You Should Have Discouraged Me
If I were a baseball player they'd play the ending part of Roses, where they just repeat "crazy bitch" over and over, when I walked onto the field.
I have been to two baseball games, so I know about things like this now. I think they also have theme songs in boxing? I am not aware of any personal theme songs in basketball, football or futbol. And that is all of my knowledge on sports.
I have been working on a lot of posts. It's been a really productive time. I wonder if my habit of taking weekends off my meds is contributing to this in any way. Like how periodic fasting is supposed to be good for your body/metabolism based on the pseudoscience that all dietary recommendations are. Either way, I am getting a lot of stuff started, and potentially not going to finish any of it, as per usual. In this process of kind of cataloging my entire existence I decided that this is the new direction of the blog, for a little while at least. Which I guess was the original purpose of the blog, to kind of work through stuff I could potentially use in scripts and analyse my interactions with the rest of humanity. While also talking about things no one ever wants to talk to me about: TV!
On that note, the Scandal finale was truly every bit as disappointing as I envisioned. ::SPOILERS::
The only bright spot in the whole 45 excruciating minutes of the almost entirely predicable finale was the impromptu wedding of the two whose relationship ended up being the surprise gem in the growing pile of musty rubble that the show has become: Quinn and Charley!!! Their interactions have been the flowers that keep me in this abusive relationship, and the memory of their vows tonight is going to be what I hold onto now. It was almost worth the ridiculously unnecessary story line where we were expected to wonder if Rowan killed Quinn for an episode and a half. There was absolutely no way that was going to happen, but I guess it's cool that I got to see Rowan fretting over the right crib to buy under the guise that maybe he'd just keep the baby alive? At least we got to see Olivia get put in her place for a hot second when her bluff was "called" and one of her best friends was "killed" because of her? Absolutely none of this season was necessary beyond the wedding between Quinn and Charley (who I will never, ever call Bernard). We didn't need to see Jake and Olivia slut shame Mellie and kill her world-leader boyfriend. We didn't need to entertain the cross-over with HTGAWM just so Marcus could help Michaela fuck up her relationship. We never needed to beat Scott Foley into becoming the pathetic caged animal chasing cars in his dreams he ends up as. We totally didn't need either Jake or Cyrus to get any worse. And the thing I specifically needed the least was another scene where the un-charismatic, often petulant white man that the GODDESS that Olivia Pope started out as put in power tells her ONE LAST TIME to take her fucking clothes off. In my heart I know that some amazing writer wrote the least sexy scenes full of power imbalance into their hook-ups to teach me, a young woman who wants to get ahead in life, what I do not have to accept as romance. I know it. I can feel it in my soul that I am taking their relationship the wrong way. Both her relationships with Jake and Fitz were intended to be warnings. When they did that episode on sexual harassment in politics leading to some poor girl's suicide and Fitz asked if he put Olivia in compromising positions I know Shonda tilted her head knowingly RIGHT AT ME when Olivia denied that he had.
I know that there are a lot of series finales that are famously unacceptable like Lost, Dexter and the recently rebooted Rosanne and Will and Grace, but that one scene transformed them all into completely logical and irreproachable resolutions in story-telling. If at some point I have to admit that their relationship was meant to be a real romance, and not a subtle indictment of the way that white men in power treat the women of color that work under them in the same way that Rowan allowed the show to shout it's criticisms to white men in power at large, I will never forgive it.
For now, I'll just hold onto the moment Charley looked into Quinn's eyes and told her she was always Batman. It was beautiful, even if it seems crazy as a stand alone sentence.
Another show that gave me one thing I wanted in the same moment as it stabbed me in the side is Superstore. I feel like you should know there are spoilers at this point.
