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Post by oweniscool on May 6, 2007 20:04:04 GMT -5
Episode 36: Prank DayDescription:Curtis and company wreak havoc. Recap: Nolan, Lauren, Curtis and Danica go around the school setting up pranks. Nothing too creative. Nolan tells Curtis he's taking Danica to prom. Curtis calls his bluff. Danica flirts with Curtis (I had no idea she was even friends with him), and Nolan turns green with envy, while Lauren hisses at Nolan for being into Danica. Thoughts: Kinda lame for a senior prank day. Should I ask why Brett "The Class Clown" wasn't even there? |
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Post by elixir on May 6, 2007 23:24:19 GMT -5
One thing was cool, I didn't know that muck up day was practiced in America as well. I have only heard of Australian schools doing it.  One thing was stupid - if you were in year 12, or senior year (or whatever it's called) don't you think that you would know where the toilets were by that stage?  |
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Post by hookedonmonics on May 7, 2007 7:51:56 GMT -5
One thing was stupid - if you were in year 12, or senior year (or whatever it's called) don't you think that you would know where the toilets were by that stage? mos def. I don't even look at the doors when I enter a bathroom in places I know. Although, that has caused me some trouble at my last job. The ladies' is on the right in one set of bathrooms, and on the left in another. Hard to keep them straight. |
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Post by milowent on May 7, 2007 19:17:57 GMT -5
those delinquents!
so nolan handed lauren another tape?
and their "asshole - bitch" exchange made me laugh for some reason.
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Post by jayhenry on May 7, 2007 21:16:09 GMT -5
Thoughts: Kinda lame for a senior prank day. Should I ask why Brett "The Class Clown" wasn't even there? Much as I love prom queen, I have to ask... am I the only one who is insulted by the Brett character? Does anyone think that blacks become somehow favorably disposed to a production by writing in these lame, one-dimensional characters. Did focus groups determine at some point that blatantly-token-black characters help draw black viewers to the movie theaters? Brett is obviously an after thought. You can tell from MySpace that his profile was created well after the main group of characters. Did they write the initial vidplay for PQ and think "oops, black folk won't watch this, but if we add a badly written black character they will." And it's just so unnecessary. SamHas7Friends didn't have any black characters. That's fine, a pretty white girl in Los Angeles might reasonably not have a whole lot of black people in her inner-circle. I dunno. I guess race is tough and we should probably cut them some slack. Maybe the Brett character just hasn't had his moment yet. |
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Post by hookedonmonics on May 7, 2007 22:01:45 GMT -5
I noticed what a crappy character Brett is, but sort of grouped it with the character of Michelle as just poorly-conceived fillers. I think, for some reason, they needed more characters, and making the crappy character black was the afterthought, not necessarily them making up a crappy character to fill the token-black-guy spot. if that makes sense.
Race is definately a tough issue. If I was writing a story set in my town, there wouldn't necessarily be a non-caucasian in the story- we're a very white community. But I'd feel compelled to put someone in the story, not to pacify anyone or reach a minority audience, but just because diversity is a good thing. If I did, though, I'd run the risk of creating a "token" black, asian, or latino character. I wouldn't be able to make a predominantly minority cast, because that wouldn't be authentic to the setting.
Disney channel has a pretty specific formula for this type of situation. Many shows have a main character with 2 close friends. The group must have both genders and at least 2 races. Lizzie McGuire-check. Kim Possible- check. That's so raven- check. Suite Life of Zach & Cody-check (kind of), and so on. Nickelodian has also adopted the exact formula for much of their programming. Unfabulous- check. Zoey 101- check. Ned's declassified- check.
