Over the summer I watched the entire
first season of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and I don’t feel guilty about it
at all. Netflix original shows are the beginning of something new, going much
past the modern media.
Word count: 452
Monday, October 19, 2015
Why Netflix Original Shows Are The Future
Diversity in Grey's Anatomy
Continuing
my segment of things wrong with Hollywood (and trust me there are a lot of
them) I’m going to be talking today specifically about race in the media.
Diversity can include many different things, but this blog post is going to be
specifically centered on race.
The
first shows that I can think of, and is basically on every single one of my
blog posts, that makes an extreme effort to have a wide panel of races in
characters is Grey’s Anatomy. While a larger amount of main characters are
white, there are still a large amount of minorities on Grey’s Anatomy to the
point that critics have said that the show doesn’t reflect the population of
Seattle and is much more diverse than any hospital in real life Seattle would
be.
One way
that Grey’s Anatomy has diversified TV is through interracial couples. While I
never thought much of it when I first started watching I later realized that
most TV shows have white characters dating and marrying other white characters
and black characters dating and marrying other black characters. On Grey’s Anatomy
in the first season Cristina starts dating Dr. Burke and she is Asian (Korean
to be more specific)-American and Burke was African American. I never thought
about if that much when I saw if, but a lot of other people never wanted them
to be together and thought it was a little weird. There have also been many
other interracial couples on Grey’s Anatomy; Dr. Webber and Ellis Grey, April
and Jackson, Arizona and Callie, and many others that I can’t remember off of
the top of my head. Grey’s leads television in the most interracial couples
while shows like 30 Rock were still making fun of it and trying to see how the
audience would react.
Another
way that Grey’s creates diversity is though children of different race. When
Meredith and Derick couldn’t have kids they adopted Zola, an African orphan who
was taken to the hospital for a surgery when she was a baby. Arizona and
Callie also have a baby that was between Callie and Mark and would therefore make
Sofia half white and half Latina and is being raised by a white Mom and a
Latina Mom. This show, like Modern Family, show the changes of what family has
meant of the years and what a family looks like in modern day America.
By
including more races in the show it leads to a wider audience that can relate
to the characters they are seeing on their television. Cristina is one of the
only female Asian characters on television at the time period and that other
girls could look up to. On NCIS, for example, the character Ziva David, played
by Cote de Pablo, not only brought in a large Latin audience because of her
actually being Latina and from Chile, she also brought in a large Israeli
audience because of the character, Ziva, being from Israel. More diversity=more
viewers overall.
Word count: 500
Why is TV So Addicting
***Grey’s Anatomy spoilers***
When you start watching a new show it’s like entering an
entirely new universe. New characters, new plots, and thousands of
possibilities. It’s also easily possible to get hooked on a show and want to
binge watch it for hours on end. But why are TV shows so addicting?
The
first thing I can think of is suspense. This is part of how writers keep you
coming back. You need to know if Meredith really dies, or if she ends up with
McDreamy, or if Burke really leaves Christina at the altar. Cliffhangers are a
great method of doing this. At the end of the season of the last episode, the
season finale, a giant mega bomb is usually dropped and then not resolved by
the end of the episode so you have to wait until the end of September to see
what happens. This helps bring in ratings and explains why season finales and primers
are the most viewed episodes.
TV shows also begin to feel like a
habit to people who regularly watch certain shows. They know that Grey’s
Anatomy is on on Thursdays at 7pm. This way people adjust their lives and their
daily routines for a TV show without even noticing it. People make sure that
they don’t work at a certain time and if they have to go to a kid’s basketball
game or party the make sure to DVR the episode or plan to watch it on the app
of whatever channel the TV show
Soon enough you find yourself sitting in
class daydreaming about 30 Rock and wondering what will happen on the next
episode. Your mind is filled with the theme songs of the shows you watch and
the plot twists and secrets that characters are keeping from each other. You
begin to wonder if a big, dramatic change will happen in the next episodes and
if you’re extremely dedicated to the show you will check gossip blogs,
Instagram, Tumblr, and YouTube to see what other people are saying about your
TV show.
For
shows that don’t are not dramas and don’t have regular cliff hangers at the end
of each episodes it can be the unique characters that bring you back every
week. For example, on Castle (A show I love, but haven’t had time to watch due
to school and homework and work.) has a wide variety of characters that are
lovable and, in some cases, relatable. My two favorite characters on Castle and
obviously Kate Beckett and Castle. I’ve always loved to the friendship and
romantic relationship between them and even though every episode ends with them
finding the murderer and ending the day with the case closed and no loose ends,
people still come back for the next case and so they can watch the relationship
between Kate and Castle and the rest of the team.
