(Source: repeatingyourspeeches)
“I said I’ve gone to therapy. I went to therapy. I said ‘Fine I’ll talk to a therapist and see what they have to say’. Because I do struggle with - I get anxiety about certain things. Press and things like that. And all of those things were tied into Marvel responsibilities.”
- Chris Evans on why he almost didn’t do Captain America (x)
I love him best when he’s all… real and shit.
JAIME AND BRIENNE FANVID - PARIS
I finally finished a proper Jaime/Brienne fan video.
Song: Paris by Kate Nash
Why isn’t thoughtfulness a priority in our mainstream entertainment, when it’s a quality that makes stories immeasurably more rewarding for their writers and their audience?
In the current TV climate, for example, we’ve got Game of Thrones, which has been especially thoughtless and insensitive this season in regard to depriving main female characters of any significant screentime, introducing internalized misogyny in a way that directly counters characterization in the GRRM books, serving the male gaze all the time, even in scenes of extreme violence, etc. These have all been discussed at length really eloquently elsewhere. Then we’ve got, like, Once Upon A Time, which time and again presents very intriguing scenarios for its characters but never bothers to follow through on them because everyone seems trapped in the thoughtless archetypes that I thought this show originally intended to subvert. There’s also Doctor Who, but I gave up on that one at the end of series six and do not even know where to begin with that. We’ve also got season four of Community, which has been adopted by new showrunners. It spent much of the season seeming to strive desperately for the show’s prior state of uniqueness without putting any actual deep thought into why it was choosing to make those creative choices, beyond just so it could claim, “See! Sara Bareilles is the hot air balloon lady! Don’t you dare say Community isn’t as quirky and groundbreaking as it ever was, WORLD! PUPPETS. WHO SING.” As a result, the fandoms for these sorts of shows often do really great work, because there is so much that it is overlooked and dismissed by the canon itself, to the point where it seems almost ludicrous. Kind of insulting. Why don’t the writers of the shows want to delve into this stuff? They have so much potential, but they go for the thoughtless, superficial choices again and again.
I would like to steer this to a beautiful, and as of a few days ago canceled, show I recently discovered: Go On, Matthew Perry’s new (AND CANCELED, AUGH, WHY) sitcom. First: this show is definitely hilarious. Just, great, awesome, such a great ensemble cast, funny, goofy, extremely clever in a way that can absolutely hold its own with all the other great sitcoms that are on now (and probably recently canceled). But it’s also so thoughtful. It’s about a grief support group, and it doesn’t shy away from that fact at all. It lets the sadness of its characters matter. It examines the different ways people react to grief and loss, and sometimes it gets weird and funny, but it’s never just to serve a punchline. It is gentle and sweet and sad — it earns the Iron & Wine montage in its first episode — and it doesn’t prioritize humor over its own characters. And there is such a sense of hope in it, and such a sense that other people can make your life so much better when you least expect it. I’m about halfway through the first season now, and every episode leaves me impressed by just how strong this show is, and how thoughtful.
I was really surprised by the cancellation, just because I assumed it was doing well. And out of all the truly excellent shows that we’ve lost this TV season (including HAPPY ENDINGS, because the world hates joy?), I may be the saddest about this one. I just felt like I could really trust it with its own storytelling. That does not happen nearly as often as it should.
IN SHORT: hey, TV shows, we should not have to do all your deep thinking for you.
But we will anyway. That’s what we’re here for. But that doesn’t mean you jerks shouldn’t all just step it up. And if the universe could stop taking away the actual thoughtful television shows, that would be nice too.
“it doesn’t prioritize humor over its own characters”
IT DOESN’T PRIORITIZE HUMOR OVER ITS OWN CHARACTERS.
IT DOESN’T PRIORITIZE HUMOR OVER ITS OWN CHARACTERS.
We are not having a moment.
(via tiltwithlips)
(Source: baneofhearts)
