Paper Girls (TV Series)
Aug. 4th, 2022 04:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakI have not read the comics this new series is based on, though I did read others by Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Runaways and Pride of Bagdhad). While not knowing how close or distant the tv series is from the comics, I did think the characters were recognizably Vaughan in origin, and some of the plot twists were, too. Still, I can only judge the version on screen which I have just finished watching.
Overall, very engaging. The premise - our heroines, four twelve-years-old girls from different parts of society who make some cash by distributing newspapers early in the morning in 1988 and live in a Cleveland suburb are through a key plot device whisked off to their future where they run into their older selves and have to contend with various agencies at war with each other - above all provides a set up for superb character drama. The young actresses who play our heroines - Erin, Tiff(any), Mac and K.J. - are great, and so are the actresses playing their adult selves. How to deal with the fact your life didn't turn out the way you wanted it to/ your past suddenly looks quite different when showing up in person makes for the emotional core of the story, along with dealing with mortality and figuring out your own sexuality.
Where most time travel stories emphasize how important it is not to change the timeline and cause a paradox, this one turns this dogma upside down by letting one of the two battling factions tell our young heroines right at the start the timeline preservers (whom they've already watched killing people) are evil reactionaries set on preserving the status quo that gives them powewr, whereas they are the revolutionary Resistance set on changing things. (I thought this was very Vaughan, though precisely for that reason, I expect it to be a bit more complicated than that; currently, my money is on a "a plague on both your houses" solution in the end.) Unfortunately, the season finale which melded the character and the sci fi plots tried to selll me one twist I did see coming but still didn't emotionally believe, to wit, the Prioress changing sides. The reasonw why I saw this coming: the reveal she wasn't in charge but had a hipster superior a few episodes earlier. If the antagonists pursueing our lot consist on a lethal but ultra competent and cool female character revealed to be solely the Trusted Lieutenant of a patronizing male hipster character, the former IS going to change sides. The trope demand aisde, though, my problem was that the only thing the tv show had done to prepare this side change in terms of character development was letting the Prioress mention in one sentence that she lost her brother due to the time war. That's not enough given that otherwise she doesn't hesistate in her ruthless pursuit (which includes both killing and mindwiping people) through the rest of the season.
This said, again, the time war aspect mostly to me felt like the necessary plot device to get the story aobut the girls going, enable them to interact with their older selves (or family) and with each other. Given this is a genre show which starts in the 1980s, I've seen reviews make the inevitable Stranger Things comparison, but to me it more felt like something out of a Hughes movie, due to the "four young people who otherwise would have remained far from each other forced to bond by adverse circumstance" structure. All four of the girls feel not like stereotypes but fully fleshed out, with strengths and flaws, and the way they relate to each other changes through the season. If something traumatic happens, it has a lingering impact. Prejudices can be challenged and overcome, but they don't disappear the instant you bond with someone from another background. And something I especially appreciate: neither the young nor the adult povs are presented as the only right ones. Yes, sometimes being challenged by your younger self and your old ambitions/ideas are the kick in the pants you need, but it's just as likely a child will not be able to understand the more complicated picture and needs help to figure it out.
Diversity: Tiff, the science whiz of the group, is black, Erin (who starts as the pov character through which the oudience gets drawn into the story in the pilot) is Chinese American, K.J. is Jewish (and, as she discovers when finding her older self with said self's girlfriend, gay), and Mac is from a white blue collar background. In addition to their older selves, the main antagonist through the majority of the season is also a woman, the Prioress. The sole reccuring male character (who is not in all episodes) of plot importance is the hapless Larry (a member of the resistance faction), with the other dialoge-having male characters, Mac's older brother Larry and the Prioress' hipster superior, showing only up in two episodes, so this story is as female centric as it gets.
It also has an overall dramedy tone, i.e. there is a lot of comedy, especially in the first half of the season, but there's also very real menace from the start, given the story starts with Erin facing an irate threatening man and one of the other "Paper Girls" coming to her aid. My nitpick about the Prioress' change of sides notwithstanding, the only thing that really bugs me about this being not a self contained miniseries but the first season of a longer story is the eternal problem you have if your protagonists are still growing children and/or teens played by young actors who are also still growing, and you can't do the "one season = a year" equation - these girls are so good I can't imagine someone else, but how long will they be able to play our heroines at age 12?
In conclusion, I really liked it, and am glad I had the chance to watch before Sandman drops tomorrow and is bound to sweep all my attention away.
