NOW I'M GOING to guess that most of you who read hear also haunt Alex's Complications Ensue site, for his bites o'crafty goodness. But just in case you're perverse or something, or, like, Canadian TV is really your thing and your only thing (to which I say, see your doctor and get that drained, boy.) Alex has got a great, rollicking discussion going on the GLEE pilot and why he felt it was "off." I went with it, but after reading Alex's post (and some of the equally right on comments) I have a different view.
But aint noone taking away my dream of Lea Michele. I saw her in Spring Awakening, yo. Our love is pure.
PS: And while you're there -- one of Alex's endearing traits is a "show me'ism" that makes it hard for him to accept something as true unless he's seen it himself. (Honestly, these closet scientist types.) One of the old arguments he and I have had is about the "high school caste system" which he thinks only exists in TV and movies because he didn't really experience it himself in high school. So if you do weigh in, you might want to offer gentle observation on that front, as well. All for the greater good, peeps. All for the greater good.
3 comments:
I confess that I'm probably the one who gave Alex the idea. I went to FOUR high schools and never saw this caste system either. Sure, four isn't a large scientific sample, but they were very diverse schools:
1. An L.A. public school where Paula Abdul was in my lip synching class (no joke -- they made us learn lip synching)
2. A Gossip Girl-y Manhattan private school
3. The Dallas girls' school where the Bush Twins went, with mandatory Evangelical proselyting.
4. A small-town Texas H.S. that makes Friday Night Lights look like central Tokyo on a Saturday night.
As a result, I can totally identify with Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Saved, Gossip Girl, Friday Night Lights, The Last Picture Show, etc., etc. But the supposedly universal popular-cheerleader-jock shows? Nope. Somehow I missed out on that experience.
There were nascent caste systems in my two high schools. But I believe the idea of it being a kind of "class system" was not the case.
The caste thing in my schools were more of a separation. The theatrical people hung together and crossed over with the school newspaper crowds.
The cheerleaders and sports teams hung together because they also had natural things to keep them unified: practice, shared experience.
Art students who hung out after school intensely working on their projects gravitated to ward each other. But I didn't really see a lot of people wanting to be part of the "other" groups.
They were happy where they were.
The ones who wanted to be "somewhere else" almost always wanted to get with a certain person from that group, not be part of the group itself. Crushes were the things that created a desire to cross boundaries.
Too often, what we see on TV or are guided toward, are repetitions of the tropes people have already seen on TV. That familiarity breeds a convenient shorthand for the creators and the viewers.
In comedy it helps set the stage quickly but it don't help for writing laughs that reflect reality.
Lip-synching class.
Wow.
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