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Post by Incandescence 112 on Sept 4, 2019 5:48:47 GMT -8
I never actually got a Buffy avatar I don't think, but I can't remember who my first avatar was of. You were Scott Hope for a hot minute. I may be the holdout from that era who never got a Buffy avatar: I think I had an avatar of a character from every Whedon show except Buffy at one point or another, actually. All three of them. As an aside, while I do miss the Buffy-only days, and while I do love Jeremy, I think the writing about Twin Peaks, The Inside, and Dekalog are unironically some of the best, deepest, most loving critical analyses I've seen on the Internet. I think they're to some extent what's scared me off from really buckling down and writing about any number of shows I really really love for CT over the years. Maybe it's time to fix that? Hm. I concur . Dekalog and Twin Peaks are some of the best television ever aired. Jay and guttersnipe did them justice-big time. I haven't seen The Inside, but I'm sure Noah did the same.
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Post by otherscott on Sept 4, 2019 9:20:50 GMT -8
You were Scott Hope for a hot minute. I may be the holdout from that era who never got a Buffy avatar: I think I had an avatar of a character from every Whedon show except Buffy at one point or another, actually. All three of them. As an aside, while I do miss the Buffy-only days, and while I do love Jeremy, I think the writing about Twin Peaks, The Inside, and Dekalog are unironically some of the best, deepest, most loving critical analyses I've seen on the Internet. I think they're to some extent what's scared me off from really buckling down and writing about any number of shows I really really love for CT over the years. Maybe it's time to fix that? Hm. Ah yes, I forgot about Scott Hope. That was a suggestion of Jeremy I believe. Still Buffy's best love interest, of course.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Sept 6, 2019 21:28:14 GMT -8
Faith tho
Also there's now so many TV shows I've watched and loved and think deserve the CT treatment! Back in the day it was just "I want people to understand that Dollhouse is in fact a good show," and then for the past couple years I've been kicking around doing retrospective analyses of The Middleman so the show gets praise beyond "lol look, they reference all this nerdy stuff, like in Ready Player One, isn't that so cool!?!?"
But now I'm like, wow, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a really clever show with some musical theater allusions that will go over the heads of a lot of people and also an emotional through-line that's only obvious in hindsight! And jesus christ The Americans is the best television show of the millennium so far and yet it might get lost in the prestige show shuffle which would be crazyballs!?!? And also other shows like Cucumber which I want to champion because they're tiny and smart and deserve more love stateside. Hey, I named five shows just now, none of which were in contention for reviews back when we had these discussions in 2012.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on Sept 7, 2019 11:38:21 GMT -8
Faith tho Also there's now so many TV shows I've watched and loved and think deserve the CT treatment! Back in the day it was just "I want people to understand that Dollhouse is in fact a good show," and then for the past couple years I've been kicking around doing retrospective analyses of The Middleman so the show gets praise beyond "lol look, they reference all this nerdy stuff, like in Ready Player One, isn't that so cool!?!?" But now I'm like, wow, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a really clever show with some musical theater allusions that will go over the heads of a lot of people and also an emotional through-line that's only obvious in hindsight! And jesus christ The Americans is the best television show of the millennium so far and yet it might get lost in the prestige show shuffle which would be crazyballs!?!? And also other shows like Cucumber which I want to champion because they're tiny and smart and deserve more love stateside. Hey, I named five shows just now, none of which were in contention for reviews back when we had these discussions in 2012. Good points, good points . The Americans isn't the best show of the millennium, but good points.
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Post by Jeremy on Sept 7, 2019 17:21:53 GMT -8
My advice to anyone who wants to review a TV show, episode by episode, boils down to:
- Start with a one-season show. This is not only preferable for lower episode count, but because it will help you get a more focused sense of season structure (i.e. you won't have to worry about analyzing a season and a series separately, since they're the same thing). - Pick a season with 13 or fewer episodes. Writing about 22 eps per season is really tough (trust me, I'd know). - Pick a show where you have new things to talk about in most or all episodes. You don't want your writing feeling stale and redundant. - Pick a show you not only enjoy watching, but would legitimately enjoy writing about. (This is where sample reviews come in handy - if you find yourself getting stuck or bored after reviewing the first two episodes, it's probably not a project worth undertaking.) - Have fun! (I'm legally obligated to put that in any of my "reviewing advice" lists.)
