| IT BURNS IT BURNS |
[Nov. 24th, 2008|10:21 am] |
i haven't been on the internet for a while, (by 'a while' i mean 'a week'), and this is due to a few things.
1. i finished exams and have been trying to relax without the internet.
2. our main computer died, which means that if i want to use the internet, i have to start up my really shitty PC laptop which takes ay too long to be usable in any way and frequently freezes ( and which i have recently lent to my mother because her notebook is even worse than mine, and apparently my dad has semi-killed it y trying to reinstall norton, which i DON'T WANT on my computer, but i can't tell my parents that because for some reason they think norton is the be all and end all of internet security).
3. also, my back is a bit screwy so if i do end up starting up my laptop, it inevitably ends in pain and me begging isa for a massage which she refuses to give me because my pain is self-inflicted.
so, i want to go on the internet i usually have to resort to steailng isa's mactop. i am using it right now in fact, but with permission because she is being nice to me because today has been dubbed 'be nice to mole (aka me) day' because:
4. on tuesday i did a very intelligent thing. i had just had a fight with mother and so was moping morosely round the kitchen feeling sorry for my self. isa and i were making the stir fry dinner that night, and i demanded to be the one to pour the chicken into the wok full of boiling oil. so, i grab the bowl, hold it a couple of feet above the wok, and throw it all in, resulting in the boiling oil splashing all over my right arm. HOORAY FOR ME. GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT IN LIFE THUS FAR.
my arm covered in dressings:
( The burn in all its glory, for those who wish to be exposed to it )
it actually looks grosser and worse now, becuase it got oozey and pussy and a bit infected (because if the skin's open it's pretty hard for it not to get infected apparently) but now it's all dressed properly by the doctor so it's all good. everyone i've met has told me that i should have gone to the hospital because it was so big. bah. but, i do now know the advice that everyone should know, that if you get a burn you have to hold it under running cold water for about 20 minutes to completely take the heat and burn out of it. good to know, yes?
burn means that i feel tired and grumpy because it hurts, i can't move my arm properly because of the bandage and need to shower with a bag over it, i feel sick because of the infection, and because i'm feeling run down the cold that i've been fighting off for a while has finally won over my immune system. and i can't go to the coast with my friend for her birthday tomorrow. THIS IS THE PRICE I PAY FOR MY OWN STUPIDITY :(. this rivals the time i ran down a hill in the rain with a piece of paper against me screaming 'i'm magic', and then slipped in the mud and fractured my wrist. c'est la vie.
SUPERNATURAL LATEST EP ~SPOILERS~ IN THE NEXT FEW PARAGRAPHS, YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO READ THEM.
in other news, alice, meagan and i got together and watched the latest episode of supernatural together yesterday and it made us all hurt inside. OH MY LORD. what was it? as we watched it it was like ticking off a list of what not to do writing any narrative, and it was awful just from that, but once you put that broken broken 'story' in the universe of supernatural, it made you want to bang your head against a wall until all the stupid you just ingested fell out. and if you think about it again the wider context of the obsessive fandom of supernatural, it boggles the mind how any of it passed the editing stage. wtf anna. wtf blues brothers pamela. wtf nothing happening the whole episode. wtf sam and dean not talking about anything and the characterisation being non existant. wtf it being a PLAN the whole time, despite the fact THERE WAS NO PLAN. wtf the existence of the plan negating the only plot point which reminded us of just the inconsequential relationship between dean and sam, otherwise known as the point of the show - that being the plan making dean's act of supposedly giving up anna to the angels to save sam's life completely meaningless. wtf the 'scooby scene' in the car which kripke promised he'd never have, with the two girls, one, *giggle* a demon, and one *giggle giggle* an angel. he could still have salvaged that scene by playing it seriously, but instead he had dean make porn jokes. thank you, kripke, thank you. wtf the uselessly melodramatic score. wtf anna remembering she was an angel, and then becoming an even more acutely irritating character. wtf angels and demons fighting by charging each other lie 5 year olds then having a punch up. wtf alastair being a cheap copy of marlon brando. wtf the completely useless dialogue throughout the whole thing, most evident in the drawn out scene of ruby being tortured, which achieved absolutey NOTHING.
and, of course, most of all wtf SEX SCENE:
anna: [kisses dean]
dean: what was that for?
anna: y'know, my last night on earth and all...
