The post that will get me defriended!
May. 22nd, 2010 08:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
okayawesomeSo I watched the Community finale! And I feel the need to, IDK, defend it or something.
Obviously the first possibly unpopular opinion is that I liked the finale, which already I think a lot of people disagree with me on. But I did! It wasn't perfect, but it had the Dean/Yiffsuits and Troy/Giant Cookie and Jeff/Annie and meta commentary and callbacks all over, and a fantastic line about jumping the shark in an episode that I'm 100% positive Dan Harmon realized was going to be accused of jumping the shark itself. I dug it.
But really here is the reason I'm making this post: I don't think they fucked up. I don't think anyone was OOC. I don't think it was any more sexist than the show has already been this whole season. I think it was not the way I would have capped off the show, but it was a reasonable way to do it.
And I say this because the chief criticisms I've been hearing that I disagree with are:
1) They made Britta or Jeff or Annie OOC;
2) Everyone's actions came out of nowhere;
3) The Britta/Slater Jeff-off was sexist in a way the show has never been before (and a lot of people specifically commenting on this Dan Harmon interview and taking it to mean that he actually does hate Britta and all of his ex-girlfriends).
(Also 4) Jeff is a horrible person for the way he reacted and Britta deserves better anyway.)
1) Now, I think I have a different interpretation from some people of what went with the Britta/Jeff/Slater stuff. When Britta came out with the, "I love you," I definitely had a moment of WTF? But then when I thought about it for a second, I realized that, to me, of course it didn't make sense that Britta was saying "I love you," because, of course, she doesn't. Neither does Slater, which I think was made pretty clear.
2) Britta and Slater have never liked each other (see the Halloween episode, the drunk dialing episode, basically every episode that has both of them in it) and, according to those, have always felt a little competition with each other. Britta can be a petty, jealous person with a fragile ego (like every episode), and Slater is a suspicious person who has never liked the group or the way they dominate Jeff's attention (again, every episode with her in it). Britta has shown that she can take things too far (like every episode again, but especially the prank war), especially when reacting out of hurt or embarrassment (and especially "Romantic Expression").
So what happened, IMO? Britta was fine until she was nominated for "Tranny Queen" (I am not even getting into that -- I get why people are upset about it). Then, having to embrace stereotypical "girliness", even being urged into it by her psychologist, she started to crumble a little; and faced with Jeff prodding her about being guarded, and telling her they weren't going to see each other for months, and having Slater show up in Jeff's life again, she freaked the hell out. I don't think she loves Jeff. She likes him, and feels threatened by the possibility of Slater taking him away, especially when she's not going to see him for months. She felt pushed into going bigger and bigger, until it almost had nothing to do with Jeff anymore. I think it's clear that at a certain point, it became way more about Slater than Jeff. Jeff wasn't the point, he was just the prize.
To prove my point: What happened right before Britta's confession? She got cocky, tried to accept an award she didn't win, and was humiliated. And while she was up there, she saw Slater trying to take what she was thinking of as "hers." So basically, she reacted in the worst way possible, which was to put Jeff on the spot with a big love confession -- one that she assumed she'd win with, because she thought she had that in the bag.
3) Now, is this all sexist? Debatably, and I'm not going to try and argue that it isn't. The only point I want to make about the sexism is that it's not any more sexist than the rest of the season has been. Britta and Slater have always been competitive, Britta has always struggled with "acting like a girl," and she's always had a fragile ego. To me, it would be objectionable if they really were all in love with Jeff, but, like I said, I also don't think they really are.
And I also get that people are mad about Dan Harmon saying the writers "hate" Britta, but that quote is being taken way, way, way out of context. The point he was making is that when Britta was first introduced, everyone thought she was the stereotypical "do no wrong" boring "lead female" character, who just had to warm up to Jeff, and wouldn't have much other personality. I mean, I saw SO MANY COMMENTS to that effect when the show first started. So the point of "hating" Britta is that the only way to make her sympathetic was to beat her up a little first. The part of that interview that no one is quoting is: I also knew that doing that would have the natural result of really letting Gillian shine how she shines best and also making you start to sympathize with her. The characters people identify with the most tend to be the ones who suffer: look at RayK, or Sawyer on LOST, or Joan on Mad Men. Look at the woobie phenomenon.
