Tough Cookie (12.12.06)

[gemma]

lonelygirl15.com/?p=132

Summary
Bree isn't coming out of her room, I think she's still upset about Daniel leaving.


We finally find out from LG15.com that Gemma is actually working for the order (for those who haven't been watching Tachyon) and we get slightly more conclusive footage of her with Lucy.

I'm actually glad they put Gemma on the order's side, its less predictable than Jonas being bad, and its a perfect excuse to explain away Jackie being in front of that silly backdrop.

However, I'm more interested in how Jonas got the footage. He either watched it on youtube or Tachyon personally sent it to him. Either way Daniel also probably knows this by now since he has a ytube account, so he should be responding to this soon.

[flwright]

I admit that I didn’t care for Jonas. He wasn’t articulate, he talked too much about his wealth, and seemed very shallow compared to Bree and Daniel. It’s clear to me that I’m the shallow one. Judging by his actions, he’s a good, caring, gentle soul, despite his choice of tee shirt.

Hey Slainte, you were onto something with your Gemma/Lucy connection! (See Red Bricks and Whitewash) In “real” life, it’s not hard to tell a physically and factually consistent tale. Good fiction is hard to build. Everything outside the Creator’s control can chip away at the facade (OpAphid/Tachyon vids). You can’t get away with showing “similar” buildings if you want to tell a convincing story. This sort of consistency seems easiest to achieve with the written word, harder with a movie, or a TV show, and even harder with interactive Breality.

Heigh ho, heigh ho, It’s back to work I go,

FLWright

[hyemew]

Apparently this footage is different from the Tachyon footage in the video, so it didn't come from the video itself. Either he took it himself (extremely unlikely) or Tachyon sent it to him (which might implicate him, as some say, as "brother"?) Mind you I know next to nothing about OpAphid, nor do I think Jonas being "brother" (whoever he is) makes sense, for many reasons.
What I also don't like is as soon as the decision is made, we find out Gemma is evil. This also gives pro-Jonas people to see themselves on the side of good, while use anti-Jonas people, or "pro-Gemma" people by default, were on the side of evil. Then again they need to move the plot forward and this will do it. During the first half of this episode before Gemma showed up I kept thinking "two videos from Jonas about Bree not leaving her room, how can this plot go anywhere?" Also Jonas's acting style, while he isn't a bad actor, annoys the heck out of me. I know he's depressed over Bree now, but his constant sighs and looooong pauses are nothing new. He's played his character like this from the first video and it really bugs me. I wish he'd quit it. His videos remind me of atomic structure, while they do make up solids, each one individually is majority empty space. The majority of Jonas's video is just dead air of him sighing or pausing.

[gemma]

The footage of Gemma looked the same to me except in the tough cookie video it had been zoomed in on and edited differently.

I am most probably wrong though, since I didn't really look hard enough.

[spbfilm]

interesting turn of events. The acting left something to be desired though (or maybe the writing?)

[gemma]

Yeah, and did anyone else find him incredibly creepy when he said 'I have a plan though' and started going on about the cookies? Something about his voice was creepy.

[lesbrent]

I'm sad for Yousef. This is not looking good. How can he be the one and true hero when Gemma and him both didn't like Jonas and now Gemma is exposed? Jonas is the "good guy", the peanut and jelly making girlfriend stealing stupid hat wearing rich boy with greasy hair idiot. So what does that make Daniel? Selfish for going home?

[Terryfic]

I don't think I have ever been more indifferent to a LG vid. I even clicked away and only listen to the last half. I guess I will have to finally accept that they are no longer writing this show for an audience like me. I suppose that makes sense, there are a lot more people interested in plot driven stories over character driven ones. I just wish the show wasn't so schizophrenic, it started out totally character driven and sometimes still is (like the vid just before this one), but ultimately it seems like this a story about the Order.

On the topic of the Order can someone recap for me just what the Order has done that is bad, and why Bree is even running from them. I thought almost all our shady reports of their evil doings were from Gemma. I mean they did photograph Daniel when he was following them, but that isn't sinister.