dean: *raises eyebrows sleazily*
[useless sex scene in the impala ensues, with pointlessly cheesy 80s music in the background]
i assume the use of the impala and the music were so supposed to show us that we're supposed to care about this deftly written romantic interlude between dean and anna, when really i can think of no possible audience reaction other than WTF WTF WTF. kripke kripke kripke. i am in awe of your writing skills. how do you subtly show us that sam could be going down a dark path? why, you have sam have sex with a demon, and we were all amazed by your sophisticated symbolism, and all really happy that you went that route instead of, maybe, i don't know, using writing and characterisation and the existing overarching themes to make that point in far more effective way. sera gamble to her credit made the sex scene revelatory to both sam and ruby's characters, and it made sense and furthered the story somewhat. you, however, kripke, seem to feel you are above such things as 'characters; and 'plot' and 'sense', and felt that it would be far more effective to just bludgeon the audience over the head with the beautiful and meaningful symbolic contrast of dean sleeping with an angel vs sam sleeping with ruby, thus representing dean's choice of the light path. despite the fact that the writers are making pains and going at length to also bludgeon into us that angels and demons are morally ambiguous. i see where you're going with this kripke - you're heading straight for a BLACK HOLE of SYMBOLIC NONSENSE.
the worst part of the sex scene is that they could have made it work. i can think of a dozen ways they could have written it to further the story and characterisation, if they had to have it in (which i'm guessing they did because of network pressure). what elements do we have in the episode to have made it work? well, we have the only good part of the episode at the end, dean's heartbreaking revelation of what he remembers from hell (i won't even get onto the point meagan raised that it really doesn't make that much sense psychologically let alone in the story line that dean remembered everything about hell from the moment he climbed out of his grave, or what it means about dean's character that he repeatedly makes tasteless jokes about sex and death and torture despite his experiences, or that despite being tragic and moving, it didn't really have much of a point or any build-up at all within the episode, because those are the least of this episode's problems). meagan also suggested that dean's crying scene could have been moved back a bit, and the sex scene could have been at the end after it. which would work a lot better i think. so we have dean feeling terrible about his time in hell. he can't talk to his brother about it, or he feels sam won't understand. all they had to do was slightly twist some of the writing in the scenes where the brothers are together and show that sam and dean aren't really connecting with each other. change anna's characterisation a bit, so she's less 'annoying girl who was once an angel but is mostly obnoxious' to 'angel in a human's body', and maybe make her a bit more like castiel - grave and serious - but conflicted because she's been human for so long.
now, back to the sex scene:
- anna can still say stuff about hearing what dean did but a lot better than it was written, and with more indication that she understands its implications and how dean must be feeling.
- dean can be sad like he was, and could reveal something about feeling alone - can't talk to sam, can't talk to the angels, sam's going down a dark path, the angels are assholes, he doesn't know right from wrong anymore. something like that.
- anna says something about being alone too, and that they're both humans but don't feel like ith. she could say something about they can't spend their lives waiting or worrying about holy judgement, and can only be humans - this i think would link back into the themes about the angels not necessarily being all good or demons being all bad, and none of them really knowing when god or lucifer is real or what they say they are. anna could have even revealed then why she fell to earth, rather than in that other shitty scene - she could say she wanted to feel human warmth and emotion.
- and with that sort of build up, they could have had sex - both of them craving some human warmth and connection with neither of them feel they can ever have completely because they've done too much wrong and been away too long (dean) or aren't truly human at all (anna). and that way the cheesy music and the impala would have felt meaningful, because the sex scene would have been about them both desperately craving intimacy, which, depending how they played it, could have either paralleled or contrasted with the crazy! angry! depression! sex sam had with ruby.
if the scene was a bit more like that, of course a lot of the fandom still would have objected because having the dean and anna have sex after they've known each other a day while in the context of everything that's happening is still bullshit. this is the fandom which drove jo into character grave-yard with their vocal objections afterall. but the point is, if kripke had tried he could have made the scene 1. make sense in the plot, 2. make sense for the characters, and 3. be emotionally potent. if he'd done it right it could have been as moving as dean's revelation. it wouldn't have saved the stunted mess the episode was, but at least it wouldn't have blighted it further by slapping a sleazy, completely gratuitous shag in the middle of it, in the impala no less. this episode has honestly made me lose all hope for the rest of the season, it was that shitty. the thought of anna returning fills me with gout and ulcers and vomit. combined with all the batshittery that is the fandom at large, i can only feel that i have made the worst life choice possibly being this invested in a show. why, supernatural, why?
to conclude, MY HEART SINGS WITH JOY WHENEVER KRIPKE WRITES AN EPISODE.
THUS ENDETH MY CRAZED REVIEW OF THe LATEST SUPERNATURAL EPISODE. I HOPE YOU ENJOYED.
something hilarious happened to a guy my sisters and i know recently, but isa won't let me tell it to the world at large via the internet, so to finish my entry i will allow you to imagine the possibly hilarity that could have occurred. it involves raunchy emails, crazed classic students, and cross country skype conversations with the parties involved, unbeknownst to others. it was beautiful. |
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