Tuvix wrote:
> On Tue, 1 Jul 2003, Matt Ruff wrote:
>
> > Terry Pratchett wrote:
> > >
> > > But authors in any genre face a problem here. You've got to test
the
> > > envelope or go mad. Yet you are made well aware that there's plenty
of
> > > fans out there who want more of the same -- they want to see the
same
> > > characters acting like they did in the last book.
> >
> > To steal a line from Joss Whedon, your job isn't to give them what
they
> > want, it's to give them what they *need.*
>
> I just watched the commentary on season two, and Whedon says flat out
that
> Jennie Callendar was NOT originally a gypsy, planted to watch Angel to
> make sure he never found happiness. This single revelation has soured me
> on Whedon's judgement as to what an audience "needs". It was obvious to
> me, watching the DVDs, that the episode in which her "betrayal" of
> the gang was revealed was a ridiculous retcon. The character was one
> thing one episode, and another the next, just because they needed to
> "shake up the audience". One thing an audience "needs" is to believe
that
> the events in a show progress naturally, and this means being faithful
> to characters as they've been portrayed, since the constancy of
> character in real life is pretty much a given.
> Whedon may be an imaginative fellow, but some of his shortcuts to
> the "interesting' (of the shortcuts of his writing team) undercut the
very
> believability that supports any show.
> And that willingness to carve up and retcon known characters is a
> running problem with the show.
So true. Gay Willow, 'nuff said.
Whedon can write a good episode, but he has the soul of a hack.
--
The more people I talk to, the more I empathize with serial killers.
In a land where gold is God, it is inevitable that greed will become a
religion.
Cinnamon J. Scudworth for Evil Genius of the Year.
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