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Sept 7, 2019 18:10:50 GMT -8
Faith tho Also there's now so many TV shows I've watched and loved and think deserve the CT treatment! Back in the day it was just "I want people to understand that Dollhouse is in fact a good show," and then for the past couple years I've been kicking around doing retrospective analyses of The Middleman so the show gets praise beyond "lol look, they reference all this nerdy stuff, like in Ready Player One, isn't that so cool!?!?" But now I'm like, wow, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a really clever show with some musical theater allusions that will go over the heads of a lot of people and also an emotional through-line that's only obvious in hindsight! And jesus christ The Americans is the best television show of the millennium so far and yet it might get lost in the prestige show shuffle which would be crazyballs!?!? And also other shows like Cucumber which I want to champion because they're tiny and smart and deserve more love stateside. Hey, I named five shows just now, none of which were in contention for reviews back when we had these discussions in 2012. Good points, good points . The Americans isn't the best show of the millennium, but good points. I overshot a little for hyperbole. Best show of the decade, though (and I'm not budging on that)
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Post by Freudian Vampire on Sept 8, 2019 10:36:42 GMT -8
Hey, FV here. Obviously no way to prove this is me because I forgot my login details but I don't think I'm quite a big enough celebrity for anyone to want to impersonate me. (Former avatars included Francis Urquhart and a landscape for NCfOM as well as Holden Caulfield himself of course.) I actually do still drop by to read things here very occasionally. The move to Wordpress unfortunately kind of coincided with a) my interest changing from TV to movies, for which there's Letterboxd and r/truefilm etc. and b) starting college I think? Has been a while.
I thought all the old threads got killed in the transition. If you've got a link to that BSE one I'd be kind of curious to read it back and see if my current argumentative undergrad self still agrees with my former argumentative secondary school self.
Also, aside from the whole Buffy season 6 thing, I think Alex and I were actually generally more in agreement than I was with anyone else. We were definitely on the same team arguing for the supremacy of The Sopranos.
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Post by Jeremy on Sept 8, 2019 10:53:22 GMT -8
Hi Freud! Back when we transitioned, I reposted part of the Buffy BSE thrwad over on the Buffy subforum (under Television). Unfortunately, it looks kind of sloppy, and I'm thinking of trying it again.
In the meantime, if you ever lose your email password, you can always use your email to recover it. (Or just make a new ID.)
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Post by Zarnium on Sept 8, 2019 12:55:37 GMT -8
Hi Freud! Now we just need to get Iguana back.
Edit: Oh, also, do you have the complete old forum archive text file that Mike made available when the old forum closed? If not, one of us can send it to you.
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Post by Freudian Vampire on Sept 9, 2019 7:19:12 GMT -8
I had no idea that existed; that would be great. Do you need an email address or something?
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Post by otherscott on Sept 9, 2019 7:52:54 GMT -8
Hi Freud! Now we just need to get Iguana back.
Edit: Oh, also, do you have the complete old forum archive text file that Mike made available when the old forum closed? If not, one of us can send it to you.
I...ummm...also wasn't aware (or forgot) that this existed.
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Post by Jeremy on Sept 9, 2019 8:07:31 GMT -8
I can send the forum text file to anyone who wants it. Just PM me (or email me at jeremygrayson17@gmail.com) and let me know where I should send it.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on Sept 9, 2019 12:20:57 GMT -8
I can send the forum text file to anyone who wants it. Just PM me (or email me at jeremygrayson17@gmail.com) and let me know where I should send it. Yes. I am very glad we brought this up again. Though I fear I may disappear down the rabbit hole.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on Sept 9, 2019 15:19:44 GMT -8
I can send the forum text file to anyone who wants it. Just PM me (or email me at jeremygrayson17@gmail.com) and let me know where I should send it. Yes. I am very glad we brought this up again. Though I fear I may disappear down the rabbit hole. Yeah, I went down the rabbit hole. Still glad I asked though!