Word count: 481
Sunday, October 18, 2015
What's So Great About Love Triangles?
I hate love triangles, I always have, always will. They seem
to add unnecessary drama and give people the false impression that when they
grow up they’re going to have people all over them and they will have to choose
out of two people who they want to be with, when its more likely that it will
be hard for them to even find one person.
****spoiler alerts for Grey’s Anatomy****
By
season two or three Meredith seemed to be the girl who had it all. Her biggest dilemma
was choosing between McDreamy and McVet, two daringly handsome men, one a brain
surgeon and the other a veterinarian, who both desperately wanted to be with
her. Then she’s chooses McDreamy and live happily ever after… not. Love
triangles always lead to the character wondering “what would have happened if I
had choose the other person?”. This also lead to people on the Internet
choosing teams like team Edward and team Jacob and going crazy over it. They’re
ridiculous.
Word count: 168
Word count: 168
Why Do We Love Star-Crossed Lovers?
Romeo
and Juliet, and more recently Hazel and Augustus, literature and movies love to
play around with what are known as “star-crossed lovers”. What does that even
mean? Star-crossed lovers are basically defined as two people who want to be
together, but can’t, because of fate, or family, or disease, or whatever is
pushing them apart. We just love them for some odd reason. Why is it?
I feel
like part of the reason people love the idea of star-crossed lovers is because
it gives them hope that they can find their “soul mate”, the person that is
fated for them. Star-crossed lovers show people this and give them they idea
that can find their Romeo or Hazel Grace. People think that just because a few
unlucky couples couldn't make it that they will be able to. Sure maybe they’re
single now or in a relationship that is just “average” and isn't like what they've
seen in the movies or TV shows that they love. A lot of girls what love like
Romeo and Juliet (you know, minus all the dying and stuff.), a love that would
be worth risking what anyone thought about you so that you could have that
wonderful movie love. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you really think about
it.) this does not exist.
When I
first read Romeo and Juliet in ninth grade I thought it was the stupidest thing
ever. Why would two teenagers ever think that they could be together forever
when they had so much life ahead of them? Now, thinking back to when I read The
Fault in Our Stars in seventh grade, I thought Hazel and Augustus’s romance was
riveting and perfect and that would have been together forever, even though
they were also only teenagers. The difference between Romeo and Juliet and
Hazel and Augustus is that they were star-crossed by something that couldn't be
controlled, cancer. With Romeo and Juliet you can say that they were stupid and
ignorant, but you can’t say that about kids with cancer.
We all
the magically excitement of the movies, even when we know it doesn't exist.
Word count: 354
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Why Aren't Movies Like Their Books?
I’ve been an active reader for as long as I can remember. I
grew up reading Junie B. Jones and the Magic Tree House and now I read a
variety of genres amongst YA and Adult fiction. The first movie to book
adaptation I can remember watching is Charlotte’s
Web. For a long time I never knew that it was based off a book and just thought
that it was only a movie. When I discovered that it was a book I begged my dad
to buy it for me and then never read it… Even though it had been a movie aimed
towards little kids I never really got into the book, partly because I knew
what was going to happen.
Since
then I have seen many book to movie adaptations and they’ve all been… mostly
horrible. There are a few expectations to this that I will talk about later,
but for the most part books to movies are very inaccurate. They either
completely change the plot, don’t have the same tone as the book, cast actors
much older than their character, cast actors of the entirely wrong race, and
try to make the movie more “relatable” for those who don’t read and are more
interested in social media. These are just a few problems with book to movie
adaptations.
The
most well know book to movie ultimate failure is Percy Jackson and the
Lightning Thief. If you say that you like that movie I will probably want to
kill you (Along with one of my friends who wrote a list of over 300 things that
the movie messed up from the book). This movie both messed up the plot
completely and tried to make the movie more relatable. They played Lady Gaga
instead of Hilary Duff so they could try to connect with viewers and tried to
make that characters act more like twenty years unlike that teenagers they are
actually playing. Yes, they had almost thirty years old playing characters in a
novel that on the first page states “My name is Percy Jackson and I just turned
twelve.” Twelve. This has led to complete hatred for this movie from the book
community and is pretty much a joke amongst readers and a fear that their
favorite novel with turn into a “Percy Jackson movie” and will completely suck.
