I like all of them, really. I had issues with Katie in S3, and I still do with Cook on occasion, but they're all great characters.
Character death isn't always a bad thing, if it's done well, for the right reasons, and not just for dramatic effect, and especially not just as a plot device. Chris's death 'worked'; it had meaning, and it was incredibly moving. It felt like part of a well thought out story line; and yes, it was devastating, but it didn't leave me thinking 'what the fuck? What are you even trying to do here?' Freddie's death was completely random. It makes a mockery of everything that went before, and honestly, I truly believe it displays a contempt for the story, the characters and the audience. Sophia's death was bad enough (using a suicide to provide tension in a relationship? Yay, way to fucking go there, Jamie Brittain. Arsehole.) but Freddie's was just a whole other level of shoddy, lazy, contembtible writing. Random psycho on the stairs with the baseball bat? What are we supposed to take from that? Jesus. I can't even begin to say how much this sucks.
(I've missed seeing you around, by the way. I hope all's good with you :))
Agreed on Katie, although my love of Cookie knows no bounds.
As for deaths it's like any other major plot line - it works if it's done well.
Freddie's was not.
This guy appears in their lives for, what, two/three weeks? And then he just decides to off Freds. I know this is how it can be in real life, psychos are not ones to be reasonable. But that's not the show Skins is. Sophia's death was bad in that it was a totally artificial way for Naomi and Emily to have drama, instead of something like disagreeing over their future or Jenna being impossible. But in itself it worked, for what it showed us in terms of her family and the properly interesting detective sub-plot. Freddie's will have nothing to validate it.
And it's gonna fucking ruin the finale. They already have enough to be sorting through as it is and then they just decide that they should kill him and give over like half the plot to finding him.
I can't quite say why my hate for this is as bad as it is, but it may be that Skins has slipped from parody to self-pardoy. Take the Love Ball scene - classic soppy happy ending, only for two girls. Not a radical departure, but enough to show that Skins had something going on upstairs. It put me in mind of something like Scream, which was just different enough from the basic horror formula for it to always interest. With Freddie what they've done is something that makes almost no link to what had gone before, like they're trying to make a statement but failed.
And all's gravy with me, just drifting a bit, not got much focus at the moment. Hopefully gonna get on with somewriting soon so would be cool if you could see what you think if/when it comes.
I'm assuming the statement was: never trust a psychiatrist, cos they'll stave your head in with a baseball bat as soon as look at you. I could be wrong though. My considered and entirely rational response is "fuck you, Jamie Brittain. Fuck you forever". And no, I don't know why I hate this so much either, but it just feels like deliberate abuse, you know? Is this what it took them the better part of a year to come up with? Honestly, I'm actually struggling to articulate why I hate it so much.
I've been rereading Transatlanticism today, and it's just brought it home to me, yet again, that there are writers in this fandom - people who just do it for a hobby - who are so much better, and care about the characters so much more, than the actual writers for the show, that it's frankly ridiculous. God, they should just have filmed So-Verse, or Bedlam. It would have been in an entirely different league to the garbage they actually came up with.
I'll look forward to reading what you write, when it comes. And if you need a beta, I'd be happy to do the job :)
Exactly. There are more reasons than the ones we gave as to why this sucks ass, but you can boil it down to ... is this it?
It didn't have to be the best show ever, it didn't have to always be believable or even always make sense. Hell, it didn't even have to be as good as last series. It just had to be watchable, sometimes fun, sometimes serious but always itself. And that's what they forgot, what the hell they were actually meant to be aiming for, and so we got a repackaged series of Hollyoaks with a few perks.
This is me at my most angry, and I know there's stuff I love about this series, but this one event is so shit that it'll take a while for perspective to come back.
RARRRR!
I never quite got on board with Trans due to my lack of investment in Effy, but So-Verse would have been everything I could hope for. And then, along with all the Sivi's and Betsy's who could do great over-arching themes and stuff there's people like em_sh who have the dialogue down so word-perfect that it just feels like reading a missing scene from the series 4 that wasn't.
As for writing I already made a crack at two things, your opinion would be most appreciated until I get going on the real deal. Beta-ing would be great when I get to that stage too.
