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A thread for nitpicking about movies/tv shows


Larry Rydell

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I found Dollhouse to be pretty misogynistic and not in a "well, it's meant to be" type of way, just genuinely creepy at points. The treatment of the Sierra character in particular. The girl was literally getting raped every other week and rather than dealing with it in any meaningful way, they just had her kill the guy and it was shrugged off after that.

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Guest The Magnificent 7

I don't watch Modern Family, but many people on this board are absolutely obsessed with rich white people.  Judas Priest it gets old in every damn thread.  We all have first world problems compared to some guy in Timbuktu, but I bet if all that dude has is a 13-inch black and white Zenith with wood trim he doesn't bitch about rich white people every damn minute like people do here.  He probably finds shit to laugh about if they carry Modern Family on TimbuktuTV. 

 

This idea that the value of your thoughts is dependent on the value of your bank account or racial makeup needs to go away.  From both angles.

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I am by no means affluent or rich(far from it), but I have never once looked at Modern Family as a white privilege type show.  I watch it to laugh, and feel good once in awhile at the "aw shucks" moments.  It succeeds on those fronts.  Sometimes you just need a feel good show.

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There's always the argument of "Should rich people complain?" and hmm let's see. Yes, it is entirely possible for someone to be rich and also be incredibly depressed and these people do have problems... MANY problems. So yes, they should definitely be allowed to complain about their issues. Rich people do have issues.

 

With that said, would my own life be better if I had ten million dollars in the bank? Yes, I do believe it would be better. It would erase many of the problems that I do have but it may lead to problems that I don't have... 

 

Put it this way. I'd rather start with ten million and go from there than start with zero.

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There's always the argument of "Should rich people complain?" and hmm let's see. Yes, it is entirely possible for someone to be rich and also be incredibly depressed and these people do have problems... MANY problems. So yes, they should definitely be allowed to complain about their issues. Rich people do have issues.

 

With that said, would my own life be better if I had ten million dollars in the bank? Yes, I do believe it would be better. It would erase many of the problems that I do have but it may lead to problems that I don't have... 

 

Put it this way. I'd rather start with ten million and go from there than start with zero.

It wasn't as bad in the first couple of seasons, but its gotten worse recently. . .

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Found myself thinking this during the show Parenthood:

 

Shows with characters that don't make much money (i.e. Sarah Braverman), yet somehow never wear the same clothes twice and always seem to have something fashionable and dressy to wear for special occasions, even after their frumpy wardrobe is highlighted during the show.

 

 

The opposite used to bug me on Veronica Mars.  Although I intellectually understand why (struggling show on a struggling network) it was always hilarious that Logan (son of action movie star Aaron Echols who makes 20 million a picture) and Duncan (son of Jake Kane, owner of the computer company that created streaming video, which was so successful that Jake became a billionaire, and everyone that worked for Kane Software, right down to the secretarial pool, became millionaires over night on the IPO) seemed to own, combined, about 5 shirts.

 

 

Two things about Veronica Mars -

 

They kind of explain it in the first episode (the town is so small that there isn't the population density to open multiple high schools) but I still found it kind of unbelievable that so many kids from 1%er-ish families would go to a public high school.  You'd think they'd either have tutors or go to some nearby private school.

 

Wallace was supposed to be the local basketball star with near college scholarship level skills but was maybe 5'7''.

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Well, he was a point guard. And the Hearst was probably division II. So it's not completely impossible.

And, yeah, someone would have built a private school in the 09 zip code in real life, no doubt.

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The issue isn't "Should rich people complain?". The issue is"Should people complaining constitute entertainment?"

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That's tragedy, that's completely different. Complaining works best in situation comedy if you're laughing at, rather than sympathising with, the complainer, no?

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I did like when Angel did a storyline where they actually started charging people for their services. It was just an acknowledgement: Yes in the real world everyone, even vampires, have to make a living. (Obviously they did pro bono work too, but there were lots of times they had paying clients.)

 

Considering all the financial problems Buffy often faced, it was kinda funny she never collected a salary, or even got basic living expenses, from the Watchers Council. I remember a storyline where she had to work at a fast food place. Come on, people, she saves the world on an almost weekly basis. She should not have to work long hours in fast food!

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After Joyce dies, Buffy and the gang spend a couple episodes wondering aloud whether she should start charging people. I remember an episode were she saves a bank manager and half jokes about approving her previously denied loan.