Edit: Upon further thought, maybe the schizophrenic nature of the show\writing is because it is being written by different people (perhaps simultaneously) who have different styles and interests. I think it would be a nice move to start to expand the Breeniverse beyond just the Order. Let Mesh (or whomever wrote the last DB vid) write a character that lives a more regular life, like Daniel. I think creating a spin off of Daniel at film school would be lots of fun. Not only would you have the drama of going to college, but he could also post the short films he makes there.

[VanillaFlava]

I think Terry makes an important point (also in other threads) that the format of the show has now been completely oberhauled. Before it was character-driven diary-style reality, which suits the new media format perfectly, and is slowly turning into regular plot-driven drama, just told in a short-hand format.

I think they are really dropping their aces here. Because once you opt for the normal drama approach, you will be judged by how engaging the plot is. I don't think it matters how much Miles rants and raves against the time-old convention of the Three Act Drama, unless he provides a compelling new approach, there is a reason why it is effective in story-telling.

Different isn't always better, true innovation is. I see them paddling down the stream in the wrong direction right now, which is a bit sad given such an amazing start.

[Joss]

This Jonas.. There something about him that just doesnt fit.. The cadence of his words.. The perfectly timed pauses.. The way he handles his hands.. He feels to me a lot more a rapper reading his last song without background music than a acting character.

[hyemew]

I agree about the schzoid nature of LG now. Without knowing for sure, I can tell 100% positively that Jonas is not written by M&M, or at least not Mesh, and Gemma probably isn't either. Come to think of it, with Gemma, maybe half of her is written by M&M (the important part), with the other random-gab part written by an associate. Then they stick the two together to get one Gemma video, which would explain why Gemma can go from being deathly concerned about Bree to talking about her flatmate annoying her with BBC characters without missing a beat.
Jonas is written by something totally different, probably brought on recently, who wasn't sure what LG was all about. They probably watched some episodes and thought they got a feel for it, but of course missed the mark completely. His first episodes were weak showings written by someone who kinda-sorta saw LG15 episodes and tried to transplant them into a male character. Nowadays I think the script just says *SIGH* on it while they have "Jonas" come up with random ways to entice Bree into his trap. With Bree actually there (so we are led to believe), I don't know what will happen next, but I think I'll cringe if I ever see them on camera together. The best I can hope for is her getting back to normal and doing some PSW with Jonas on the bed in the background, but with her parents missing I doubt she'll ever be in the mood again. If Jonas were to actually get involved in her cute charming antics (or what's left of them, which ain't much) by assisting in any way though I'll probably shoot the computer screen.

[brianmpei]

I think Hyemew is exactly right. Worse than a new writer is a new writer trying to write like the old writer. Check out the current Gilmore Girls for evidence.

Has anyone ever made a complete list on the forum of all the dangling plot threads?

[hyemew]

YES CHECK OUT THE CURRENT GILMORE GIRLS INDEED!
It's sad what's happened to that show :-( (I'm watching it right now)

[brianmpei]

haha, I was just watching it and gave up. I miss Amy.

[milowent]

well, i never liked jonas before, but he was almost likeable in this video. would bree stay in a room for 3 whole days just because daniel left? i doubt it. she didn't shut down completely during her previous flare-ups with daniel (also caused by her religion, in a much less threatening way, though).

fun to see that all the gemma-is-in-the-order people (not including me) were actually right. i assume we'll find out she was coerced to make those vlogs telling her to go home -- i suspect she started off OK (when she sort of bad mouthed the order in her early vids) and then the order found her.

someone fill me in on how jonas got that footage showing gemma in the order?

EDIT: it comes from tachyon's gemmapartii video: (posted on youtube 12-12): www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIbqBmra6YM this makes it clear to me that you have to watch tachyon/opaphid to some extent to understand the main storyline, despite being told otherwise by the creators.