A few books
to movies adaptations that earn a gold star from me include the Hunger Games
trilogy, The Fault in Our Stars, and Bridge to Terrabethia. The Hunger Games
novels had such a large fan base back when they first came out that the
directors knew that they couldn’t mess those movies up. They did a great job at
casting characters that actually met their book descriptions (In Percy Jackson
Annabeth was described as a blonde with gray eyes and was played by a brunette.)
The plot of the Hunger Games was almost exactly identical to the novel and has
been approved by readers and movie watchers alike. The Fault in Our Stars was
also a major book to movie success. Another recent movie that was a
breathtaking (anyone see that pun there? No? Ok.) novel that was also very
similar to its movie adaptation. Although the movie felt very fast and short
compared to the book and left out a side characters and minor scenes it was
pretty similar to the movie.
So what
is the main reason that some movies get so messed up? The writers and
directors. People seem to get mad at the authors even though authors sign over
all rights to their books at the beginning of the process and have to hope that
their novel turns into a good movie. Writer and directors and caster usually
try to fit in as much of the novel as they can, but what some readers don’t
understand is that even though they would sit through a 10 hour movie with
every single line from the book word for word, most normal people would not.
They also think that if they are not relatable then people won’t watch it.
Directors think that they need to have 20 year olds playing 12 years old or
else no one will watch it. There are serious issues in Hollywood.
Word count: 711
Why I Hate Horror Movies
When is a time when people voluntarily put themselves in a
terrified state just for the “fun” and the “adrenaline rush” (whatever that
means)? Roller coasters, jumping on and out of things, and horror movies. We’re
going to stick with the worst one today: horror movies.
Ever since I was little I’ve hated any types of scary movies. It
took be until I was 12 to even be able to fully watch and enjoy the Pirates of
the Caribbean movies (Yes, I know they are not horror, but to a five or six
year old they are terrifying even though they are Disney) and 15 to watch my
first horror movie. Since I was the older sibling
Part of what I
hate so much about horror movies is that they aren’t very realistic and ninety
percent of the time they end with the little kid being the murderer. What? I
would hope that people in real life and much smarter than the people in horror
movies. These people think that they are invincible and they can do whatever
they please. It has always been hard for me to take people in horror movies
seriously based on their actions.
Also, there is a
lot more gore than there is in real life. In real life if you accidentally cut
yourself with a kitchen knife you would clean it and possibly need a few
stitches, while in a horror movie you would be gushing blood and leave a trail
along the ground that the murderer follows. Its insane.
Word count: 297
Best Moments From NCIS Halloween Episodes
The Halloween episodes of NCIS have some of the best moments
by far.
One of my favorite moments on a NCIS Halloween episode was
when Ziva found McGee’s Elf Lord costume. Seeing Ziva put on McGee’s blue elf
hat and tried to pull it off the best she could. In a way, like a deep deep
down way, you feel bad for McGee but you still have to love it when Ziva and
Tony haze him. Ziva though she was being so clever wearing McGee’s elf hat and
the matching gloves that went with it until Gibbs walked right up behind her.
This was hilarious because Ziva and Tony were in their own little world when
Gibbs came up and caught them both extremely off guard.
Another NCIS
Halloween moment was when Ducky and Palmer were late to a crime scene and the
team was at a house waiting for them only to have the NCIS van pull up the
house and learned that they had been egged. Not that that was a problem for
Ducky. Palmer explains that Ducky chased the teenagers who egged their van and
made them clean the van off before they could leave. None of the team members
can believe it and Ducky can be seen going on like it’s just a normal day occurrence.
My all time favorite NCIS Halloween scene that I love is when we get to see Abby in her
Marilyn Monroe dress. Tony and McGee (I’m pretty sure..) were the first ones to
go down to Abby’s lab on Halloween and are completely flabbergasted when they
watch Abby twirl around in her costume and act like it’s a totally normal
thing. Tony and McGee’s facial expressions and lack of words are hilarious and its
even better when Gibbs goes down later and has about the same reaction as them.
Word count: 309
The Five Stages After Finishing A TV Show
Even though I'm
completely caught up with Grey's Anatomy I still find myself going on Netflix
and re-watching the old episodes once again, I can't help it! I'm pretty sure
I've re-watched the first episode at least 5 times and I have all of the lines
memorized. When you finally get through the last episode of the last season of
a show on Netflix and it takes you back to season 1 episode 1 and then you go
through the 5 stages of finishing a show.
The first stage you enter when you finish all of the episodes
of all of the seasons of a show is a sense of accomplishment. You just finished
the ENTIRE show. All seven (or whatever) seasons of a show that you have been
watching for weeks or months and finally getting to the ending. Finding out if
your favorite couple will end up together, will they get off the island, and
will they ever really get together. You
find yourself sitting in your room pondering the ending and wishing some things
had turned out different and knowing that some of the things were absolutely
perfect.
