Scrubs, and Twilight
Jan. 6th, 2009 10:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerFirst: what was up with the second Scrubs episode tonight? Why were all the lights off, and where was the rest of the cast? Not that I have anything against JD and Turk, but I missed everyone else. And it was depressing, and not the bittersweet kind of depressing that Scrubs sometimes has, but just straight up depressing.
Also, I had to leave for work before the episode ended. So if anyone watched until the end…what happened?
The first episode was excellent, though. But they've just got to find a way to bring the Janitor back; how can Scrubs be Scrubs with only Dr. Cox to torment JD.
I've never quite understood Cox/JD shippers. Yes, JD has a mancrush, but I can't see Cox ever getting over his dislike of JD - certainly not to the extent of liking JD back.
***
I finally finished the Twilight series. (I refuse to call it “saga”. It isn’t as horrible as people make out, but there’s just no way it counts as a saga, not with a happy ending like that.)
The ending was too happy. None of the good guys die in any of the books, and by the end they’re each living happily ever after with their One True Love—this despite the fact that they’ve been through two vampire wars.
I have nothing against happy endings or light, fluffy books per se, but there’s a difference between telling a generally sunny story and ruthlessly squashing the darkness inherent in a story. Twilight not only squashes most of the angst possibilities it raised (did anyone ever really believe Edward might hurt Bella, for all he talked about how thirsty she makes him?), it squashed interpersonal conflict. The Cullens never get angry with each other. The covens, for all they’re supposed to squabble wildly, got along with remarkable grace.
I thought the covens were fascinating. Edward explains that only two covens don’t drink human blood—his and Tanya’s—and only covens that don’t drink blood are bound by love. But then we meet Siobhan’s coven, which clearly is also bound by love, but evidently does include human blood drinkers (Edward didn’t list it, after all), so…what gives?
And what makes vampires band together anyway, given that they’re invincible and thus need no physical protection, and so many of them seem happy to live as nomads? In particular, why did the Egyptian coven stay together, when it was so clearly full of people who hated each other? Does some kind of creepy link form during the creation of a vampire, so that a vampire’s children can’t easily leave no matter how much they don’t get along with their progenitor?
As I said, these books brim with unexplored angst potential.
If I were writing Twilight, it would have been an epic tale of complex alliances and enmities between vampire covens, with Edward’s romance with Bella as a minor subplot. The story would have ended with Carlisle and company overthrowing the Volturi for their obvious abuses of power, in a climactic and bloody battle with a catastrophic death toll.
Actually, I wouldn’t have ended it then, I would have gone on for two more books about Carlisle and company attempting to remake the vampire world in their own image (and probably failing, or only partially succeeding). I also would have made the vampires less invincible, because the fact that they’re basically made of titanium is so annoying.
But it’s foolish to get irritated at a book for not being the book you would have written. But I do think that it’s a valid criticism to say they’re overwritten—there are hundred pages long sections where essentially nothing happens. Bella and Edward make out, Bella and Edward are blissful, Bella meets Edward’s perfect happy family, Bella is pregnant with a baby who breaks her ribs…all these things could have been dispensed with much more swiftly than they were.
Also, Renesmee just does not behave like a real child. I’m sorry, I realize she’d telepathic and immortal and super smart and capable of crushing rocks with her bare hands (it’s funny how explaining the Twilight books makes them seem much more ridiculous then they did as you read), but she was born emotionally and morally mature too? Really? I’m sorry, but no. Just no. My disbelief does not suspend that far.
…all that said, I kind of enjoyed the books. It’s just so much easier to pinpoint all their bad points, and the internet is full of people pointing out how totally! freaking! awesome! OMG! they are.
But I still think Bella should have ended up with Jacob.
Also, I had to leave for work before the episode ended. So if anyone watched until the end…what happened?
The first episode was excellent, though. But they've just got to find a way to bring the Janitor back; how can Scrubs be Scrubs with only Dr. Cox to torment JD.
I've never quite understood Cox/JD shippers. Yes, JD has a mancrush, but I can't see Cox ever getting over his dislike of JD - certainly not to the extent of liking JD back.
***
I finally finished the Twilight series. (I refuse to call it “saga”. It isn’t as horrible as people make out, but there’s just no way it counts as a saga, not with a happy ending like that.)
The ending was too happy. None of the good guys die in any of the books, and by the end they’re each living happily ever after with their One True Love—this despite the fact that they’ve been through two vampire wars.
I have nothing against happy endings or light, fluffy books per se, but there’s a difference between telling a generally sunny story and ruthlessly squashing the darkness inherent in a story. Twilight not only squashes most of the angst possibilities it raised (did anyone ever really believe Edward might hurt Bella, for all he talked about how thirsty she makes him?), it squashed interpersonal conflict. The Cullens never get angry with each other. The covens, for all they’re supposed to squabble wildly, got along with remarkable grace.