It just had to be watchable, sometimes fun, sometimes serious but always itself. And that's what they forgot, what the hell they were actually meant to be aiming for, and so we got a repackaged series of Hollyoaks with a few perks. EXACTLY THIS
And angry? I've never been this angry about anything so supposedly trivial in my entire life. Grrrr.
I'm finding our almost completely opposite tastes rather funny. You love Cook, whom, as often as not, I can't stand, and you don't much care for Effy, who's probably my favourite character in anything ever. I rather love that actually. Things would just be dull if we all liked the same things.
I still haven't read anything of Emma's, although she's garnered high praise from plenty of people. Gotta rectify that soon (I actually have Miniature Catastrophes printed out and on my reading pile, so it'll be soonish). Kate (daneorange) is near the top of my to read pile too; I've only read one of her Lily/Meg stories, and it's incredibley beautiful. 'While we are tidal and flexed' is definitely on the to-read list.
Always happy to offer an opinion :) PM me and I'll send you my email adress if there's anything you want me to look over before you post it.
Wow, I obviously spend far too much time reading fics. Or maybe I'm just limited to this one fandom at the moment, cos I read anything those peeps come out with pretty much instantly. I would recommend Emma's Cook/Naomi friendship one as a first port of call but that may not be your thing so much. As for Kate her RPF's are something else - she's made me variously wish desperately that Lily becomes a radio presenter, a lounge-jazz pianist or just continues as an actor.
I may be giving a biased picture re: Cook, as you've caught me at a strange time. If you'd asked at any point before episode 3 then you'd have heard non-stop about Naomi - SHE is MY favourite character in anything ever. I dunno what it is, but I think it may be kinship; she is me if I was less amiable. So I've analysed everything involving her to death, almost to the complete exclusion of all others - Freddie got praise for the most complete, consistant episode of this Gen, Cook could be hilarious but also irritating, I never quite saw the depth to Katie loads of others did and everyone else was just background (even Emily, since she came up in direct comparison to Naomi so often). It's just that what has now happened is Cook has become the best over the two series, as Naomi has almost systematically been reduced to someone unrecognisable, whereas Cook has gone from strength to strength. Put it this way - every time Cook appears I now the scene will be worth my full attention but when Naomi is in the picture I just shut off, fearful that they'll spoil her even further. So I'm still all for our lesbians at heart, but Cook has just been hard to ignore recently.
The only Skins piece I've done is a drabble thing at my journal, the other is an OC/character study piece I'll send you later. The Skins one is 'ere:
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2010-03-12 09:54 pm (UTC)Character death isn't always a bad thing, if it's done well, for the right reasons, and not just for dramatic effect, and especially not just as a plot device. Chris's death 'worked'; it had meaning, and it was incredibly moving. It felt like part of a well thought out story line; and yes, it was devastating, but it didn't leave me thinking 'what the fuck? What are you even trying to do here?'
Freddie's death was completely random. It makes a mockery of everything that went before, and honestly, I truly believe it displays a contempt for the story, the characters and the audience. Sophia's death was bad enough (using a suicide to provide tension in a relationship? Yay, way to fucking go there, Jamie Brittain. Arsehole.) but Freddie's was just a whole other level of shoddy, lazy, contembtible writing. Random psycho on the stairs with the baseball bat? What are we supposed to take from that?
Jesus. I can't even begin to say how much this sucks.
(I've missed seeing you around, by the way. I hope all's good with you :))
no subject
Date: 2010-03-12 10:31 pm (UTC)As for deaths it's like any other major plot line - it works if it's done well.
Freddie's was not.
This guy appears in their lives for, what, two/three weeks? And then he just decides to off Freds. I know this is how it can be in real life, psychos are not ones to be reasonable. But that's not the show Skins is. Sophia's death was bad in that it was a totally artificial way for Naomi and Emily to have drama, instead of something like disagreeing over their future or Jenna being impossible. But in itself it worked, for what it showed us in terms of her family and the properly interesting detective sub-plot. Freddie's will have nothing to validate it.
And it's gonna fucking ruin the finale. They already have enough to be sorting through as it is and then they just decide that they should kill him and give over like half the plot to finding him.