Stage two: you feel like you have to tell anyone who will
listen. This stage includes even people who have never even heard of the show.
You text your friends and talk to your parents about how awesome the show is
and how the seriously need to start watching it. If your friends or parents have seen it you feel like you need to
have an in depth conversation about everything that happened in the end and who
your favorite character was and who you wish would have died/lived in the
finale.
Stage three: the wonderful, weird, amazing world called the
Internet. Once you have enter the Internet stage your friends and family and
any real people you can physically can talk to are tired of you talking about
Grey’s Anatomy every minute of every day even though you’re still not sure how
you feel about some of the plot holes. This is when you turn to the Internet
for help. On the Internet you can find thousands or millions of people who love
the same show or movie as you and actually want to talk about it and feel the
same as you. You can find blogs like this one dedicated to your show or movie,
fanfiction, art, and people’s opinions on every aspect of the show or movie,
characters, character’s death, who should have made out with who, why the
ending just was not the greatest, and way more. This stage is typically the
longest because there is just so much out there that stage three could honestly
last you weeks or months.
Stage 4: grieving. This is where you are finally starting to
move on from the show or movie and have to grieve for your immense loss. You no
longer feel like you have the time or need for the Internet and that you don’t
really want to watch the show either. Some of the show seems a bit cliché and
you’re not sure if that was really hot male main character is actually that
hot. You’re letting go, which is good. The posters get taken down and the
background on your laptop gets changed back to something normal again like puppies
or something. You tell yourself that you need to get your life back on track
and that this fandom is just taking up too much of your precious time.
Stage 5: finding a new obsession. This stage is by far the
easiest stage out of all five stages. This is when your casually looking
through Netflix (even though you said you wouldn’t in stage four) and seen a
picture that looks interesting. The Witches of East End? You click on the
description and start to get a bit more intrigued. And then you click. Even
though you said you wouldn’t. Sure maybe the first few episodes are a bit slow
but it gets so much better. Welcome back to stage one.
Word count: 678
Thursday, October 8, 2015
Why I Shipped Chuck and Blair
Ship= to want (desperately) for fictional or real characters
or people to be together as a couple. Or at least that’s that least complicated
way I can put it.
Gossip
Girl was the show that had it all. Drama, relationships, fame, and riches. One
of those relationships was the well know ship between Chuck Bass and Blair
Waldorf. Now that I look back at it, most of the reason why I wanted them to be
together was because they didn’t want
to be together. They more or less hated each other in the beginning then got
closer as friend and then dated. I loved their fighting and saying that they
would never, ever date when you knew the whole time that they would end up
together. Chuck and Blair were also the only couple that seemed to have
anything in common. They both loved to scheme. Some of the best episodes were
ones that involved Blair and Chuck working together so they could catch
something in the act or find some secret that someone was hiding.
Word Count: 176
How Netflix Actually Helps Currently Running Shows
A lot of reports have been finding
that people around 11 to 20s are more likely to watch their TV shows on Netflix
and other providers such as Hulu Plus than actually watching currently running
shows on channels like ABC and CBS. While this is true, Netflix also helps the
currently running shows when you really think about it. Without Netflix a few
currently running shows would no longer be on the air, or would have a
significantly smaller audience compared to shows that are not available on
Netflix.
Only a
few years ago I was the only one of my friends that consistently watched Grey’s
Anatomy and was completely caught up with the episodes currently running on TV.
Most people didn’t want to watch it because A, they were grossed out or afraid
of blood and gore and medical-ish things, or B they knew they wouldn’t
understand what was going on in the show because Grey’s Anatomy has been on for
12 years and there are a lot of things that refer to previous episodes that a new
viewer wouldn’t know about. Therefore most people could only catch up on Grey’s
by getting the DVDs from the library or a store or trying to find the show (illegally)
online.
Now,
GREY’S ANATOMY IS ON NETFLIX! Ever since then I’ve heard more and more people
talking about the show and how they’ve been binge watching it on Netflix. A
girl at my work said that she thought she would never watch Grey’s Anatomy and
now that all of the past seasons are available on Netflix she’s already on
season three and has been watching it every day. Netflix has allowed people to
catch up on entire seasons of shows and then be able to watch them live on TV
being fully caught up with what it going on in the show.
While
some TV channels such as ABC, NBC, CBS, and ABC Family have apps that let you
watch some of the episodes, they most likely only have the last 5 or 6 episodes
of the season the show is currently on.
