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Updating classics and AtS issues
Mar. 31st, 2004 11:56 amA great analysis of the films "Dangerous Liasons" and "Cruel Intentions" via the character of Merteuil (the Marquise and Kathryn respectively), which puts its finger on why the later, despite some clever concepts and a great performance by SMG, ultimately dissappointed me. It also reminds me of how tricky updating classic plays/novels can be, but how admirable if people actually manage to pull it off, a la Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story. Another thing that Les Liasons Dangereuses evokes is that the picture of the French aristocracy painted here, by Chloderos de Laclos, who worked for the Duc de Orleans and wrote his one and only bestseller before the French Revolution (barely), couldn't be more different from the sentimental idealizations later crowding the works of Baroness Orczy and yes, even Dickens.
(Insert "They had it coming" as sung in Chicago here.)
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cadesama makes a case for Gunn as the most mishandled character on AtS. You know, the only reason why I still think that dubious honour belongs to Cordy is that it took me several seasons to have any interest in Gunn at all. Warzone is the only season 1 episode I only watched once. Same with That Old Gang of Mine and season 3. It's not that I ever actively disliked Gunn - I just never connected to him emotionally, nor was interested in him intellectually. In fact, I kept voting for him to be the next cast member to die an heroic death. This didn't change until season 4 and Supersymmetry, and now, in season 5, for the first time Gunn's storyline is something which genuinenly fascinates me.
Otoh, Fred I had disliked in the Pylea episodes, which in retrospect probably hailed from the great Pylea dislike in general; I warmed up to her when everyone else started to dislike her, in season 3, and could never understand why she was blamed for her reactions in regards to Wesley when she had been the one to try and prove his innocence and the one who kept bringing up his name to the others. (Me, I was furious with Cordelia and Gunn. Angel I could understand.) In seasons 4 and 5, she became a favourite. Thinking back to my fondness for Wesley back in the BTVS days when most other people hated him, I wonder whether there is a system here, and why it failed in the case of Gunn.
(Insert "They had it coming" as sung in Chicago here.)
cadesama makes a case for Gunn as the most mishandled character on AtS. You know, the only reason why I still think that dubious honour belongs to Cordy is that it took me several seasons to have any interest in Gunn at all. Warzone is the only season 1 episode I only watched once. Same with That Old Gang of Mine and season 3. It's not that I ever actively disliked Gunn - I just never connected to him emotionally, nor was interested in him intellectually. In fact, I kept voting for him to be the next cast member to die an heroic death. This didn't change until season 4 and Supersymmetry, and now, in season 5, for the first time Gunn's storyline is something which genuinenly fascinates me. Otoh, Fred I had disliked in the Pylea episodes, which in retrospect probably hailed from the great Pylea dislike in general; I warmed up to her when everyone else started to dislike her, in season 3, and could never understand why she was blamed for her reactions in regards to Wesley when she had been the one to try and prove his innocence and the one who kept bringing up his name to the others. (Me, I was furious with Cordelia and Gunn. Angel I could understand.) In seasons 4 and 5, she became a favourite. Thinking back to my fondness for Wesley back in the BTVS days when most other people hated him, I wonder whether there is a system here, and why it failed in the case of Gunn.
