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This post is about a week late--last weekend there was an article in the NYTimes--a sort of silly article, actually--about the show Friday Night Lights. The article was suggesting that the show wasn't doing well because it had no fandom. Other people already pointed out that this hardly holds up. The Sopranos and 24 don't have fandoms and are popular, Supernatural and Smallville have active fandoms but low ratings.
Anyway, I had the same aversion to this show as a lot of people--could not care less about football. But I am interested in the idea of a town where being a football star at 16 is the high point of your life, so I gave it a try. I haven't gotten through the first season yet, but I like it!
The one odd thing I notice about watching it, and this sort of links back to my post before last, but
As I said to![[livejournal.com profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jlh at dinner last night, I'm torn about this. On one hand it's a small town and a certain amount of conformity is to be expected. It makes sense the boys usually have the same look and the (white) girls all go for the long, straight hair and tight jeans. The two main girls, especially, are written where their beauty is part of their character. Still, whenever I see a girl in the background who's kind of homely, my eye goes straight to her. I always want her to have a bigger part. I think I"d like it especially if the coach's daughter didn't look like such a TV teenager. I guess I can't really argue that she shouldn't be pretty given what her parents look like, but I feel like it'd be more interesting. Her boyfriend, Matt, is probably better looking in real life but with the actor's stammering performance I can believe that he's just a plain Texas kid.
Some of the adults are cast more interestingly--I love the woman who plays the mayor, and Lila's dad looks just like you'd expect. One girl I should say I like here is Whitney, the girl who dates Smash. I don't know how long she lasts, but she comes across more like a girl who pretty looks normal and her personality is more interesting than her looks. The pretty bad girl, Tyra, looks too old to be in high school but I tell myself she's just aging rapidly. Her mother and sister, though, are more interesting looking for not being as pretty in TV terms, but still being easily believable as good-looking in real life.
So that's my shallow reaction to Friday Night Lights!
The other day I saw Rock and Roll, the Tom Stoppard play. I really liked it and had a lot of things to say about it, but I don't know if any of them are really interesting if you haven't actually seen it.
I like Stoppard a lot, but I think his weaker plays (at least weaker to me) are ones where the characters seem to just be there to voice ideas. It makes me want to argue with them or agree with them. In the better ones you can see why a specific character needs the ideas they have. The character is expressing something about themselves through their philosophy.
This play dealt a lot with the person/body vs. the mind. My favorite character wound up being Esme, the flower child--the least articulate and educated of any character--which is lonely in a Tom Stoppard play.
The thing is, I usually don't have much time for the whole flower child thing, and I didn't even know this character was getting to me until I got all emotional over her when the play got to 1990. She was played by Sinead Cusack, who's always great--and Rufus Sewell was, unsurprisingly, great too. As was Brian Cox. I know, another surprise.
Anyway, I had the same aversion to this show as a lot of people--could not care less about football. But I am interested in the idea of a town where being a football star at 16 is the high point of your life, so I gave it a try. I haven't gotten through the first season yet, but I like it!
The one odd thing I notice about watching it, and this sort of links back to my post before last, but
As I said to
jlh at dinner last night, I'm torn about this. On one hand it's a small town and a certain amount of conformity is to be expected. It makes sense the boys usually have the same look and the (white) girls all go for the long, straight hair and tight jeans. The two main girls, especially, are written where their beauty is part of their character. Still, whenever I see a girl in the background who's kind of homely, my eye goes straight to her. I always want her to have a bigger part. I think I"d like it especially if the coach's daughter didn't look like such a TV teenager. I guess I can't really argue that she shouldn't be pretty given what her parents look like, but I feel like it'd be more interesting. Her boyfriend, Matt, is probably better looking in real life but with the actor's stammering performance I can believe that he's just a plain Texas kid.Some of the adults are cast more interestingly--I love the woman who plays the mayor, and Lila's dad looks just like you'd expect. One girl I should say I like here is Whitney, the girl who dates Smash. I don't know how long she lasts, but she comes across more like a girl who pretty looks normal and her personality is more interesting than her looks. The pretty bad girl, Tyra, looks too old to be in high school but I tell myself she's just aging rapidly. Her mother and sister, though, are more interesting looking for not being as pretty in TV terms, but still being easily believable as good-looking in real life.
So that's my shallow reaction to Friday Night Lights!
The other day I saw Rock and Roll, the Tom Stoppard play. I really liked it and had a lot of things to say about it, but I don't know if any of them are really interesting if you haven't actually seen it.
I like Stoppard a lot, but I think his weaker plays (at least weaker to me) are ones where the characters seem to just be there to voice ideas. It makes me want to argue with them or agree with them. In the better ones you can see why a specific character needs the ideas they have. The character is expressing something about themselves through their philosophy.
This play dealt a lot with the person/body vs. the mind. My favorite character wound up being Esme, the flower child--the least articulate and educated of any character--which is lonely in a Tom Stoppard play.
The thing is, I usually don't have much time for the whole flower child thing, and I didn't even know this character was getting to me until I got all emotional over her when the play got to 1990. She was played by Sinead Cusack, who's always great--and Rufus Sewell was, unsurprisingly, great too. As was Brian Cox. I know, another surprise.