I thought the covens were fascinating. Edward explains that only two covens don’t drink human blood—his and Tanya’s—and only covens that don’t drink blood are bound by love. But then we meet Siobhan’s coven, which clearly is also bound by love, but evidently does include human blood drinkers (Edward didn’t list it, after all), so…what gives?
And what makes vampires band together anyway, given that they’re invincible and thus need no physical protection, and so many of them seem happy to live as nomads? In particular, why did the Egyptian coven stay together, when it was so clearly full of people who hated each other? Does some kind of creepy link form during the creation of a vampire, so that a vampire’s children can’t easily leave no matter how much they don’t get along with their progenitor?
As I said, these books brim with unexplored angst potential.
If I were writing Twilight, it would have been an epic tale of complex alliances and enmities between vampire covens, with Edward’s romance with Bella as a minor subplot. The story would have ended with Carlisle and company overthrowing the Volturi for their obvious abuses of power, in a climactic and bloody battle with a catastrophic death toll.
Actually, I wouldn’t have ended it then, I would have gone on for two more books about Carlisle and company attempting to remake the vampire world in their own image (and probably failing, or only partially succeeding). I also would have made the vampires less invincible, because the fact that they’re basically made of titanium is so annoying.
But it’s foolish to get irritated at a book for not being the book you would have written. But I do think that it’s a valid criticism to say they’re overwritten—there are hundred pages long sections where essentially nothing happens. Bella and Edward make out, Bella and Edward are blissful, Bella meets Edward’s perfect happy family, Bella is pregnant with a baby who breaks her ribs…all these things could have been dispensed with much more swiftly than they were.
Also, Renesmee just does not behave like a real child. I’m sorry, I realize she’d telepathic and immortal and super smart and capable of crushing rocks with her bare hands (it’s funny how explaining the Twilight books makes them seem much more ridiculous then they did as you read), but she was born emotionally and morally mature too? Really? I’m sorry, but no. Just no. My disbelief does not suspend that far.
…all that said, I kind of enjoyed the books. It’s just so much easier to pinpoint all their bad points, and the internet is full of people pointing out how totally! freaking! awesome! OMG! they are.
But I still think Bella should have ended up with Jacob.
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-07 08:22 am (UTC)While the Twilight series is strangely addictive, overall I have to say that the concept and the characters were great. It was just unlucky that characters and concept like that were left in the hands of an inexperienced writer.
That's all I have to say.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-07 05:17 pm (UTC)I agree with you on the concept. People complain about how Twilight is angsty, but the concept lends itself to angst, and in the hands of a different writer the angst wouldn't have seemed so contrived because it would have arisen naturally from the situation.
I think the characters had the potential to be great, but with a few exceptions (Alice!) they didn't quite reach it.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-07 12:56 pm (UTC)i dunno about that second episode; i think they were trying to be deep. but, you know, the "steak night" song and a certain running gag that shows up at the very very end (i won't ruin it) mar the attempt to discuss death seriously, which may be their point. anyway i actually enjoyed the episode- it was the teeniest bit philosophical...how far did you get?
about the janitor: YES.
and i really loved the first episode; even though i'm not a cox/jd shipper, that equals share coffee moment was about as good as it gets. ; )
twilight:
i'm impressed (but i guess not surprised, per your literary dedication) that you finished the books. i started the first thinking that i probably ought to read this Thing I Wanted to Mock/compare to buffy really badly, and was done with the first three in less than 24 hours. but i didn't actually finish the fourth... as you said, the vampire lore could have been more compelling from the start; for me the series ended when bella was turned. i skimmed a bit from then but didn't read a whole lot. did i miss much?
and i was totally a bella/jacob shipper, too, until jacob suddenly turned evil and possessed by hormones (...and i really don't mean when he became a werewolf).
no subject
Date: 2009-01-07 05:29 pm (UTC)I find it amusing, in reviews of Twilight, when people complain about the books' narrow and traditional morality (Bella and Edward wait to have sex till they're married! OMG the horror!) and in the same breath whine about the sick sick sick wrongness of imprinting. Your morality is quite as narrow, people, it's just slightly to the left on the scale from Myers'.
...sorry, rant. No, you didn't miss much. There was a vampire war that almost happened but didn't, because if it had there would have been unhappy endings and that would just be unthinkable.
Re Scrubs: I got to the point where they're all admitting that they're totally freaked out about dying, about seven minutes before the end (seven minutes including commercials). This is undoubtedly the most depressing part of the episode, which probably partly explains my negative reaction.
But I still want to know why the lights were turned off.
Also, the coffee moment was adorable. JD is so sweetly pathetic.