I finally got to see Amy go for it and kiss Jonah. It would have been everything if it hadn't been the product of a difficult conversation in which Amy seemingly decides to keep a surprise pregnancy that she feels could potentially derail her when she was finally starting to feel stable again after the dissolution of her marriage. If this were a drama then the reveal that she is pregnant after a night of consolatory sex with her ex-husband would be, kind of a hella juicy twist? Like, not particularly inventive, but it would probably do the trick if I just wanted a conflict to come up that might lead to some drag-out hair-pulling fight with the pregnant girl and the woman whose man she just tried to steal. Or if I wanted to see a man distressed about an unwanted pregnancy try to find a way out of it, possibly leading to a hospitalization of the pregnant character and jail-time for the baby-daddy, but that is for a completely different show. I guess part of the draw to Superstore is that the characters have the uncanny characteristics of people you might have worked with, or work with now, at a normal retail job. We explored this area in television, a sales office, and local politics, so it was time we ventured into a position that the majority of people have probably worked in at least once in their life. I think next we just need a restaurant themed work-sitcom and we will have covered all our major bases.
The reason this twist bothers me, beyond being another superfluous obstacle in the will-they-won't-they that we could probably wrap up to the inevitable "will" since we are already in season 3, is that there have already been two unplanned pregnancies on this show. There is now a planned pregnancy the surrogate feels uncomfortable with as well. We started the show with Cheyenne, a fun, bubbly teen-mom-to-be 7 months into her unplanned pregnancy being dissuaded from marrying the baby's father because she could regret it later in life. We find out that part of the reason Amy is trying to get her to question this decision is because she kind of regrets marrying the guy that got her pregnant in high school. That all felt very real. I know I have tried to intervene when I see a younger girl doing something I did that I did not enjoy the consequences of. I can understand Amy deciding with her first baby to go ahead and keep it. I can also understand that she is of Hispanic descent and this might be a contributing factor to the character keeping this baby. America Ferrera is actually pregnant, so that might be why this story line had to happen at all- but Amy Pohler also became pregnant on Parks and Rec well before her character became pregnant and that was not written into the show at all. (Kerry Washington also became pregnant while on Scandal and that was not written in.) Keeping in mind that they could possibly figure out a way around the pregnancy with creative staging, wardrobe and staying away from wide shots for the rest of the season (and maybe early into the next one)- I think Amy should get an abortion. One of the best things Scandal did was to have Olivia Pope get a no-fuss no-questions abortion as soon as she discovers she is pregnant. Olivia knew what she wanted to do, she knew who she wanted to be, and that a child with Fitz was not a part of that at the moment. No one tried to talk her out of it. It was almost a throw-away scene. The lack of dramatization around the act was beautiful because abortion is still highly stigmatized. If a female character becomes unexpectedly pregnant on a television show she will sometimes be asked if she is going to get an abortion, which is what happened here, and she will typically say no, which is also what happened with Amy.
Representation matters. Not just in minorities but in lifestyles and actions. We know that it doesn't help that a lot of the roles for people of Hispanic heritage are as criminals and undocumented immigrants. It greatly helped the gay community when shows like Will and Grace came out and helped people who might not have met a gay person in their own town establish some relatability with a gay character. There is this great episode of Hidden Brain where they explore how representation may not have helped to change people's minds in Rwanda but it was changing their behavior. Representation matters, and at this point the bulk of the representation has been to show that abortion is not a viable option. Continuing to make that the typical narrative means that the stigma will remain, and more importantly the behavior that reinforces that stigma will remain. There have been 3 other unplanned pregnancies on television this season (Star, Empire, and Rise), and I am happy to say that at least two of those fake pregnancies led to fake abortions, because that means the tide is turning. (Shout out to Lee Daniels for taking that step on both of his major dramas) I think it would mean a lot to see someone like Amy, who already has a family and may have social or religious reservations to having the procedure, get an abortion. It's pretty common for people with any of those personal narratives to get an abortion. As uncommon as it is for a woman to actually get an abortion on television, it is, I think, more uncommon for the person considering it to be someone who already has children, and people who have families do often have the procedure. Either way this story-arc is likely to be more difficult and dramatic than the show really needs, so it could at least be a vehicle for positive representation in an area that really needs it right now.
