone else, but it's a good idea to get a break from all of that.
So why do I think a show that killed off The Mother in the last ten minutes and reunited Ted with the character he broke up with in the second season and that he spent entirely too much time obsessing over, even as she prepared to marry one of his best friends, ended up pulling it off, against all the odds?
Let's start with Barney and Robin. They have never really had a terribly healthy relationship: it's always been full of awe-inspiring romantic gestures and short on the day-to-day support and sacrifice that makes a real marriage work. They never really tested whether they could make a relationship work: the first attempt failed disastrously and the second attempt went straight to planning a wedding with no in between. That said, I think they both did have good intentions, but they just didn't have what it takes to make a relationship work. And it's not like the writers didn't tell us this repeatedly over 22 episodes of this very, very, very long wedding weekend.
It turns out Barney didn't have it in him to be Robin's husband, but apparently he really took to fatherhood. I love this ending much more than him ending up with Robin, because he apparently shed some of his more disgusting habits and ended up being a good father. The show didn't really spend that much time on it (mostly because there was only 5 minutes left, and they had some murdering to do), but I liked to think that Robin's congratulations to him was a sign that they reconciled a bit, and that she ended up being "Aunt Robin" to his kid, too. It may have not have been the expected ending, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a happy one.
As far as Ted and The Mother goes, I was a little surprised that they didn't end up getting married until years after the kids were born, since Ted seemed so adamant about marriage throughout the entire series. I'm guessing he didn't want a wedding until everything could be perfectly planned, but if there's anything this finale taught us, it's that life doesn't work out exactly as you plan. So he settles for an impromptu wedding that brings everyone back together after a long estrangement. It's at that point that Robin re-enters everyone's lives, and becomes the beloved Aunt Robin to all six (!) kids.
As far as the Mother dying -- well, this has been a fan theory theory for a very, very, very long time. When the episode first aired that hinted that The Mother might meet an untimely end, I groaned because I never wanted that ending. We've watched way too many episodes of Ted Pining over Robin, and frankly it went way past the line a long, long time ago. When Ted was considering going after Robin in season 7, he asked Barney if he would mind, since Barney had been pursuing Robin himself a few months earlier. Barney told him no, because he puts "bros before hos" and Robin will always be his "bro" first, and he wanted her to be happy. It always bothered me that Ted could never do the same for Barney, and this entire season of making him the "villain" has never set right with me. So I really never wanted this to happen, because Ted was being such a huge douche about it in the first place. Why should he be rewarded with Robin in the end? And what does that say about his affection for The Mother?
However, you cannot deny that there was plenty of foreshadowing. First of all, there was Ted's insistent whining about Robin marrying his best friend. 22 episodes of this. Plus all the whining the year before. (DUDE, GET OVER YOURSELF). Barney and Robin fought constantly. The fact that the mother didn't narrate "How Your Mother Met Me" was a big tip off. So when Baby Mama tells Ted she doesn't want him to "live through his stories" in the future and he almost burst into sobs when she brings up the prospect of a mother missing her daughter's wedding day, it was pretty clear she was a goner.
I think what made it work for me is thinking back to "How Your Mother Met Me". Tracy (OK, let's start using her real name) tragically lost her boyfriend, Max, at a young age, and swore off dating for a long time, because she thought she would never find someone like that again. It wasn't until she met Ted that she realized that she could actually love someone else again. It doesn't mean she didn't love her boyfriend before, but life eventually moves on and things don't always work out like you plan. The Mother knew what Ted would be going through after she died, because she had been through it herself. She didn't want him to focus on the past, but to move on and eventually find joy and happiness again.
Even knowing this, the bare facts of the situation didn't sell me onto this ending. It's one thing to know something intellectually and another to accept it as it's happening, even if it's completely fictional. I completely rejected the prospect when it re-emerged a few weeks ago, and hoped that The Mother would recover. I didn't want The Mother to die: I loved her myself and wanted her to stick around. Besides, wouldn't the kids be angry that their father is having a relationship with their "Aunt", and wonder if something had been going on when their mother was alive? Is Robin really going to be able to handle resentful, recently traumatized teenagers? And since Ted obviously still idealizes and loves The Mother, is he really ready to jump into a relationship with someone else, even if he's known her for 25 years?
I think what turned this around was the reaction of the kids. They insisted the story wasn't really about their mother, but about "Aunt Robin". They still love their mother, but she's been gone a while now. They are close to Robin, and they endorse their father's potential relationship with her. They know, even before their father does, that his relationship with her doesn't negate the relationship he had with their mother. He did really love her and cherish every moment of their relationship, which is why she was so idealized throughout the entire show. That's the way he always thought of her. She seemed perfect to us because she was perfect to him. As more and more time passed, she stayed that way in his memory in a way that she wouldn't be if she was sitting on the couch beside him the entire time, picking her toenails. And even after her death, Ted remained the loyal family man he always wanted to be, remaining primarily devoted to his children and remembering life as it was.
However, life goes on, and as Ted ponders picking up that cordless phone that cannot possibly be functioning in the year 2030, he knows it's time to move on. So he shows up to Robin's old apartment, with the same grand romantic gesture he greeted her with 25 years earlier. Maybe he's not completely over The Mother at this point, but it's a date, not a marriage proposal. (And for the kids' sake, let's hope that doesn't come for a while, because she knows them and she won't let them get away with as much as they think). It's a new story, because the old one's already been told. It turned out to be a pretty great one.
A few extra thoughts before I conclude this:
- I noticed that throughout the finale the rest of the cast looks like the almost middle aged parents that they are. Even Barney. But Robin always look gorgeous and poised, because Ted is feeling those old feelings again and he looks at her differently, even if he doesn't realize it. But when Ted finally greets her at her apartment, she looks more like the rest of them, complete with bad haircut, because she's ready to meet him on real life terms.
- That scene with Barney and his daughter. TEARS.
- If nothing else, this show should deserve credit for making NPH into a star.
- I wonder if any of the kids end up dating each other. That should be an interesting story to tell the grandchildren.
-I think the reason this resonated so much with me is like most of America, I come from a long line of remarriages and blended families. I won't go into all of the details, but when my younger sister died 15 years ago and my parents split up soon afterwards, I was devastated. I felt like I had lost everything. My parents remarried and now instead of being the only child of estranged parents, I have two lovely stepparents, three stepsisters, one stepbrother, more in-laws and inherited cousins than I care to list right now, and I am the "aunt" of five wonderful kids. I never could have had all of that if my parents had stayed together. I won't pretend that it's solved all of my problems or that it hasn't upped the dram quotient by a considerable number, but I am glad things worked out this way. Admitting that doesn't mean that I didn't appreciate my family as it originally was when I was growing up, but it does mean that even if things didn't work out like anyone had planned, life does move on and it can be good again in new and wonderful ways. And that's really all I have to say about it.
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