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Meanwhile in various TV
This ... started out as a post about what I'm watching these days and apparently turned into a sort of rant-ish thing about SGU, I guess. On the one hand, I like some of the things they've done with the last couple of episodes. On the other hand, as a viewer, I am a fickle and opinionated creature *g*, and I have issues, which I suppose largely come down to "this show is not tailored to ME, dammit!"
I actually love the last couple episodes' refusal to deliver a last-minute save. I still think that the show needs to pull a Lost and actually kill a character or two if it wants to have any credibility as far as the "... anyone could die at any time!" thing they seem to be trying for, but still -- I love being surprised, and having cliches averted, and the last two episodes have given a pretty standard "but now they will be saved at the last minute!" setup and then overturned it by not saving anybody. Which I really like, especially since it sets up far more plot possibilities than just returning the lost group to the ship at the end. However ...
... emotionally, I need more than I'm getting. I'm having the same problem that I had (and have) with LOST (the series, not the SGU episode): aside from a few troubled couples or love triangles, the characters never bond. There's lots of potential for it, and there are lots of one-off episodes or scenes that could have developed into very cute and interesting character relationships. But, like with LOST, they just don't happen. For example, Rush saving Chloe from the alien spaceship could've been the start of a weird little odd-couple friendship, unexpected by both parties ... but they haven't really interacted since, and now she's stuck offworld. Greer being left behind could've been the setup for a rescue that would've given an opportunity for him to work through some of his abandonment issues and become closer to one or another of the other characters, but no -- he was abandoned, and now it's likely that he'll be even more distant with the rest of the crew as a result.
It's weird because, whatever they may have done wrong (which was a lot), for 15 years the Stargate writers were awfully good at hitting my found-family, characters-in-danger-looking-after-each-other buttons. They did it over and over again, with many different characters, in many different situations. A recurring theme in both shows was being lonely and then finding other people to love, and being inspired through love to acts of courage, heroism, and compassion. And they did it over and over - whether it was something big like Daniel throwing himself into a roomful of lethal radiation or Sheppard flying a nuke into a hiveship, or something small like lone-wolf Vala hugging Sam after they got her back from another dimension, or Rodney putting a newborn baby into Teyla's arms.
I'm not getting that with SGU. In fact, SGU is like the total antithesis of that. For the most part, the only characters who interact with each other on a regular, recurring basis are people who hate each other (Rush and Young) or love triangles in which the third leg of the triangle (the romantic rivals' relationship) is never developed, e.g. Eli/Chloe/Scott, Young/TJ/whatever his wife's name is. There is no reason why you can't have romance as part of a healthy show dynamic, but if the only regular interactions that most of the characters seem to have with each other has to do with their love lives (and unhappy and conflicted love lives at that!), I start to raise my eyebrows. (Ranma 1/2, to name just one, was nonstop 24-7 love triangles and romantic misunderstandings ... but that never stopped the series from developing all the characters' relationships with each other, in every possible combination - and there were a lot of situations in which the romantic rivals had to put aside their rivalry to team up against a common enemy. The group as a whole might've had a lot of internal conflict, but they also bonded, and woe betide anyone who threatened any of them.)
Frankly, it doesn't matter to me whether it's a show or a book or a movie -- if you want me to care about the characters, and hover on the edge of my seat for fear of anything happening to them, you have to make them care about each other. This is why Stephen King is so good at ripping out my heart and stomping on it, because his characters might be flawed and petty, but they love each other -- as family, as friends, as siblings or partners or whatever. I don't want any of them to die because the others would be hurt so badly. And then he kills them all anyway, but ... it's Stephen King; at least you can't say you weren't warned. XD
And yes, I am very well aware that this is my own bias as a reader/viewer showing! But I own my bias. *g* Some people won't watch a show or read a book or fanfic if there's not a romantic couple in it, because romance is what they watch for. With me, it's friendship (or strongly friendship-based romance too). I can't really get into it if the characters don't bond with each other in some way, or at least demonstrate that a few of them care about each other as people and are willing to risk themselves for each other.