I have been to two baseball games, so I know about things like this now. I think they also have theme songs in boxing? I am not aware of any personal theme songs in basketball, football or futbol. And that is all of my knowledge on sports.
I have been working on a lot of posts. It's been a really productive time. I wonder if my habit of taking weekends off my meds is contributing to this in any way. Like how periodic fasting is supposed to be good for your body/metabolism based on the pseudoscience that all dietary recommendations are. Either way, I am getting a lot of stuff started, and potentially not going to finish any of it, as per usual. In this process of kind of cataloging my entire existence I decided that this is the new direction of the blog, for a little while at least. Which I guess was the original purpose of the blog, to kind of work through stuff I could potentially use in scripts and analyse my interactions with the rest of humanity. While also talking about things no one ever wants to talk to me about: TV!
On that note, the Scandal finale was truly every bit as disappointing as I envisioned. ::SPOILERS::
The only bright spot in the whole 45 excruciating minutes of the almost entirely predicable finale was the impromptu wedding of the two whose relationship ended up being the surprise gem in the growing pile of musty rubble that the show has become: Quinn and Charley!!! Their interactions have been the flowers that keep me in this abusive relationship, and the memory of their vows tonight is going to be what I hold onto now. It was almost worth the ridiculously unnecessary story line where we were expected to wonder if Rowan killed Quinn for an episode and a half. There was absolutely no way that was going to happen, but I guess it's cool that I got to see Rowan fretting over the right crib to buy under the guise that maybe he'd just keep the baby alive? At least we got to see Olivia get put in her place for a hot second when her bluff was "called" and one of her best friends was "killed" because of her? Absolutely none of this season was necessary beyond the wedding between Quinn and Charley (who I will never, ever call Bernard). We didn't need to see Jake and Olivia slut shame Mellie and kill her world-leader boyfriend. We didn't need to entertain the cross-over with HTGAWM just so Marcus could help Michaela fuck up her relationship. We never needed to beat Scott Foley into becoming the pathetic caged animal chasing cars in his dreams he ends up as. We totally didn't need either Jake or Cyrus to get any worse. And the thing I specifically needed the least was another scene where the un-charismatic, often petulant white man that the GODDESS that Olivia Pope started out as put in power tells her ONE LAST TIME to take her fucking clothes off. In my heart I know that some amazing writer wrote the least sexy scenes full of power imbalance into their hook-ups to teach me, a young woman who wants to get ahead in life, what I do not have to accept as romance. I know it. I can feel it in my soul that I am taking their relationship the wrong way. Both her relationships with Jake and Fitz were intended to be warnings. When they did that episode on sexual harassment in politics leading to some poor girl's suicide and Fitz asked if he put Olivia in compromising positions I know Shonda tilted her head knowingly RIGHT AT ME when Olivia denied that he had.
I know that there are a lot of series finales that are famously unacceptable like Lost, Dexter and the recently rebooted Rosanne and Will and Grace, but that one scene transformed them all into completely logical and irreproachable resolutions in story-telling. If at some point I have to admit that their relationship was meant to be a real romance, and not a subtle indictment of the way that white men in power treat the women of color that work under them in the same way that Rowan allowed the show to shout it's criticisms to white men in power at large, I will never forgive it.
For now, I'll just hold onto the moment Charley looked into Quinn's eyes and told her she was always Batman. It was beautiful, even if it seems crazy as a stand alone sentence.
Another show that gave me one thing I wanted in the same moment as it stabbed me in the side is Superstore. I feel like you should know there are spoilers at this point.
