Heroes Part 2 commentary -- Rant
Oct. 23rd, 2004 02:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tenayaDon't waste your time listening to this one. RCC can't say enough about how wonderful the guest actors are and pretty much dismisses the contribution of the regulars. He drones on and on about himself, his thoughts on the meta aspect of writing and the show, and if ever there was a episode that needed insight and perspective, it was this one. This was very lacking in content I wanted to know about.
Oh geez, he's just said that we know the reactions of Sam, Daniel and Teal'c would be to Janet dying so we don't need to see that. It's more powerful to watch characters we've never met before react to her death. Yeah, yeah, I know...he's got the big paycheck and I'm just a lowly couch potato, but I have to say, he's full of shit. And I also think he had no feelings about losing Janet. There is the rare mention of occurences that RDA or the others were profoundly affected by this character's death but I didn't detect any sense that RCC 'got it.' It's a chess move to him.
Frankly, the whole bait and switch 'drama' of the show I thought did a terrible injustice to both Teryl Rothery and Janet. None of the drama or sadness--the reactions--were connected to her character until the end, and so far after the fact that it still feels disassociated. From the viewer's POV, I felt all my reactions were sacrificed for that one stunned moment of realization that Janet had died rather than Jack. I've never been one to give up everything just for the thrill of one big reaction; I want the nuances, the depth, the progression of the character's feelings--and my feelings. The only true reaction we had that connected directly to Janet's death was Daniel's agonized shouts for help and even they were disembodied. It was one of the most sterile deaths of a regular character I've seen; they spent a majority of this two parter on other subjects which were related, I'll grant you, but not about Janet's loss.
He does say that SG-1 won't ever become the Sam and Jack Hour, and talks about how Sam and Jack can't have gone through all the trenches stuff without feeling strongly for each other but I guess it doesn't follow that they might care for Teal'c and Daniel just as much? And visa versa? I don't think he's ever cottoned onto the fact that while Jack wouldn't leave Sam in Upgrades because he luvs her, the exact same is true for Daniel and Teal'c who also won't leave--or are we to think they're just on the par of loyal but dumb dogs who have to be told twice to git. He's really pompous in his attitudes, so pompous he can't see that his logic doesn't work. And I think he handicapped this episode by making it go through 'artistic hoops' instead of settling to tell and strong, straightforward story.
The director, Andy Mikita, was complimentary about MS's performance. He and RCC mentioned that MS had come to them and said that if he had know the order of how the scenes were going to put together, he would have played it differently. Mikita said he thought MS did a great job.
Anyway, I was looking for insight into this episode and I got a lecture instead. No sense of humanity or emotions. The little that Mikita and the Director of Photography, Andy Wilson said did make me wish that they had been alone in the sound booth doing this commentary. Too bad.
So far, the commentary to Fallen was exceptional. I listened to Orpheus and it was fair. I'm listening to Lost City right now and oh joy! RCC is interrupting Martin Wood who is persistent in his attempts to talk about the scenes we're actually watching. RCC thinks it's more interesting to tell us Brad Wright's thoughts about the 7th season as a whole, etc.... Oh boy, I can tell this will be frustrating.
Oh geez, he's just said that we know the reactions of Sam, Daniel and Teal'c would be to Janet dying so we don't need to see that. It's more powerful to watch characters we've never met before react to her death. Yeah, yeah, I know...he's got the big paycheck and I'm just a lowly couch potato, but I have to say, he's full of shit. And I also think he had no feelings about losing Janet. There is the rare mention of occurences that RDA or the others were profoundly affected by this character's death but I didn't detect any sense that RCC 'got it.' It's a chess move to him.
Frankly, the whole bait and switch 'drama' of the show I thought did a terrible injustice to both Teryl Rothery and Janet. None of the drama or sadness--the reactions--were connected to her character until the end, and so far after the fact that it still feels disassociated. From the viewer's POV, I felt all my reactions were sacrificed for that one stunned moment of realization that Janet had died rather than Jack. I've never been one to give up everything just for the thrill of one big reaction; I want the nuances, the depth, the progression of the character's feelings--and my feelings. The only true reaction we had that connected directly to Janet's death was Daniel's agonized shouts for help and even they were disembodied. It was one of the most sterile deaths of a regular character I've seen; they spent a majority of this two parter on other subjects which were related, I'll grant you, but not about Janet's loss.
He does say that SG-1 won't ever become the Sam and Jack Hour, and talks about how Sam and Jack can't have gone through all the trenches stuff without feeling strongly for each other but I guess it doesn't follow that they might care for Teal'c and Daniel just as much? And visa versa? I don't think he's ever cottoned onto the fact that while Jack wouldn't leave Sam in Upgrades because he luvs her, the exact same is true for Daniel and Teal'c who also won't leave--or are we to think they're just on the par of loyal but dumb dogs who have to be told twice to git. He's really pompous in his attitudes, so pompous he can't see that his logic doesn't work. And I think he handicapped this episode by making it go through 'artistic hoops' instead of settling to tell and strong, straightforward story.
The director, Andy Mikita, was complimentary about MS's performance. He and RCC mentioned that MS had come to them and said that if he had know the order of how the scenes were going to put together, he would have played it differently. Mikita said he thought MS did a great job.
Anyway, I was looking for insight into this episode and I got a lecture instead. No sense of humanity or emotions. The little that Mikita and the Director of Photography, Andy Wilson said did make me wish that they had been alone in the sound booth doing this commentary. Too bad.
So far, the commentary to Fallen was exceptional. I listened to Orpheus and it was fair. I'm listening to Lost City right now and oh joy! RCC is interrupting Martin Wood who is persistent in his attempts to talk about the scenes we're actually watching. RCC thinks it's more interesting to tell us Brad Wright's thoughts about the 7th season as a whole, etc.... Oh boy, I can tell this will be frustrating.
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Date: 2004-10-23 12:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-23 10:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-23 10:24 pm (UTC)That's the calm, reasoned, thoughtful reaction. I had 3000 words of rant, rant, rant when I started. It was a painful, but interesting, process to cut it down and make it less, er, impactful.