If you wanted to watch Grey’s Anatomy right now from the ABC app you would only
be able to watch the first two episodes (what is currently out) of this season.
If you were new to Grey’s Land and wanted to watch they show from the beginning
you would only be able to do that on Netflix (or DVD which can get expensive). So
now Grey’s Anatomy may be saving itself from going off air by being on Netflix
and reaching a much younger audience that is now very interested in the show
and are flying through the past seasons and planning on watching the new
episodes that are currently on TV. Without Netflix Grey’s would not be near as
popular as it is now among teenagers.
Word Count: 479
Lack of Strong female characters in TV
While we have
certainly came a long way since the beginning of TV and radio shows there are
still many problems still alive in Hollywood today. One major problem that many
girls see over and over again is the lack of strong female role characters in
TV. While some TV have attempted to have more “masculine” female characters
they continue to stereotype more feminine female characters and make them seem
wimpy and demanding.
My
favorite show in the world from when I was 12-16 was NCIS. I loved seeing
characters like Kate Todd and Ziva David that were smart, but they could also
fight and solve the cases just as well (if not better than) as the male
characters on the show. **SPOILERS** since then both characters have left the
show. (Well, Kate died and Ziva left to do who knows what in Israel even though
her entire family is dead and she had no real reason to be there.) I was
devastated when I found out that Cote de Pablo (Ziva) was leaving NCIS. She had
been my role model for the past 4 years and had been half of the couple that I
was waiting to get together since the minute she enter the show. It also
symbolized the last female role model leaving the show. While Jenny may not
have been as tough and ninja like as Ziva, she was the head director of NCIS
and was definitely a brilliant role model for girls.
After
Ziva left I felt like there was no reason for me to continue watching the show
and I didn’t really care if the show ended or not. Now the show as a “New
Girl”, Ellie Bishop, who does seem to be intelligent, but lacks the confidence
and diversity that Ziva was able to bring to the team. She also is married
which means that I can’t ship her with Tony (not that I would ship him with
anyone but Ziva, obviously) or anyone else on the team, which makes her really
boring. She also bring less excitement to the show because although Ellie is
extremely smart, she can’t fight or kill someone eight different ways with just
a paperclip.
Aside
from NCIS, another show that attempts to bring strong female character but
doesn’t quite get there is the Big Bang Theory. While Amy and Bernadette both
are supposed to be seen as more intelligent women in the science field that
seem to come across as petty and unintelligente compared to their male
counterparts. While Sheldon is shown to have quirks and social skill problems,
most of his obstacles are “justified” by the other characters while if a female
character such as Penny or Amy do something crazy and say something weird its
usually said that its because they are women and that women are crazy. Saying
these things on a show where the characters are supposed to be extremely intelligent
doesn’t make sense.
Overall, I feel that sexism in the media leads to a lot of lack of
strong female characters in TV and make the average American have the opinions
that they do. If we were able to put strong female characters in the most
watched shows then it would be easier for girls to have better femaile role
models in the media and could help shape people’s opinion on gender in the
United States and in other parts of the world.
Word Count: 571Monday, October 5, 2015
Why You Should Watch Friends
Then I started to really get into the show. With having six
main characters it is impossible to not like anyone on the show. I still can’t
exactly pick my favorite character of Friends (I’m stuck between Rachel and
Phoebe). Rachel seems to bring the most drama to the show, while Phoebe brings
the most comedic humor, Chandler brings the most jokes, Joey is funny for his
lack of knowledge, Ross runs into so many conflicts that it ends up being
funny, and Monica brings humor through her cleanliness and overall attitude.
With the mix of these six characters and drama and life and everything that
comes with it nothing can go wrong.
Although Friends started in 1994 and ran until 2004 there
are still so many life lessons and humorous moments that can easily be connect
to present day. Friends taught me that you should really surround yourself with
people who help and inspire you. Although Monica doesn’t really agree with
Rachel’s goal to have a job in fashion she still continues to support her best
friend until Rachel finally gets a higher job at Ralph Lauren (and beyond that
in the end). When Ross got divorced his friends were there for him even when
the all had ongoing conflicts of their own. My favorite friendship on the show
was between Chandler and Joey. For a majority of Friends Joey had a really
tough time trying to get an acting jobs and fell into a lot of money issues
during that time. The entire time Chandler supported Joey and paid for his
acting lessons and headshots even when all of the other friends didn’t believe
in him.
Friends is the best show ever.
Word count: 411
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)