"And when they ask us what we're doing, you can say, We're remembering...." (Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451)
Friday, February 29, 2008
READ ALL ABOUT IT!
Articles about Guiding Light's new production format here, here, here and here.
Read all about it, then make sure you tune in for today's grand unveiling!
It's soap for the 21st Century!
2 comments:
Anonymous
said...
What can I say about today's show other than Guiding Light now looks every bit as cheap, sleazy, and soulless as the writing of it is. At least that's honest of them. No false advertising there. It looks like garbage and if the terrible production values don't have people running from the rooming screaming in abject horror, they'll discover that the show itself is even worse than it looks. A room full of monkeys hopped-up on NyQuil could write deeper, more intelligent material than the disrespectful, hideous, woman-hating dreck that this show is so full of. If the term rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic ever applied.
The outdoors sets, exterior scenes, and handheld cameras could've worked if:
1) The exterior scenes had a purpose beyond just being able to say "look, mom, we're really outside!".
2) The camera work wasn't so shaky, claustrophobic, and amateurish.
3) The characters hadn't already been so destroyed that nobody really cares about what happens to them. How can we care when everyone is so selfish, self-righteous, nasty, and utterly lacking any genuine self-awareness or fundamental decency?
4) The stories weren't so hopelessly horrible. There is nothing going on right now that isn't either insulting, beyond stupid, or both.
The only people who will probably tune in for this big premiere are people who are soap viewers who don't watch GL but are curious about the new look and casual GL fans who don't watch every day or maybe even every week but keep tabs on it. They'll look in and may like some of what they see but odds are they aren't gonna like what they hear coming out of every one of these selfish, contemptible characters' mouths or the situations that they've put themselves in.
The millions of viewers who've been literally driven away by the incessant character destruction of the current management are far too angry and frustrated to even care anymore. Even if some of them, like me, do tune in today, it'll only be to laugh at the notion that Ellen Wheeler actually seems to believe that this bush-league Blair Witch Project-style can save a show that almost no one with an IQ in the double-digits could bear to sit through on a daily basis because it's so insulting, sleazy, and stupid. If they continue to spit in the face of every single sane, self-respecting woman in the audience by writing this show's women in such pathetic, shallow fashion, if they continue to ignore and even mock the very notions of love, loyalty, and family that drama itself is based on, and if they continue to seem more interested in shocking the audience with gimmicks than with telling them real stories this will all come to naught. This ain't MTV. We're not gonna be mesmerized by bright, shiny objects. We want substance.
Rose, you summed it up perfectly and eloquently. I used to watch GL religiously, but lost interest during the Rauch era. I've checked in every time a new regime takes over or something interesting seems to happen and I usually tune out just as quickly when I realize how absolutely soulless the show has become.
I see the faces of characters I grew up with like Josh, Reva, Billy, Blake, Alan, Alex, etc... but they are shadows of the characters they used to be.
EVERYTHING about this "new direction" was horrid. The opening looked like something a 15 year old created for YouTube, and the song is teeth-achingly bad.
God, I'm so sick of them trying to reinvent the wheel rather than just embrace what WORKS in a soap opera and do it well. Give us rich, compelling characters using their history to propel them. Give us plots that don't cater to 12 year olds or insult our intelligence. Give us true heart and emotion instead of the APPEARANCE of heart.
You shouldn't need to be TOLD a story is compelling. It just should be.
READ ALL ABOUT IT!
2 comments:
What can I say about today's show other than Guiding Light now looks every bit as cheap, sleazy, and soulless as the writing of it is. At least that's honest of them. No false advertising there. It looks like garbage and if the terrible production values don't have people running from the rooming screaming in abject horror, they'll discover that the show itself is even worse than it looks. A room full of monkeys hopped-up on NyQuil could write deeper, more intelligent material than the disrespectful, hideous, woman-hating dreck that this show is so full of. If the term rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic ever applied.
The outdoors sets, exterior scenes, and handheld cameras could've worked if:
1) The exterior scenes had a purpose beyond just being able to say "look, mom, we're really outside!".
2) The camera work wasn't so shaky, claustrophobic, and amateurish.
3) The characters hadn't already been so destroyed that nobody really cares about what happens to them. How can we care when everyone is so selfish, self-righteous, nasty, and utterly lacking any genuine self-awareness or fundamental decency?
4) The stories weren't so hopelessly horrible. There is nothing going on right now that isn't either insulting, beyond stupid, or both.
The only people who will probably tune in for this big premiere are people who are soap viewers who don't watch GL but are curious about the new look and casual GL fans who don't watch every day or maybe even every week but keep tabs on it. They'll look in and may like some of what they see but odds are they aren't gonna like what they hear coming out of every one of these selfish, contemptible characters' mouths or the situations that they've put themselves in.
The millions of viewers who've been literally driven away by the incessant character destruction of the current management are far too angry and frustrated to even care anymore. Even if some of them, like me, do tune in today, it'll only be to laugh at the notion that Ellen Wheeler actually seems to believe that this bush-league Blair Witch Project-style can save a show that almost no one with an IQ in the double-digits could bear to sit through on a daily basis because it's so insulting, sleazy, and stupid. If they continue to spit in the face of every single sane, self-respecting woman in the audience by writing this show's women in such pathetic, shallow fashion, if they continue to ignore and even mock the very notions of love, loyalty, and family that drama itself is based on, and if they continue to seem more interested in shocking the audience with gimmicks than with telling them real stories this will all come to naught. This ain't MTV. We're not gonna be mesmerized by bright, shiny objects. We want substance.
Rose, you summed it up perfectly and eloquently. I used to watch GL religiously, but lost interest during the Rauch era. I've checked in every time a new regime takes over or something interesting seems to happen and I usually tune out just as quickly when I realize how absolutely soulless the show has become.
I see the faces of characters I grew up with like Josh, Reva, Billy, Blake, Alan, Alex, etc... but they are shadows of the characters they used to be.
EVERYTHING about this "new direction" was horrid. The opening looked like something a 15 year old created for YouTube, and the song is teeth-achingly bad.
God, I'm so sick of them trying to reinvent the wheel rather than just embrace what WORKS in a soap opera and do it well. Give us rich, compelling characters using their history to propel them. Give us plots that don't cater to 12 year olds or insult our intelligence. Give us true heart and emotion instead of the APPEARANCE of heart.
You shouldn't need to be TOLD a story is compelling. It just should be.
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