Overall, very engaging. The premise - our heroines, four twelve-years-old girls from different parts of society who make some cash by distributing newspapers early in the morning in 1988 and live in a Cleveland suburb are through a key plot device whisked off to their future where they run into their older selves and have to contend with various agencies at war with each other - above all provides a set up for superb character drama. The young actresses who play our heroines - Erin, Tiff(any), Mac and K.J. - are great, and so are the actresses playing their adult selves. How to deal with the fact your life didn't turn out the way you wanted it to/ your past suddenly looks quite different when showing up in person makes for the emotional core of the story, along with dealing with mortality and figuring out your own sexuality.
Where most time travel stories emphasize how important it is not to change the timeline and cause a paradox, this one turns this dogma upside down by letting one of the two battling factions tell our young heroines right at the start the timeline preservers (whom they've already watched killing people) are evil reactionaries set on preserving the status quo that gives them powewr, whereas they are the revolutionary Resistance set on changing things. (I thought this was very Vaughan, though precisely for that reason, I expect it to be a bit more complicated than that; currently, my money is on a "a plague on both your houses" solution in the end.) Unfortunately, the season finale which melded the character and the sci fi plots tried to selll me one twist I did see coming but still didn't emotionally believe, to wit, the Prioress changing sides. The reasonw why I saw this coming: the reveal she wasn't in charge but had a hipster superior a few episodes earlier. If the antagonists pursueing our lot consist on a lethal but ultra competent and cool female character revealed to be solely the Trusted Lieutenant of a patronizing male hipster character, the former IS going to change sides. The trope demand aisde, though, my problem was that the only thing the tv show had done to prepare this side change in terms of character development was letting the Prioress mention in one sentence that she lost her brother due to the time war. That's not enough given that otherwise she doesn't hesistate in her ruthless pursuit (which includes both killing and mindwiping people) through the rest of the season.
This said, again, the time war aspect mostly to me felt like the necessary plot device to get the story aobut the girls going, enable them to interact with their older selves (or family) and with each other. Given this is a genre show which starts in the 1980s, I've seen reviews make the inevitable Stranger Things comparison, but to me it more felt like something out of a Hughes movie, due to the "four young people who otherwise would have remained far from each other forced to bond by adverse circumstance" structure. All four of the girls feel not like stereotypes but fully fleshed out, with strengths and flaws, and the way they relate to each other changes through the season. If something traumatic happens, it has a lingering impact. Prejudices can be challenged and overcome, but they don't disappear the instant you bond with someone from another background. And something I especially appreciate: neither the young nor the adult povs are presented as the only right ones. Yes, sometimes being challenged by your younger self and your old ambitions/ideas are the kick in the pants you need, but it's just as likely a child will not be able to understand the more complicated picture and needs help to figure it out.
Diversity: Tiff, the science whiz of the group, is black, Erin (who starts as the pov character through which the oudience gets drawn into the story in the pilot) is Chinese American, K.J. is Jewish (and, as she discovers when finding her older self with said self's girlfriend, gay), and Mac is from a white blue collar background. In addition to their older selves, the main antagonist through the majority of the season is also a woman, the Prioress. The sole reccuring male character (who is not in all episodes) of plot importance is the hapless Larry (a member of the resistance faction), with the other dialoge-having male characters, Mac's older brother Larry and the Prioress' hipster superior, showing only up in two episodes, so this story is as female centric as it gets.
It also has an overall dramedy tone, i.e. there is a lot of comedy, especially in the first half of the season, but there's also very real menace from the start, given the story starts with Erin facing an irate threatening man and one of the other "Paper Girls" coming to her aid. My nitpick about the Prioress' change of sides notwithstanding, the only thing that really bugs me about this being not a self contained miniseries but the first season of a longer story is the eternal problem you have if your protagonists are still growing children and/or teens played by young actors who are also still growing, and you can't do the "one season = a year" equation - these girls are so good I can't imagine someone else, but how long will they be able to play our heroines at age 12?
In conclusion, I really liked it, and am glad I had the chance to watch before Sandman drops tomorrow and is bound to sweep all my attention away.
no subject
Date: 2022-08-04 04:15 pm (UTC)(I'm mildly annoyed it apparently was filmed in Chicago instead of Cleveland)
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Date: 2022-08-05 06:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-05 12:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-04 04:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-05 06:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-05 03:03 pm (UTC)....I can't even keep them all straight anymore.