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I don't think she should have started charging people...exactly. But why the watchers council, who had a decent amount of resources, weren't paying her a living wage, is beyond me.

 

Wasn't Faith living in some dingy hotel room for most of season 3? Man, no wonder she betrayed them.

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They kind of explain it in the first episode (the town is so small that there isn't the population density to open multiple high schools) but I still found it kind of unbelievable that so many kids from 1%er-ish families would go to a public high school.  You'd think they'd either have tutors or go to some nearby private school.

It's totally possible.  I went to public high school in a rich town where half the kids had corporate executives, country music producers, doctors, lawyers, etc for their parents.  Some of them lived in mansions, and I do mean full-blown mansions with three or four stories on giant plots of land and a long private road for access and everything.  Even the mayor's son went to the public school.  And it was all because the two private schools in the area were both kinda mediocre; thanks to having a huge budget from local taxes, the public school was actually better than the local private schools in practically every category.  

 

I don't think she should have started charging people...exactly. But why the watchers council, who had a decent amount of resources, weren't paying her a living wage, is beyond me.

 

Wasn't Faith living in some dingy hotel room for most of season 3? Man, no wonder she betrayed them.

Ab-so-lutely.  That's one of the parts of season 6 that really made NO sense.  The Council paid the Watchers, why in the living fuck would they not pay the Slayers?  Even the traditional explanation of "the Council are a bunch of hidebound patriarchal morons" couldn't possibly explain it.  Especially since Buffy in season 5 forced them to rehire Giles and pay him a bonus, so we've got recent proof that she's totally capable of making them do whatever she wants to.  Leaving the Slayers destitute and forcing them to make their own living is something that has NO upside, it adds extra unnecessary stress onto their already-ridiculously-stressful lives and requires SO much time and effort from a person who already doesn't have any time or effort to spare.  

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Not to derail things, but sometimes carping about inconsistencies can backfire... Yesterday I was forced to sit through one of the vilest movies ever made, Driving Miss Daisy for the umpteenth time. Yeah, I could have gone in the other room and watched some NXT or something, but I was working and didn't feel like moving...  Anyway as the film drones on with no one learning anything, no one changing, we come to Christmas time at Doolie's house, the house is heavily decorated and I begin my rant; "What the fuck is with the Xmas shit, they're Jewish! I have several Jewish friends and not a one puts up a bunch of Xmas shit. Did these idiots not even read their own script? How the fuck does this rate as an Award-worthy film?" I pause for a second wind and Mrs. OSJ just looks at me and says, "His wife isn't Jewish..." I shut up and go in the bedroom to watch Kabuki and the Magic Dragon working mischief on the Von Erichs.

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Jack supposedly being the hero in Titantic because he "saved Rose in every way a person can be saved."

 

When in reality if he'd have just let her jump on that first night, he'd have probably saved everyone and stopped the Titanitc sinking.

 

Because a rich female passanger, and the fiance of the richest guy on the boat, vanishing would have forced them to either turn the ship around or conduct a search for a few days (meaning they'd change the route or come upon the iceberg during the day meaning they would spot it sooner).

 

Throw in that the night watchman got distracted by Jack and Rose kissing when they did hit the iceberg, and there's a really good arguement to be made for these two being absolute monsters whose selfish love doomed everyone around them.

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There was this women's magazine in the shop a couple of days ago, with Kate Winslet on the cover. It described her as Hollywood's Greatest Rulebreaker (meaning she's not like other Hollywood actresses or something... naturally I took it was meaning the Kayfabe word for Heel in Apter mags) or some such... which put me on a tangent about how you could change her films to make her the heel. The first one I thought of was that she sank the Titanic on purpose because she wanted to steal that necklace, and kill Billy Zane at the same time. Everyone else was just collateral damage.

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Rose does not come off well in Titanic at all.

 

-Didn't move over on the raft so her boyfriend could live.

 

-At the end, instead of selling the valuable necklace and giving the cash to any number of charitable causes (orphans, poor Africans, animal shelters, etc.) she simply throws it in the ocean to bring himself personal closure. She also dooms Bill Paxton to a life of wondering "what if" in the process because looking for that thing was his life's work.

 

- Even as she's telling the story of what happened, her main focus is how she got her fresh start and she got away from Cal, not you know, all the people that perished.

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Well, Jack did save Rose from suicide (despite the valid points above...) so that's kind of heroic...

 

Seriously, though, if you aren't a teen girl, the reason to watch that movie is the amazing disaster porn, not the story.

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