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Post by filibanfi on Sept 10, 2019 1:32:49 GMT -8
Hi everyone! I know I've never really been that much of a presence here, mainly because I joined the forum pretty much by the time the switch to Wordpress was around the corner, so I'm doubtful my absence has impacted the conversation in any way, but since then I have still periodically logged in just to keep up with your thoughts mainly on TV shows. It's only as of recently that I have been using a lot the Wayback Machine just so I could read (mostly again) some of Mike's reviews of Buffy, since a local TV channel decided to broadcast the whole show this summer to my enormous surprise - the series was never really a hit here compared to other genre shows such as Charmed and it had been years since the last time it was transmitted. Despite the decidedly off-putting dubbing, nostalgia was strong enough a push to lead me to re-watch several chunks of the series. With the added support of Mike's analyses and websites such as Fragments of My Imagination, I found out I disagreed with my old-self on many instances to the point where a complete revisit of the whole show - likely along with Angel, which I have shamefully never come up to watch - would have been justified. The way Buffy has a grip on my heart is decidedly unmatched by any other piece of work I'm probably ever going to stumble onto, so the only thing holding me back is that I'm still pondering whether I'd be able to squeeze that in with my commitments now that school, among other things, is coming back. Actually, with this being a decade of CT, it'd be cool if we were all to do a collective, organized re-watch, but I understand that most of you have already watched it more times than me, to the point where the whole thing would be like beating a dead horse, plus it's not like 144 episodes is a light baggage, so yeah, I'll just leave this rant here, feel free to do whatever you want with it! On a side-ish note, I believe my appeal to this idea partially stems from a general disinterest towards the state the medium seems to be settling down to, a phase I'd say I entered to since the end of The Leftovers. The only shows I watched this year and found excellent were Russian Doll and both seasons of Fleabag, which is keeping up with the current trend of half-hour dramedies by and about complex women being brilliant, game-changing stuff and the true must-watches of this time. I think this is due to several reasons, the main being that it's very difficult nowadays to find stories that if not inherently political still don't make grand, on-the-nose statements and, even moreso, criticism's tendency to strip down a story's meaning to the most shallow of assessments and to become moral judgement for the writers' intentions rather than focusing on the narrative itself. Don't get me wrong, the conversations that are finally happening in the last few years are ones which had been a long time coming and actually depicting these issues on screen doesn't necessarily deprive of artistic value and can actually go on to build a piece of work that manages to be educational and still not be completely defined by today's news, allowing the characters agency and not making them puppets with the sole purpose of spitting out the author's feelings on said subject matter. That's what Buffy excelled to, actually: in a way it was "political", as in the foundation of the show was basically a commentary on and clever subversion of the inherent sexism in most horror stories and some minor storylines could feel as if their only purpose was to make a statement, but at the same time it never felt completely defined by it, because it would also feel universal in how it treated its characters as legit human beings - even those who couldn't call themselves such - and made their day-to-day struggles so relatable despite the fact they had to do with supernatural forces that it would still feel fresh for the most part today, more than twenty years past its starting point. I also understand that our planet is doomed so I'm not really sure why I'm debating so fiercely on the preservation of something as meaningless as "complex and creative storytelling"! Finally, I wanted to share that my opinions and more generally my knowledge of how cinema and television can communicate with viewers have drastically changed over the course of the last couple of years. I believe the shift happened in my experience with the last season of The Leftovers and the re-watch of Breaking Bad I did right after, that summer. They really pushed me to develop an active mode of digesting information, making me pay attention to specific phrasings, camera movements, subtle acting, episodes' titles and recurring symbols, which in return would give me a better understanding of the shows' themes, both in the micro (the role played by singular episodes and seasons) and in the macro (basically the whole series' main point). As I was reading the bits of the old forum that survived the relocation, I realized how deep of an understanding and critical thought you can find in here so I figured coming back would be the smartest thing for me to do.
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