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Double Standard Shame
Nov. 5th, 2005 07:33 pmYesterday, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vaznetti posted the glorious "Roman Politics as A Fandom" . Which is just the way to present the history of the late Roman Republic. Forget about tv shows. That's the real thing, baby.
In other news, despite my pretensions to put ensemble and writing over individual character love, I've come to realize I have a double standard going on. I mean, take two third seasons of two tv shows. The third season of Alias and the third season of Angel. Objectively speaking, I think it's safe to say the third season of Alias is worse written. But which one is making me foam at the mouth? The third season of Angel. Which has a lot of good things going for it, stuff I really appreciate. ( Cut for the sake of new viewers on my list. )
Meanwhile, the third season of Alias is one uneven mess in terms of overall storytelling. It starts promising enough, but then the writers (imo) chickened out of the Julia Thorne storyline and insisted on using the dreary term "soulmates" on screen instead of keeping it to the realms of fanfic. Poor Lauren starts out as one character and ends up as another and isn't well-written as either. And it's the season where I really despise the main romance of the show. But I still am fond of season 3 and keep rewatching a lot of its episodes. Why? Because Arvin Sloane has a great storyline in it, because the Sloane/Jack scenes rock, because so do the Sloane/Sydney scenes, and because Nadia gets introduced. So what it comes down to, I guess, is that I don't love the characters which get badly or inconsistently written (Vaughn & wife, and Sydney when she's with Vaughn) at all or enough to be seriously pissed off by their writerly treatment whereas I adore my crafty old spy and am pleased as punch he gets lots of good stuff to do.
Or maybe it's because I hold Angel to a higher standard than Alias, and because I like all the other Angel seasons so much? Another Alias/Angel comparison weirdness: in both cases, I love the fourth seasons, but in Angel's case that much more. I really think the fourth season of AtS is the best in terms of overall writing and acting (season 2 rules right until the post-Epiphany break, and there is no such unevenness in 4). And a lot of the fourth season is set up in the third. It really should be enough to make me mellow. Yet just today, I discovered a mere casual mention of 3 vs 4 by an innocent bystander in favour of 3 set me ranting.
Rationality, thy name is not Selena.
vaznetti posted the glorious "Roman Politics as A Fandom" . Which is just the way to present the history of the late Roman Republic. Forget about tv shows. That's the real thing, baby. In other news, despite my pretensions to put ensemble and writing over individual character love, I've come to realize I have a double standard going on. I mean, take two third seasons of two tv shows. The third season of Alias and the third season of Angel. Objectively speaking, I think it's safe to say the third season of Alias is worse written. But which one is making me foam at the mouth? The third season of Angel. Which has a lot of good things going for it, stuff I really appreciate. ( Cut for the sake of new viewers on my list. )
Meanwhile, the third season of Alias is one uneven mess in terms of overall storytelling. It starts promising enough, but then the writers (imo) chickened out of the Julia Thorne storyline and insisted on using the dreary term "soulmates" on screen instead of keeping it to the realms of fanfic. Poor Lauren starts out as one character and ends up as another and isn't well-written as either. And it's the season where I really despise the main romance of the show. But I still am fond of season 3 and keep rewatching a lot of its episodes. Why? Because Arvin Sloane has a great storyline in it, because the Sloane/Jack scenes rock, because so do the Sloane/Sydney scenes, and because Nadia gets introduced. So what it comes down to, I guess, is that I don't love the characters which get badly or inconsistently written (Vaughn & wife, and Sydney when she's with Vaughn) at all or enough to be seriously pissed off by their writerly treatment whereas I adore my crafty old spy and am pleased as punch he gets lots of good stuff to do.
Or maybe it's because I hold Angel to a higher standard than Alias, and because I like all the other Angel seasons so much? Another Alias/Angel comparison weirdness: in both cases, I love the fourth seasons, but in Angel's case that much more. I really think the fourth season of AtS is the best in terms of overall writing and acting (season 2 rules right until the post-Epiphany break, and there is no such unevenness in 4). And a lot of the fourth season is set up in the third. It really should be enough to make me mellow. Yet just today, I discovered a mere casual mention of 3 vs 4 by an innocent bystander in favour of 3 set me ranting.
Rationality, thy name is not Selena.
