Sunday, May 26, 2013

In Which Someone Should Take a Chill Pill

It's day 4 of the week of continuous blogging. What's today's highlights? Well, I went to see the new Star Trek movie, and I saw the first four--five now--episodes of the new Arrested Development season. And... I don't know. The whole thing's just a big ball of meta at this point. I'm blogging about my thoughts on watching a movie based on a movie based on an original series and a TV series about the original series that keeps referencing the series. Neither is as good as the original. Is that a surprise? Is there anything unexpected about adding layer after layer to the original foundation, only to have that original foundation crack and fall?

Sure, I wanted a great Star Trek movie. So what was I expecting for the basis of that? A TV franchise that bottomed out after the best idea they could come up with is casting the Vulcan role as a sexy bombshell? A movie franchise that used a relaunched time line as excuse to run up a queue of action sequences while at the same time appeasing the hardcore fans through obscure references to things that never already happened? An original series with such wonderful plots as "that planet with the Nazis," evil versions with goatees, and Lincoln vs. Genghis Khan?

And I wanted great Arrested Development episodes. And these were---well, better, frankly. But still. Let's look at these actors' post AD-careers: Buster in Chuck. George Michael in... a lot of things of middling quality, until no one would put him in other movies at all. Michael in Hancock. Maebe in Veronica Mars. Lucille in Archer. And so forth. I don't even remember what my point is here beyond, well, everyone moved on. The story was told. What's the point in moving things back? Nostalgia? Financial gain? Yes, and Yes, I guess. And so, you get a new version, which needs to be its own thing, but  needs to cling to the past, as it's the past that makes it what it is to begin with, and the past seems to be all that anyone cares about.   Echh. Maybe we should look for new stories. Maybe we should start telling new stories.

Maybe I should go to bed. 

That last one seems most likely.

Later Days.

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