I also don't believe he was intentionally making an abuse joke, although maybe he was, because he does wander into the realm of the LOL edgy now and then. But I think he just meant that it was easier to "beat up" Britta because he's so aware of her flaws as a character -- and also aware of how they can be made endearing. And please, I challenge anyone to tell me Britta isn't totally endearing by the end of the season. She still had one of my favorite lines in the episode ("They should retire the table we did it on!").
Back to 1) and also 4) As for Jeff, I don't think he was OOC, nor do I think what he did was particularly scumbaggy. He was put on the spot in a hugely awkward way and he's incredibly bad at feelings (which has also been going on all season). He even admitted to Annie that he ran the hell away. And kissing her, as much as I liked that, was just another way of avoiding what he knew he really needed to do. It wasn't scummy of him to react that way, and I'm really kind of skeeved out by the people who think that Britta "deserves" his affection, or that his not reciprocating made him a horrible person. Yeah, it was kind of douchey of him not to go back in there, but again: this is Jeff Winger, and he is kind of a douche! That doesn't mean he owes anyone anything but basic human respect.
.....................So this is embarrassingly long. Okay then.
No, really, I just wanted to say that whether or not you're Team Britta or Team Annie, I feel like the episode went a little deeper and a little more twisted than it may have come across to a lot of people.
I'm NOT trying to tell anyone that they should have liked it. I'm not even trying to say that people shouldn't be angry. I'm just trying to say that I think there was a lot more to this episode than it's being accused of, and that at the very least it's nothing that the show hasn't been building towards over the course of the season.
And, personally, I think the first episode of season two is going to take a lot of people by surprise.
edit OH GOD I DIDN'T EVEN TALK ABOUT ANNIE AND JEFF/ANNIE. That will have to wait for a new post, I'm already totally embarrassed by how long this one is.
SON OF EDIT: More thoughts here, here, and here.
Obviously the first possibly unpopular opinion is that I liked the finale, which already I think a lot of people disagree with me on. But I did! It wasn't perfect, but it had the Dean/Yiffsuits and Troy/Giant Cookie and Jeff/Annie and meta commentary and callbacks all over, and a fantastic line about jumping the shark in an episode that I'm 100% positive Dan Harmon realized was going to be accused of jumping the shark itself. I dug it.
But really here is the reason I'm making this post: I don't think they fucked up. I don't think anyone was OOC. I don't think it was any more sexist than the show has already been this whole season. I think it was not the way I would have capped off the show, but it was a reasonable way to do it.
And I say this because the chief criticisms I've been hearing that I disagree with are:
1) They made Britta or Jeff or Annie OOC;
2) Everyone's actions came out of nowhere;
3) The Britta/Slater Jeff-off was sexist in a way the show has never been before (and a lot of people specifically commenting on this Dan Harmon interview and taking it to mean that he actually does hate Britta and all of his ex-girlfriends).
(Also 4) Jeff is a horrible person for the way he reacted and Britta deserves better anyway.)
1) Now, I think I have a different interpretation from some people of what went with the Britta/Jeff/Slater stuff. When Britta came out with the, "I love you," I definitely had a moment of WTF? But then when I thought about it for a second, I realized that, to me, of course it didn't make sense that Britta was saying "I love you," because, of course, she doesn't. Neither does Slater, which I think was made pretty clear.
2) Britta and Slater have never liked each other (see the Halloween episode, the drunk dialing episode, basically every episode that has both of them in it) and, according to those, have always felt a little competition with each other. Britta can be a petty, jealous person with a fragile ego (like every episode), and Slater is a suspicious person who has never liked the group or the way they dominate Jeff's attention (again, every episode with her in it). Britta has shown that she can take things too far (like every episode again, but especially the prank war), especially when reacting out of hurt or embarrassment (and especially "Romantic Expression").