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Post by oweniscool on May 7, 2007 23:44:17 GMT -5
Thoughts: Kinda lame for a senior prank day. Should I ask why Brett "The Class Clown" wasn't even there? Much as I love prom queen, I have to ask... am I the only one who is insulted by the Brett character? I'm not any more insulted by the Brett character than by Danica. Flattest portrayal of an international student ever. It's like every time she makes an observation, things are "different in England". The boys are gentlemen, oral sex isn't just for gameday BJs, and nobody obsesses over prom. Like ever. There are no bimbos like Nikki or Lauren in England. Nope. Sure, maybe the prom tradition is different for them (like maybe not so hyped up), but I'd bet anything that kids still stress and obsess over school dances and such. Let's face it, most characters in this series are even flatter than real-life high school kids. And when they attempt complexity, it makes me want to laugh. Example: Ben, the perfect, most-likely-to-be-successful one, blogs about his worries about not being perfect and super busy and overachieving forever Example 2: Mr. I-Need-Pre-Game-BJ-Or-I-Let-My-Team-Down, a.k.a. Chad maybe doesn't want to make millions playing pro soccer. Nah, not him, he's thinks he might be happy fading away into a study nook for at least 10 years, because, get this: he might want to be a doctor. Pre-surgery BJ anyone? ETA: Funny how the PQ plot > LG15 plot, but PQ characters << LG15 characters. I still love BDJ. |
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Post by jayhenry on May 8, 2007 11:23:57 GMT -5
I'm not any more insulted by the Brett character than by Danica. Flattest portrayal of an international student ever. Really? I would have agreed if you said Michelle, but I feel like we know a lot about Danica. She's shy, she considers herself a loner and outsider, she suffers from insomnia. She talks about being British -- to reassert her identity -- but it's clear that she's excited about prom and parties, she's pleased to run with the cool kids. I lived in another country for a year and my colleagues and friends were entirely British and natives of the host-country. And I was always saying things like "In the U.S. we do x" or saying really folksy only-under-the-Stars-and-Stripes stuff. I think it's actually pretty natural to do that. If Danica were a transfer student instead of British would you still say she's flat? I don't think so. Danica is a pretty well-thought-out character. So far, I think we can say the same for Sadie and Curtis. The use of Casey has been clever and fresh. Nikki, Chad and Nolan are plausible, if perhaps obvious, characters. Verdict is still out on Ben, Courtney, Josh and Lauren. But Michelle and Brett. The only thing we know about them is that they both enjoy Michelle's breasts. And Brett likes poker. In a vacuum, it wouldn't really mean much. Three good characters, three fine characters and four ?? characters -- 54 minutes into the show, mind you -- is probably a fairly impressive writing feat. The problem though is that, outside of PQ alone, it's so often that the black character gets stuck in this corner. Think about Dulé Hill in "She's All That" or Sean Patrick Thomas in "Can't Hardly Wait" -- turns out that both of these guys are actually very talented actors. They were just in inane roles. And so many teen movies do this. By itself, Brett is just a minor character. But because of this industry-wide trend, it seems like more than that. |
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Post by hookedonmonics on May 8, 2007 11:47:35 GMT -5
The absolute best (worst) use of a token black guy is in a below-b grade movie called "Young Van Helsing." I haven't watched the whole thing yet, but the black guy is of the jive-talkin' variety. Everything about the movie is horrible, which to me, makes it enjoyable.
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Post by oweniscool on May 9, 2007 2:10:02 GMT -5
I don't think we're disagreeing Jay, I think I just kinda veered off topic (my specialty).
As I understand it, you and hooked were talking about the use of token black characters as minor, foil characters in series where there are no other well-developed black characters. Brett's a great example of that practice.
I was just kind of making the point that even their better-developed characters are still far too flat. Danica being a lead character, I'd expect them to save her role from all the stupid "well in England..." lines. I know everyone tends to say things like that when they're abroad--but Danica really takes the cake. American boys have swagger? Gimme a break. Everything she says about either culture usually comes out as a sweeping generalization. Although she's a better-developed character, her foreign-ness is really cheesy.
And... I kinda forgot what my point was or why I'm writing here at this hour.
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