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Dear TV Shows: Kill Your Darlings Edition
Dear Heroes:
While I'm glad you finally definitively killed off at least one of your characters, I think you're not through cutting out the deadwood. One of the Petrelli brothers needs to go, and preferably three episodes ago. Basically, right now, there are too many characters keeping a unified plot from ever forming. Dorothy Parker may have been cynical as all get-out, but she was right: if you're in love with your characters and their concepts, then chances are you need to strike them out ASAP. "Cold Snap" was a good episode in terms of revelations (although most of the fans had already pinned Micah as "Rebel"), but poor in terms of the fact that half of the main cast was unaccounted for. When half of your main cast is unaccounted for in a show that's only 43 minutes long, writers, you have a problem. You need to figure out who's a first-tier character and kill at least one of them off. Please.
Also: the plot with Sylar getting his groove back was pointlessly violent, drawn-out, and BORING. Now, there's a character you could easily cut. I would pleased if Mr. Quinto's eyebrows didn't grace our computer screen again.
Sincerely, Someone Who is Wavering About Watching the Next Season
Dear House:
Just keep doing what you're doing. I'm extremely glad you're getting away from the "adorable children in mortal peril" plots.
Love, A Fan of the Snark
Dear Dollhouse:
I'm having trouble watching this in the same way that I had trouble getting behind "Chobits". I could never decide if Chobits was CLAMP's most serious feminist-tastic deconstruction of the sex female robot genre ever or their way of making extra buckets of money on the merchandising of the life-sized pillows of the innocent and child-like Chii.* And I feel the same way about Dollhouse; it's either a sophisticated feminist deconstruction of the (North) American Entertainment-Industrial Complex or the creepiest show ever about an evil international conglomerate whoring out disadvantaged and gorgeous young women (and a few token men). And while the latest episode really made me glad I'd stuck with it, it still did nothing to dispel the rampant squick of the central conceit of the plot. I think the only way this show can become a favorite of mine will be to rapidly give some of the dolls a hell of a lot more agency, and not just in the form of imprinted kick-ass skillz. I would really like to see an ex-Doll who knew what s/he was and be working against the Dollhouse because of what s/he experienced. (Alpha? I'm looking your way.)
Best wishes for better scripts, A Concerned Viewer
* Come to think of it, Chii at the beginning of Chobits and Echo in her wiped state have a lot in common: blind trust, childlike sensibility (Dushku has said she channels her inner six-year-old when she plays non-imprinted Echo), and complete dependence on those around them. I really, really hope Echo finds her alternate, stronger personality.
While I'm glad you finally definitively killed off at least one of your characters, I think you're not through cutting out the deadwood. One of the Petrelli brothers needs to go, and preferably three episodes ago. Basically, right now, there are too many characters keeping a unified plot from ever forming. Dorothy Parker may have been cynical as all get-out, but she was right: if you're in love with your characters and their concepts, then chances are you need to strike them out ASAP. "Cold Snap" was a good episode in terms of revelations (although most of the fans had already pinned Micah as "Rebel"), but poor in terms of the fact that half of the main cast was unaccounted for. When half of your main cast is unaccounted for in a show that's only 43 minutes long, writers, you have a problem. You need to figure out who's a first-tier character and kill at least one of them off. Please.
Also: the plot with Sylar getting his groove back was pointlessly violent, drawn-out, and BORING. Now, there's a character you could easily cut. I would pleased if Mr. Quinto's eyebrows didn't grace our computer screen again.
Sincerely, Someone Who is Wavering About Watching the Next Season
Dear House:
Just keep doing what you're doing. I'm extremely glad you're getting away from the "adorable children in mortal peril" plots.
Love, A Fan of the Snark
Dear Dollhouse:
I'm having trouble watching this in the same way that I had trouble getting behind "Chobits". I could never decide if Chobits was CLAMP's most serious feminist-tastic deconstruction of the sex female robot genre ever or their way of making extra buckets of money on the merchandising of the life-sized pillows of the innocent and child-like Chii.* And I feel the same way about Dollhouse; it's either a sophisticated feminist deconstruction of the (North) American Entertainment-Industrial Complex or the creepiest show ever about an evil international conglomerate whoring out disadvantaged and gorgeous young women (and a few token men). And while the latest episode really made me glad I'd stuck with it, it still did nothing to dispel the rampant squick of the central conceit of the plot. I think the only way this show can become a favorite of mine will be to rapidly give some of the dolls a hell of a lot more agency, and not just in the form of imprinted kick-ass skillz. I would really like to see an ex-Doll who knew what s/he was and be working against the Dollhouse because of what s/he experienced. (Alpha? I'm looking your way.)
Best wishes for better scripts, A Concerned Viewer
* Come to think of it, Chii at the beginning of Chobits and Echo in her wiped state have a lot in common: blind trust, childlike sensibility (Dushku has said she channels her inner six-year-old when she plays non-imprinted Echo), and complete dependence on those around them. I really, really hope Echo finds her alternate, stronger personality.