So what happened, IMO? Britta was fine until she was nominated for "Tranny Queen" (I am not even getting into that -- I get why people are upset about it). Then, having to embrace stereotypical "girliness", even being urged into it by her psychologist, she started to crumble a little; and faced with Jeff prodding her about being guarded, and telling her they weren't going to see each other for months, and having Slater show up in Jeff's life again, she freaked the hell out. I don't think she loves Jeff. She likes him, and feels threatened by the possibility of Slater taking him away, especially when she's not going to see him for months. She felt pushed into going bigger and bigger, until it almost had nothing to do with Jeff anymore. I think it's clear that at a certain point, it became way more about Slater than Jeff. Jeff wasn't the point, he was just the prize.
To prove my point: What happened right before Britta's confession? She got cocky, tried to accept an award she didn't win, and was humiliated. And while she was up there, she saw Slater trying to take what she was thinking of as "hers." So basically, she reacted in the worst way possible, which was to put Jeff on the spot with a big love confession -- one that she assumed she'd win with, because she thought she had that in the bag.
3) Now, is this all sexist? Debatably, and I'm not going to try and argue that it isn't. The only point I want to make about the sexism is that it's not any more sexist than the rest of the season has been. Britta and Slater have always been competitive, Britta has always struggled with "acting like a girl," and she's always had a fragile ego. To me, it would be objectionable if they really were all in love with Jeff, but, like I said, I also don't think they really are.
And I also get that people are mad about Dan Harmon saying the writers "hate" Britta, but that quote is being taken way, way, way out of context. The point he was making is that when Britta was first introduced, everyone thought she was the stereotypical "do no wrong" boring "lead female" character, who just had to warm up to Jeff, and wouldn't have much other personality. I mean, I saw SO MANY COMMENTS to that effect when the show first started. So the point of "hating" Britta is that the only way to make her sympathetic was to beat her up a little first. The part of that interview that no one is quoting is: I also knew that doing that would have the natural result of really letting Gillian shine how she shines best and also making you start to sympathize with her. The characters people identify with the most tend to be the ones who suffer: look at RayK, or Sawyer on LOST, or Joan on Mad Men. Look at the woobie phenomenon.
I also don't believe he was intentionally making an abuse joke, although maybe he was, because he does wander into the realm of the LOL edgy now and then. But I think he just meant that it was easier to "beat up" Britta because he's so aware of her flaws as a character -- and also aware of how they can be made endearing. And please, I challenge anyone to tell me Britta isn't totally endearing by the end of the season. She still had one of my favorite lines in the episode ("They should retire the table we did it on!").
Back to 1) and also 4) As for Jeff, I don't think he was OOC, nor do I think what he did was particularly scumbaggy. He was put on the spot in a hugely awkward way and he's incredibly bad at feelings (which has also been going on all season). He even admitted to Annie that he ran the hell away. And kissing her, as much as I liked that, was just another way of avoiding what he knew he really needed to do. It wasn't scummy of him to react that way, and I'm really kind of skeeved out by the people who think that Britta "deserves" his affection, or that his not reciprocating made him a horrible person. Yeah, it was kind of douchey of him not to go back in there, but again: this is Jeff Winger, and he is kind of a douche! That doesn't mean he owes anyone anything but basic human respect.
.....................So this is embarrassingly long. Okay then.
No, really, I just wanted to say that whether or not you're Team Britta or Team Annie, I feel like the episode went a little deeper and a little more twisted than it may have come across to a lot of people.
I'm NOT trying to tell anyone that they should have liked it. I'm not even trying to say that people shouldn't be angry. I'm just trying to say that I think there was a lot more to this episode than it's being accused of, and that at the very least it's nothing that the show hasn't been building towards over the course of the season.
And, personally, I think the first episode of season two is going to take a lot of people by surprise.
edit OH GOD I DIDN'T EVEN TALK ABOUT ANNIE AND JEFF/ANNIE. That will have to wait for a new post, I'm already totally embarrassed by how long this one is.
SON OF EDIT: More thoughts here, here, and here.