I can't quite say why my hate for this is as bad as it is, but it may be that Skins has slipped from parody to self-pardoy. Take the Love Ball scene - classic soppy happy ending, only for two girls. Not a radical departure, but enough to show that Skins had something going on upstairs. It put me in mind of something like Scream, which was just different enough from the basic horror formula for it to always interest. With Freddie what they've done is something that makes almost no link to what had gone before, like they're trying to make a statement but failed.
And all's gravy with me, just drifting a bit, not got much focus at the moment. Hopefully gonna get on with somewriting soon so would be cool if you could see what you think if/when it comes.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-12 10:59 pm (UTC)Really, I couldn't agree more.
I'm assuming the statement was: never trust a psychiatrist, cos they'll stave your head in with a baseball bat as soon as look at you. I could be wrong though.
My considered and entirely rational response is "fuck you, Jamie Brittain. Fuck you forever". And no, I don't know why I hate this so much either, but it just feels like deliberate abuse, you know? Is this what it took them the better part of a year to come up with?
Honestly, I'm actually struggling to articulate why I hate it so much.
I've been rereading Transatlanticism today, and it's just brought it home to me, yet again, that there are writers in this fandom - people who just do it for a hobby - who are so much better, and care about the characters so much more, than the actual writers for the show, that it's frankly ridiculous. God, they should just have filmed So-Verse, or Bedlam. It would have been in an entirely different league to the garbage they actually came up with.
I'll look forward to reading what you write, when it comes. And if you need a beta, I'd be happy to do the job :)
no subject
Date: 2010-03-12 11:13 pm (UTC)It didn't have to be the best show ever, it didn't have to always be believable or even always make sense. Hell, it didn't even have to be as good as last series. It just had to be watchable, sometimes fun, sometimes serious but always itself. And that's what they forgot, what the hell they were actually meant to be aiming for, and so we got a repackaged series of Hollyoaks with a few perks.
This is me at my most angry, and I know there's stuff I love about this series, but this one event is so shit that it'll take a while for perspective to come back.
RARRRR!
I never quite got on board with Trans due to my lack of investment in Effy, but So-Verse would have been everything I could hope for. And then, along with all the Sivi's and Betsy's who could do great over-arching themes and stuff there's people like
As for writing I already made a crack at two things, your opinion would be most appreciated until I get going on the real deal. Beta-ing would be great when I get to that stage too.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-13 08:46 pm (UTC)EXACTLY THIS
And angry? I've never been this angry about anything so supposedly trivial in my entire life. Grrrr.
I'm finding our almost completely opposite tastes rather funny. You love Cook, whom, as often as not, I can't stand, and you don't much care for Effy, who's probably my favourite character in anything ever. I rather love that actually. Things would just be dull if we all liked the same things.
I still haven't read anything of Emma's, although she's garnered high praise from plenty of people. Gotta rectify that soon (I actually have Miniature Catastrophes printed out and on my reading pile, so it'll be soonish). Kate (daneorange) is near the top of my to read pile too; I've only read one of her Lily/Meg stories, and it's incredibley beautiful. 'While we are tidal and flexed' is definitely on the to-read list.
Always happy to offer an opinion :) PM me and I'll send you my email adress if there's anything you want me to look over before you post it.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-14 01:21 am (UTC)I may be giving a biased picture re: Cook, as you've caught me at a strange time. If you'd asked at any point before episode 3 then you'd have heard non-stop about Naomi - SHE is MY favourite character in anything ever. I dunno what it is, but I think it may be kinship; she is me if I was less amiable. So I've analysed everything involving her to death, almost to the complete exclusion of all others - Freddie got praise for the most complete, consistant episode of this Gen, Cook could be hilarious but also irritating, I never quite saw the depth to Katie loads of others did and everyone else was just background (even Emily, since she came up in direct comparison to Naomi so often). It's just that what has now happened is Cook has become the best over the two series, as Naomi has almost systematically been reduced to someone unrecognisable, whereas Cook has gone from strength to strength. Put it this way - every time Cook appears I now the scene will be worth my full attention but when Naomi is in the picture I just shut off, fearful that they'll spoil her even further. So I'm still all for our lesbians at heart, but Cook has just been hard to ignore recently.
The only Skins piece I've done is a drabble thing at my journal, the other is an OC/character study piece I'll send you later. The Skins one is 'ere:
http://lovely-noise.livejournal.com/522.html