there's a word for this...

3 paragraphs about three different movies/tv shows. Feel free to skip if not interested.

Covered in this entry: Superbad - my affection for Michael Cera due to his affiliation with Arrested Development (which is analogous to my affection for the Wilson brothers, due to their association with various Wes Anderson projects) - Link to YouTube video for necessary Web 2.0 component - Iimplied criticism of the movie Sideways, and the fact that all kinds of people I respect like it - The appearance of Secret Daughters on television shows, and how this inevitable foretells the end of said shows - Strange crossovers amongst actors in J. J. Abrams shows - misogyny - Gilmore Girls - Lost - love triangles, and lack of interest (on the part of the author) therein

I am sad that I spent money and precious time yesterday watching Superbad, which is the worst movie I have seen in--well, not EVER, but awhile. (Sub-question: what's the worst movie I've seen ever? I don't know! I will consider this) I was really hoping it was going to be good, because I think Michael Cera is adorable, and he still has that Arrested Development sheen, and I kind of liked Knocked Up, which shared some cast members, writers, and ideology. But Superbad is, uh, pretty terrible. Superterrible, even. I'm aware that people around me find me overbearing, probably, but I have to say it, and it's my freaking blog, anyway: the attitude these mainstream comedy movies take towards women drives me CRAZY. Is it too much to ask that once in awhile, a comedy comes along in which women do more than look beautiful, act spontaneous and charming, not be respected, and (apparently) fall in love with men in spite of their OBVIOUS, OVERWHELMING PERSONALITY FLAWS? A few suggestions: One could make a funny joke, or stand up for herself, or not be stupid, or go to med school, or not strip down to her panties and prance around. And that's just off the top of my head.

I was defending Gilmore Girls to some non-GG fans, and the conversation helped me to put my finger on something, which is that I like the way the show is both women-centred and respectful. It has this kind of chick stigma about it, for lack of a better term, but I wish more people could look past that. It's rare to see a show centred around a female comedian, and Lauren Graham is more than up to the challenge. (For reference, see her Louis Armstrong voice, which is nowhere to be found on YouTube, unfortunately for you.) It's also rare, for me, to see a show where I feel like something of myself--my personality, my intelligence, and yes, my periodic craziness--is reflected back to me with anything resembling respect or affection. Yes, the plots of Gilmore Girls are dumb. No, I don't care if Rory ended up with Dean or Jess or whoever. Yes, Luke's Secret Daughter written into the last season made me want to never watch the show again--and then I didn't. But if you're focusing on those things, you're missing the point. There are very few TV shows/movies in mainstream culture where women are a real focus, not as objects of one kind or another, but as actual people. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was another, and we all know how obsessive I get about that.

In fact, even Lost has been getting under my skin lately for this same reason. I am finished the third season and am now all caught up to the rest of the mainstream, cable-having world. When the show first started, I really liked Kate: I thought she was feisty, and tough, and I liked her freckles (in fact I think it's safe to say I liked them before Sawyer did). When she sewed up a gaping wound in Jack's back in the first episode, that was pretty badass. But she has since disintegrated into dithering, hysterical, bad-decision-making eye candy. Fortunately, I now have Juliet to confuse and interest me, so I don't feel the loss too badly. But I do feel a little left out, since I have the feeling the producers of the show expect me, Jocelyn, Audience Member, to be absolutely torn up inside about the Jack-Kate-Sawyer love triangle, and I couldn't care less. I wish all three of them would get eaten by the same dinosaur (or whatever) that ate Pilot Weiss. I wish Kate would do the same stupid thing she always does (which is utter the words, "We have to go back,") but then, instead of being talked out of it, actually DO it, and then die. Horribly. In the jungle.

I started out today pretty grouchily, and to read this entry you would think nothing had improved since then, but actually I'm pretty content. I always get into this funk on Sunday afternoons, but I'm getting better at curing it. The key is, in this order: a hot shower; a cold bottle of water; and an episode of something (today, Buffy). It's like a re-boot. I go through these steps and my Fatal Grouchiness Error disappears, I'm ready to go on living. Living and complaining, complaining and living.

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Currently listening to: Bright Eyes - Middleman
via FoxyTunes