I finally got to see Amy go for it and kiss Jonah. It would have been everything if it hadn't been the product of a difficult conversation in which Amy seemingly decides to keep a surprise pregnancy that she feels could potentially derail her when she was finally starting to feel stable again after the dissolution of her marriage. If this were a drama then the reveal that she is pregnant after a night of consolatory sex with her ex-husband would be, kind of a hella juicy twist? Like, not particularly inventive, but it would probably do the trick if I just wanted a conflict to come up that might lead to some drag-out hair-pulling fight with the pregnant girl and the woman whose man she just tried to steal. Or if I wanted to see a man distressed about an unwanted pregnancy try to find a way out of it, possibly leading to a hospitalization of the pregnant character and jail-time for the baby-daddy, but that is for a completely different show. I guess part of the draw to Superstore is that the characters have the uncanny characteristics of people you might have worked with, or work with now, at a normal retail job. We explored this area in television, a sales office, and local politics, so it was time we ventured into a position that the majority of people have probably worked in at least once in their life. I think next we just need a restaurant themed work-sitcom and we will have covered all our major bases.
The reason this twist bothers me, beyond being another superfluous obstacle in the will-they-won't-they that we could probably wrap up to the inevitable "will" since we are already in season 3, is that there have already been two unplanned pregnancies on this show. There is now a planned pregnancy the surrogate feels uncomfortable with as well. We started the show with Cheyenne, a fun, bubbly teen-mom-to-be 7 months into her unplanned pregnancy being dissuaded from marrying the baby's father because she could regret it later in life. We find out that part of the reason Amy is trying to get her to question this decision is because she kind of regrets marrying the guy that got her pregnant in high school. That all felt very real. I know I have tried to intervene when I see a younger girl doing something I did that I did not enjoy the consequences of. I can understand Amy deciding with her first baby to go ahead and keep it. I can also understand that she is of Hispanic descent and this might be a contributing factor to the character keeping this baby. America Ferrera is actually pregnant, so that might be why this story line had to happen at all- but Amy Pohler also became pregnant on Parks and Rec well before her character became pregnant and that was not written into the show at all. (Kerry Washington also became pregnant while on Scandal and that was not written in.) Keeping in mind that they could possibly figure out a way around the pregnancy with creative staging, wardrobe and staying away from wide shots for the rest of the season (and maybe early into the next one)- I think Amy should get an abortion. One of the best things Scandal did was to have Olivia Pope get a no-fuss no-questions abortion as soon as she discovers she is pregnant. Olivia knew what she wanted to do, she knew who she wanted to be, and that a child with Fitz was not a part of that at the moment. No one tried to talk her out of it. It was almost a throw-away scene. The lack of dramatization around the act was beautiful because abortion is still highly stigmatized. If a female character becomes unexpectedly pregnant on a television show she will sometimes be asked if she is going to get an abortion, which is what happened here, and she will typically say no, which is also what happened with Amy.
Representation matters. Not just in minorities but in lifestyles and actions. We know that it doesn't help that a lot of the roles for people of Hispanic heritage are as criminals and undocumented immigrants. It greatly helped the gay community when shows like Will and Grace came out and helped people who might not have met a gay person in their own town establish some relatability with a gay character. There is this great episode of Hidden Brain where they explore how representation may not have helped to change people's minds in Rwanda but it was changing their behavior. Representation matters, and at this point the bulk of the representation has been to show that abortion is not a viable option. Continuing to make that the typical narrative means that the stigma will remain, and more importantly the behavior that reinforces that stigma will remain. There have been 3 other unplanned pregnancies on television this season (Star, Empire, and Rise), and I am happy to say that at least two of those fake pregnancies led to fake abortions, because that means the tide is turning. (Shout out to Lee Daniels for taking that step on both of his major dramas) I think it would mean a lot to see someone like Amy, who already has a family and may have social or religious reservations to having the procedure, get an abortion. It's pretty common for people with any of those personal narratives to get an abortion. As uncommon as it is for a woman to actually get an abortion on television, it is, I think, more uncommon for the person considering it to be someone who already has children, and people who have families do often have the procedure. Either way this story-arc is likely to be more difficult and dramatic than the show really needs, so it could at least be a vehicle for positive representation in an area that really needs it right now.
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