By this point in both SGA and SG-1 (fifteen episodes in!), we'd had quite a number of fairly dramatic scenes that demonstrated the characters' ability to perform heroically under pressure, or their willingness to go the extra mile for each other even when they didn't know each other all that well yet. I'm trying to think of similar scenes in SGU and I'm kind of drawing a blank. The emotional interactions that we have gotten in SGU could have been really interesting as the basis for a stronger relationship later on, but the show never follows through on it, like the Rush-Chloe thing I was talking about earlier. In, say, the first episode of SG-1, there were a lot of individual interactions between the characters that don't have a tremendous amount of emotional impact yet, but were built upon later as those characters continued to interact -- like Jack taking Daniel home after Sha're was taken, or Teal'c trusting Jack on Chulak. Imagine if, after that initial scene with Jack and Teal'c, they'd never really interacted again, but had continued to pair up Teal'c with different characters and never let him bond with anyone. That would be miserable! That's not what I want to watch!
I'm trying to envision how many of the characters on SGU have ANYONE on the ship that they'd be willing to risk themselves for, or put themselves on the line emotionally for, not because it's their job but because they like that person and don't want to lose them. Like Jack in the labyrinth in Thor's Hammer (... I think that was the episode), telling it that Teal'c is his family now and he's not leaving without him? Or Rodney standing up in Defiant One to shoot the Wraith before it can kill Sheppard? If most of the characters on SGU died, I can't think who would mourn them ... there are a few who might be a little sad (like Eli and Chloe are a little sad about leaving Greer for dead), but broken up? Not so much...
I'm not even gonna say it's unrealistic. Actually, if you're thrown together with a bunch of strangers, being mildly annoyed by the rest of them is probably more likely than bonding with them as BFFs. But that doesn't change the fact that BFF-bonding is what I want to watch; unfriendly strangers circling each other with their hackles raised just isn't really my thing. Strangers becoming friends makes me squee! Strangers staying strangers is just kind of ... meh. And, after a while, fairly annoying, because Show is not supplying my emotional needs, dammit!
ETA: After thinking some more, I think what it comes down to with SGU is that it's giving me lots of "hurt" but very little "comfort" to go with it -- and less and less prospect of any, as time goes by. And all that it's really doing is making me tune out emotionally, even though I like some of the characters and want to see more of them. Actually, the more I like them, the less I want to watch them suffer with no one around who cares.
OH HI, THIS GOT LONG. And opinion-y.
I actually love the last couple episodes' refusal to deliver a last-minute save. I still think that the show needs to pull a Lost and actually kill a character or two if it wants to have any credibility as far as the "... anyone could die at any time!" thing they seem to be trying for, but still -- I love being surprised, and having cliches averted, and the last two episodes have given a pretty standard "but now they will be saved at the last minute!" setup and then overturned it by not saving anybody. Which I really like, especially since it sets up far more plot possibilities than just returning the lost group to the ship at the end. However ...
... emotionally, I need more than I'm getting. I'm having the same problem that I had (and have) with LOST (the series, not the SGU episode): aside from a few troubled couples or love triangles, the characters never bond. There's lots of potential for it, and there are lots of one-off episodes or scenes that could have developed into very cute and interesting character relationships. But, like with LOST, they just don't happen. For example, Rush saving Chloe from the alien spaceship could've been the start of a weird little odd-couple friendship, unexpected by both parties ... but they haven't really interacted since, and now she's stuck offworld. Greer being left behind could've been the setup for a rescue that would've given an opportunity for him to work through some of his abandonment issues and become closer to one or another of the other characters, but no -- he was abandoned, and now it's likely that he'll be even more distant with the rest of the crew as a result.
It's weird because, whatever they may have done wrong (which was a lot), for 15 years the Stargate writers were awfully good at hitting my found-family, characters-in-danger-looking-after-each-other buttons. They did it over and over again, with many different characters, in many different situations. A recurring theme in both shows was being lonely and then finding other people to love, and being inspired through love to acts of courage, heroism, and compassion. And they did it over and over - whether it was something big like Daniel throwing himself into a roomful of lethal radiation or Sheppard flying a nuke into a hiveship, or something small like lone-wolf Vala hugging Sam after they got her back from another dimension, or Rodney putting a newborn baby into Teyla's arms.
