next_to_normal: (Tribbey rage)
next_to_normal ([personal profile] next_to_normal) wrote in [personal profile] beer_good_foamy 2013-12-15 05:27 am (UTC)

UGH I saw that article and was so hoping someone would go ahead and tear it to shreds so I didn't have to. So, thanks. :)

Likewise, there's the bit at the end where she claims that Agents of SHIELD gives the audience that old worn-out-by-mindless-repetition phrase "what they need, not what they want" (which I actually kind of agree with as a concept, but it's often horribly misused and if nobody else used it for the next 10 years I'd be ecstatic)

I have so much rage and loathing for that phrase. I will give a million dollars to anyone who can tell me what the actual fuck that even LOOKS like in TV storytelling. Or any medium, frankly, because that's the thing about entertainment - it is, sort of by definition, WHAT YOU WANT. If you don't want it, you turn the TV off. You put the book down. You hit the little X in the corner of your browser. And guess what? There are no consequences! (Except that maybe you won't get a few pop culture references, which I think we can all live without.) We need food. We need water. We need oxygen. We do not need television. Or Joss Whedon.

I know what Joss intends it to mean. He likes to think that his shows give us the ~hard truths and don't just pander to the audience's base desires (which is patently false - he can pander with the best of them *cough*Bangel*cough*), as though he is doing us some kind of ~favor by creating the TV equivalent of your mother making you eat your lima beans before you're allowed to leave the dinner table. Who the fuck wants to watch THAT? The fact is, his storytelling may be more challenging intellectually or philosophically or morally or whatever-ally than the average show (though that is also debatable), but he IS giving audiences what they want - albeit sometimes very small audiences - or he wouldn't have so many rabid fans. (Although, not giving audiences what they want would go a long way toward explaining why so many of his shows get canceled, lol.)

...Oops. I was gonna let you do the ranting, and then I went and ranted anyway.

That people who don't like it just need to relax and change their expectations, it's just a spy show with standard characters, it's not meant to be anything more than that, so why on Earth wouldn't you watch it?

I am still baffled that people continue to use this argument when there is SO MUCH GOOD TV right now. And sometimes it's TV CRITICS saying it, which is the most bizarre of all. Do they not understand how this "competing for your time" thing works? They should, they watch more TV than anyone, and their job is to help you evaluate which TV is worth your time.

I could do nothing but watch TV for the rest of my life and still never watch all the good shows that are being made. Why would I waste my time on something that requires me to lower my expectations?

(To be fair, I am still watching Agents of SHIELD and it is getting better. But that is a calculated decision on my part that my investment in the Marvel universe at large and my belief in the talent of the people involved will eventually make it worthwhile. But I also recognize that every hour I spend watching AOS is an hour I am not watching The Wire or something, and I fully understand people who think that's a poor decision, and I certainly don't expect everyone else to have the same cost/benefit calculation I do.)

Sometimes, things that suck just keep sucking - especially if nobody asks them to stop.

I would like to frame this.

And I don't owe it to a brand new TV series to change my expectations of what I consider good entertainment.

I would also like to frame this, and draw hearts around it and cover it with sparkles.

Also you get bonus points for punctuating your rant with a West Wing clip.

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