Today's tv rant...

So having got back from the pop. culture conference on Saturday, I have done some work and have come up with a decentish draft of one of my papers. (Or I delude myself, also a possibility). The Firefly panel was quite good, as was the discussion on Gothic Terror in Little House on the Prairie books. So I sent the draft to my prof. and got sucked into a discussion on msn.

And what follows is a long, stream-of-conscious tv-related rant.
I have also been trolling around Jump the Shark which is a fabulous time suckage place. I watched Saved by the Bell and Dawson's Creek this morning. Yes, the horror. Saved was a sad, pathetic clip show of what happened over the summer where the gang worked at a beach club ala 90210. And okay, Paul-Michael Gosselar wasn't all that. And okay, Mario Lopez is attractive, but still, oh the cheese. And I watched more eps. of that than I'm truly happy about circa 1993 when I was oh 23.

Dawson's was one of the ones where Josh Jackson's character and his girlfriend Andie almost got back together. Damn them and damn the writers. They were cute together and it's back when I did watch on a regular basis. But it became so insane later and Dawson's forehead was so huge. And I hated when it became the Joey show. I liked Pacey and Joey somewhat, but it got tiresome. I hate when shows get rid of good people who add things to the show. I did like Drue Valentine and thought it would've been good for him to remain. It's even more annoying when they're cute. Alas, no they axed him. One of the people on jump the shark sums it up nicely.

--To the person who asked about the guy with the dark hair and the blue eyes, that was Drue Valentine (played by Mark Matkevich). And I'm going throw in my vote and also say that the show jumped when he vanished. My goodness, not only was he absolutely beautiful and sexy but he was such a welcome addition to what was become a tired show. And they got rid of him right when he was getting really interesting too. Just when they were peeling away the layers and revealing more about him and also his past with Jen in New York, they go and dump him without even giving the viewers an explanation as to what even happened to him! Apparantly if a recurring character comes back for a second season then they have to make him a regular and I guess the producers were too cheap to shell out another contract for him (if you notice, that's why so many characters never make it past one season; Drue, Gretchen, Nikki, Charlie, Oliver, etc.). So instead of bringing Drue back they would just come up with pale imitations of him each season, first Charlie and now Eddie (also notice that there are shades of Drue to each of those two characters). I hope they bring him back before the show ends.

Me again. I also had issues with the finale. I can't believe they killed off Jen as she was one of my fav. characters and gosh, she suffered enough. I lost it during the Jen and Jack discussion on her deathbed. Quel travesty. At least, Dawson and Joey didn't get back together; that would've been worse. I always thought Pacey deserved someone better than Joey. Things that make sense to me now. Greg Berlanti, the writer of Dawson's, has gone on to be the creator of Everwood. And it's not going to be on until March. Damn them. I need my Harold, Bright, Hannah, Ephraim fix. I've never been able to view Treat Williams seriously after seeing him in The Ritz where he plays this private dick with such a high squeaky voice. Okay, Hair didn't help either. I never quite got what was up with the Manchester England song. Like is someone supposed to be from there?

Also, I liked Jason on Gilmore Girls and was annoyed with the way that they broke up the relationship as it was such a lame way to do it.

Oh, and the insanity known as 7th Heaven is ending. I'm still bummed that Stephen Collins, the rogue in Tales of the Gold Monkey, is now Dad extraordinaire. Blonde men I lusted after in my youth shouldn't become Dads. What's next, Nathan Fillon, Mal from Firefly as a Dad? And it's such like Dr. Quinn Meddling Woman, they have an issue with drugs and then they have another issue with drugs and the kids. No! And Annie is such a shrewish, evil woman.

And my computer has been playing selections from Buffy's "Once More with Feeling" for most of the last two days. It's going to be in my head forever now.

As a follow-up to the Rem. Steele post earlier, I came across this gleam of how to end the series from jump the shark again: My friend and I both voted the show end as follows: Just before Steele and Laura are to marry for real, the James Read character (with whom there really was chemistry) arrives on a white horse and sweeps Laura away. Remington is left empty-armed, wearing that sour look, and being consoled by Mildred bearing tea and cookies. Okay, completely insane, but it did elicit a laugh from me. If it means Murphy would've emerged, I would've been okay with that.

I know, they do not exist. And lusting after men from tv and movies isn't always all that healthy, but they disappoint less than the actual ones out there. Worse case I can always stop watching like I did with Smallville. I am slightly sad they killed off Jonathan if only for low-level Bo Duke jouissance. I want Lana dead now.

Have been re-visiting Little House on the Prairie also as am taping it for a friend who's using it for a class. We're about at the part where Laura and Almanzoo get together and Nellie hooks up with Perceval. Dean Butler is so typecast for me. He may have been Moondoggie in the re-vamped Gidget of the 80s and also Buffy's Dad, but I still remember him emptying the sugar bowl into his tea when he realizes that he loves Laura. Alison Arngrim as Nellie was so awesome. Let the drag shows begin.

Well, as Clash's "Should I stay or should I go" is on, I should take that as a hint to depart.