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Dec. 7th, 2010 08:08 pm
I am going to make the Yuletide deadline. But I'm not very happy with the story I've written. It seems like it needs something more, but I don't know what's missing.
Last year I wasn't sure my recipient would like it, as it was somewhat different from her request, but I was happy I'd written the best story I could. This is different. It does fit the request. But I know I can do better than this. Ah, well. I have a week and a bit to figure out what's wrong and fix it.
ION, I found season one of Dynasty in a charity store for like £3. So I bought it. Don't judge me, okay! I used to watch it when it originally aired in the UK: I was a teenager and the preposterous plots appealed to me. But I never saw the early seasons. I'm not actually certain which season I began watching. S3, I suspect. But anyhow, this is the first time I've seen the first season.
Weirdly, I really like it. Oh, the gender politics are horrible (Blake forces Krystal to sign a pre-nup literally hours before the wedding - she has no idea what it is and has no access to legal counsel...and this is shown as perfectly okay; not to mention marital rape which the viewer is clearly supposed to think is justified and which is then brushed off as unimportant by both parties.) Lots of lying and manipulation and generally women are submissive sex objects to the alpha males.
But there are other things in there which strike me as really progressive for the time. A prominent character who is openly bisexual: that must have been a big deal in the early '80s. Sure, he faces a lot of homophobia but that is never presented as okay. And it runs the full gamut from open hostility and violence to characters who are simply uncomfortable with him and trying not to be homophobic, but not always succeeding. And some characters for whom it's not even an issue.
Another prominent character is struggling with an undefined mental illness. Although the way it's presented in the first couple of episodes is over-dramatic (talk about her having been dragged away screaming when she had to be committed to an asylum), I do think they did a good - though far from perfect - job of portraying someone in recovery from a breakdown. She's not shown as "crazy" or dangerous (though IIRC that might have changed in later years) and there's a lot of attention to the ways her illness affects not just her, but the people closest to her as well. But her illness doesn't define her except in that it makes her something of an outsider: she has her own storyline that's obviously affected by her illness, but isn't about that.
Basically...for a show made in 1981, I'm kind of impressed. I just might have to track down season two.
Last year I wasn't sure my recipient would like it, as it was somewhat different from her request, but I was happy I'd written the best story I could. This is different. It does fit the request. But I know I can do better than this. Ah, well. I have a week and a bit to figure out what's wrong and fix it.
ION, I found season one of Dynasty in a charity store for like £3. So I bought it. Don't judge me, okay! I used to watch it when it originally aired in the UK: I was a teenager and the preposterous plots appealed to me. But I never saw the early seasons. I'm not actually certain which season I began watching. S3, I suspect. But anyhow, this is the first time I've seen the first season.
Weirdly, I really like it. Oh, the gender politics are horrible (Blake forces Krystal to sign a pre-nup literally hours before the wedding - she has no idea what it is and has no access to legal counsel...and this is shown as perfectly okay; not to mention marital rape which the viewer is clearly supposed to think is justified and which is then brushed off as unimportant by both parties.) Lots of lying and manipulation and generally women are submissive sex objects to the alpha males.
But there are other things in there which strike me as really progressive for the time. A prominent character who is openly bisexual: that must have been a big deal in the early '80s. Sure, he faces a lot of homophobia but that is never presented as okay. And it runs the full gamut from open hostility and violence to characters who are simply uncomfortable with him and trying not to be homophobic, but not always succeeding. And some characters for whom it's not even an issue.
Another prominent character is struggling with an undefined mental illness. Although the way it's presented in the first couple of episodes is over-dramatic (talk about her having been dragged away screaming when she had to be committed to an asylum), I do think they did a good - though far from perfect - job of portraying someone in recovery from a breakdown. She's not shown as "crazy" or dangerous (though IIRC that might have changed in later years) and there's a lot of attention to the ways her illness affects not just her, but the people closest to her as well. But her illness doesn't define her except in that it makes her something of an outsider: she has her own storyline that's obviously affected by her illness, but isn't about that.
Basically...for a show made in 1981, I'm kind of impressed. I just might have to track down season two.