I'm not getting that with SGU. In fact, SGU is like the total antithesis of that. For the most part, the only characters who interact with each other on a regular, recurring basis are people who hate each other (Rush and Young) or love triangles in which the third leg of the triangle (the romantic rivals' relationship) is never developed, e.g. Eli/Chloe/Scott, Young/TJ/whatever his wife's name is. There is no reason why you can't have romance as part of a healthy show dynamic, but if the only regular interactions that most of the characters seem to have with each other has to do with their love lives (and unhappy and conflicted love lives at that!), I start to raise my eyebrows. (Ranma 1/2, to name just one, was nonstop 24-7 love triangles and romantic misunderstandings ... but that never stopped the series from developing all the characters' relationships with each other, in every possible combination - and there were a lot of situations in which the romantic rivals had to put aside their rivalry to team up against a common enemy. The group as a whole might've had a lot of internal conflict, but they also bonded, and woe betide anyone who threatened any of them.)
Frankly, it doesn't matter to me whether it's a show or a book or a movie -- if you want me to care about the characters, and hover on the edge of my seat for fear of anything happening to them, you have to make them care about each other. This is why Stephen King is so good at ripping out my heart and stomping on it, because his characters might be flawed and petty, but they love each other -- as family, as friends, as siblings or partners or whatever. I don't want any of them to die because the others would be hurt so badly. And then he kills them all anyway, but ... it's Stephen King; at least you can't say you weren't warned. XD
And yes, I am very well aware that this is my own bias as a reader/viewer showing! But I own my bias. *g* Some people won't watch a show or read a book or fanfic if there's not a romantic couple in it, because romance is what they watch for. With me, it's friendship (or strongly friendship-based romance too). I can't really get into it if the characters don't bond with each other in some way, or at least demonstrate that a few of them care about each other as people and are willing to risk themselves for each other.
By this point in both SGA and SG-1 (fifteen episodes in!), we'd had quite a number of fairly dramatic scenes that demonstrated the characters' ability to perform heroically under pressure, or their willingness to go the extra mile for each other even when they didn't know each other all that well yet. I'm trying to think of similar scenes in SGU and I'm kind of drawing a blank. The emotional interactions that we have gotten in SGU could have been really interesting as the basis for a stronger relationship later on, but the show never follows through on it, like the Rush-Chloe thing I was talking about earlier. In, say, the first episode of SG-1, there were a lot of individual interactions between the characters that don't have a tremendous amount of emotional impact yet, but were built upon later as those characters continued to interact -- like Jack taking Daniel home after Sha're was taken, or Teal'c trusting Jack on Chulak. Imagine if, after that initial scene with Jack and Teal'c, they'd never really interacted again, but had continued to pair up Teal'c with different characters and never let him bond with anyone. That would be miserable! That's not what I want to watch!
I'm trying to envision how many of the characters on SGU have ANYONE on the ship that they'd be willing to risk themselves for, or put themselves on the line emotionally for, not because it's their job but because they like that person and don't want to lose them. Like Jack in the labyrinth in Thor's Hammer (... I think that was the episode), telling it that Teal'c is his family now and he's not leaving without him? Or Rodney standing up in Defiant One to shoot the Wraith before it can kill Sheppard? If most of the characters on SGU died, I can't think who would mourn them ... there are a few who might be a little sad (like Eli and Chloe are a little sad about leaving Greer for dead), but broken up? Not so much...
I'm not even gonna say it's unrealistic. Actually, if you're thrown together with a bunch of strangers, being mildly annoyed by the rest of them is probably more likely than bonding with them as BFFs. But that doesn't change the fact that BFF-bonding is what I want to watch; unfriendly strangers circling each other with their hackles raised just isn't really my thing. Strangers becoming friends makes me squee! Strangers staying strangers is just kind of ... meh. And, after a while, fairly annoying, because Show is not supplying my emotional needs, dammit!
ETA: After thinking some more, I think what it comes down to with SGU is that it's giving me lots of "hurt" but very little "comfort" to go with it -- and less and less prospect of any, as time goes by. And all that it's really doing is making me tune out emotionally, even though I like some of the characters and want to see more of them. Actually, the more I like them, the less I want to watch them suffer with no one around who cares.
OH HI, THIS GOT LONG. And opinion-y.