(no subject)

[para1]

At first I thought my answer would be Glee - and then I realized that it's everything but a guilty pleasure.

I enjoy watching the show - when it covers songs I like anyway (unless it's a massacre of Bohemian Rhapsody or something) and Jane Lynch is getting some decent writing thrown her way. Those parts are a pleasure and I feel about as guilty about enjoying them as I feel guilty about enjoying the musical interludes in Bollywood movies (which by the way have exactly the same tone/vibe as Glee which I think goes a long way of explaining Glee's popularity.) - not at all. I make no apologies for that. As for the rest of Glee, well, has someone found the "musical numbers only" fan-cut yet?

Then I thought True Blood might be the answer. But it isn't. Guilty pleasure implies an intense desire and pleasure to watch the show and if I miss an episode of True Blood, I'll catch up - but I won't hurry.

And then I realized my answer which is not good because it's not really a show but an entire genre - and that's putting it lightly.

Asian dramas. Now I don't watch everything and I don't watch it very often but once I find a tv drama I enjoy watching, absolutely nothing can stop me from watching it all in one go, as quickly as possible, with very little care if any aspect of it (acting, writing, production values) hold up in the harsh light of day. Plausibility, continuity, emotional truth, arguments like "does this even make sense"... I don't care. As a result I talk very little about the dramas I enjoyed (I did a picspam of Goong once but that was a truly exceptionally good-looking show) but while watching most of them I get fairly obsessive. (Rarely as badly as I did when I watched Coffee Prince (cross-dressing, gay panic, gay panic being resolved with "I don't care if this makes me gay" - which hands down was a pretty amazing moment that's close to Jaye Tyler's smile in Wonderfalls finale or Dad's gonna be crushed.))

Now this doesn't mean Asian tv dramas are all crap (Goong's production desiger and director of photography need to show up in about 50 shows I openly love to show them how it's done, and the day some Western TV show pulls off avoiding the sleaze of Kimi Wa Petto's major plot point with the same ease that drama did, we'll need a stern talk with those Emmy people) but I find myself being incredibly forgiving towards the whole thing. Everything points towards "guilty pleasure."

Anyway I have some catching up to do on Hana Yori Dango, whose critical high point so far have been its scenes of bullying but I'm still on episode 6 so I don't care.




Well, Hana Yori Dango won't walk away so this one first.

North & South (the British one).


You'll get this picture a hundred times if you google "North and South soundtrack" and it's usually part the image used on mp3 tracks of the soundtrack. (This makes it the most popular fanart piece I've ever done. But I'm bragging digressing.)

I'm proud as hale of that because I love this mini-series. The BBC made it and it's got a love story and it's all corsets and big skirts and proposals being rejected and yet you don't have to feel bad about any of that because half of the time it's about the working conditions of the workers in the 19th Century Britain. (You know the type that inspired Karl Marx's work - "workers unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains.") So it's not just pretty to look at and to listen to, or just romantic brain candy (it's all that, too, which makes it so good) but its ugly parts also makes a good case against any sort of historical nostalgia.


Although to be all technical about favorite and stuff - my favorite mini-series of all time should be the long version of Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander. Because it is my favorite movie of all time, no joke. And it was aired first in this long form/director's cut on tv. Only the shorter and inferior cut was released in theatres. But yeah, it's a boring subject because I don't think of it as merely a favorite but as The Best Movie of All Time. Better than sliced bread, only slightly worse than the invention of the wheel. It's about.. everything. But I'm biased.

Comments

[bluesuzanne.livejournal.com]

haha, amazing. I almost want to buy the soundtrack now.

I watched North and South for the first time the other day and enjoyed it despite the female lead's performance which I found unbearably insipid at times. Still, good series.

[eolivet.livejournal.com]

(Wow, you designed that artwork? That is gorgeous! :) Of course, I am not surprised, because your work is always stunning. ;)

Aww, "Glee." Sometimes I feel like the only person who thinks it is a legitimately good show. :p

[para1.livejournal.com]

I think Glee is at its best when it's unashamed of being a comedy and being a musical. When it tries to go beyond that I usually lose the interest to follow. I think it's a good show when it's itself, not when it's hunting for Emmys.